Have I messed up DSs application to secondary school?

[Banananaaa]

DS2 is due to go to high school this September. He is currently home schooled (by choice) as he was having a difficult time at primary school for varying reasons. The plan was always to send him back for Secondary school.

His/our first choice is a highly over subscribed local faith school where his brother already attends - over subscription criteria have siblings at the top of the list (after looked after children) so in theory he should have a place and all should be fine.

However I was lurking on the March 1st thread yesterday and saw a post about resetting passwords ready for the day, and realised I'd also forgotten mine. I reset the password and logged in. In doing so I had a major panic that I had forgotten to submit the application and decided to click on the application to check. I had submitted it, but I have noticed I have missed a letter off the end of his siblings post code so e.g DS2s post code says AB1 2CD whereas DS1 says AB1 2C. All the rest of the address is identical.

Sibling criteria relies on them living at the same address and clearly the postcodes are different because i'm a fool.

I rang the Local Authority Admissions team in a panic and the guy on the phone advised me to email urgently and see if they could change the data as he thought they looked addresses up on postcode. He however could not tell me if it would have meant that the sibling criteria would have failed.

I have obviously emailed explaining, but an automated return email says it could take 7 days for a response and I am now in full panic mode.

Assuming the whole system is automated and that some computer look up will fail to put the 2 DSs at the same address DS2 is unlikely to get a place.

Is that how it works, or will a person have checked and gone well that parent is quite clearly a plonker - the post code should be AB1 2CD for the brother too?

If its the former would it be worth appealing on the basis he would have got a place on siblings if the post code was right? Or is the fact its my error mean there is not a chance? (the school vigorously defends appeals and not many have been successful - i know of one and that was on faith grounds)

You can probably tell i am panicking now - the next week is going to be no fun at all :(

[GavelRavel]

how horrible. you would hope that they could see clearly it's the same address but who knows. I'd have thought if they couldn't read the postcode becasue there was a digit missing g tehybwoudk contact you? Was there also a check box to say "has a sibling there already" ?

I forgot to attach the scan of CT letter that is required in our area and they sent me an email before the deadline to remind me to do it, hopefully they would have been in touch before now of there was a problem?

[atheistmantis]

Phone them back and explain about the seven day email and ask that they look at it urgently . Fingers crossed.

[SilverdaleGlen]

Surely that postcode won't work at all so they wouldn't be able to process it without looking it up?

[Banananaaa]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes I had to check a sibling box on the application (i think) and then I had to enter his siblings details - so hopefully someone will have looked at it and realised and then contacted me if the post code was nonsense I suppose, but I don't know. I've rang them and explained about the email and the lady said she would try and get it looked at urgently so fingers crossed!

[atheistmantis]

It sounds like it will be fine, they have the details of the siblings and they will be able to see that it's an incomplete postcode rather than an incorrect one.

[PatriciaHolm]

I don't think for one moment you have anything to worry about. If it comes to appeal (which I can't imagine it will) any panel would take one look and see that you have clearly ticked the box for sibling priority and it was a very minor issue that the Admissions Authority should, if there were any doubt in their minds, check.

[AlexanderBerry]

For some reason they thought I hadn't included my council tax code (I had) so after the deadline for applications they emailed me and asked for it and said don't worry it won't disadvantage your application. So they'd probably have contacted you.

[admission]

As a local faith school, they are their own admission authority. As such they are responsible for ensuring that everybody that applied for the school is put in the correct order. They will have received a full list from the LA and the school then puts them in order and returns the ordered list to the LA. That would have been done in January.
If the admission criteria is LAC and then siblings then the list will say that you said they have a sibling at the school and the school would have checked their lists and confirmed that there is a sibling and they are under the sibling priority list. The very worst that could happen is if the school did not recognise the post code, then you would be bottom of the list of siblings but presumably the school admit more than just siblings and therefore you should be OK in my opinion.
If somehow they have not carried out the process as above and you have not been allocated a place, as PatriciaHolm says go to appeal as the school and the LA should have had the sense to check the postcode as it was an obvious error.

[Banananaaa]

Thanks very much for the extra responses.

Admissions that makes sense - we did have to send in an extra form directly to the school with proof of faith points so thinking about it they should surely match that up to his details from the LA and that form does have the correct information so if they are doing their own admissions hopefully they will use their own form :)

I shall attempt to stop panicing and wait for Wednesday

Thanks again