Exceptional Medical or Social Category

Application under the Medical or Social Category

Charters School will consider an application in this category only where the child, or their parent/carer, can demonstrate a wholly exceptional medical or social requirement for attendance at the preferred school and that attendance at no other school will suffice.

It is expected that places will be given under this category in no more than a small number of instances in a year, if at all.

To apply under this category, the parent or carer must send a letter with the application form explaining the reasons for requiring a place in this category. It must explain why the preferred school is the only suitable school and why no other school is suitable, and must describe the difficulties likely to be caused by attendance at any other school. Such difficulties must be so exceptional as to be extremely rare in the population. The reasons may be associated with the child or with the family.

Supporting evidence must be included from a suitably qualified professional person associated with the child or the family, such as a consultant, a general practitioner, psychiatrist or a senior social worker. Unsupported evidence from members of the family or friends or a child minder will not normally be acceptable. All evidence must be on headed writing paper. Any evidence must be provided at the expense of the parent/carer. The parent/carer must give permission to Charters School to make such enquiries as it thinks necessary to investigate the matter further.

Domestic arrangements, such as child care arrangements, or the need to leave or meet children at more than one school at the same time are unlikely to be acceptable without accompanying exceptional medical or social reasons.

Applications lacking external objective evidence will be rejected under this category. Any rejected application will then be considered under the next highest appropriate category to the child. 

Applicants seeking to rely on these grounds must provide the necessary evidence.

There will be no right of appeal against refusal of a decision in this category, but all parents/carers will have the usual right of appeal to an independent appeal panel after allocations of places have been published.