home education has meant our child is not able to access secondary school

I wonder what happened to the OP. Good news on the dropping of the criteria for people like me who live on the Manchester border!

LGO is IMO biased towards keeping the peace with LEAs.

In your shoes I'd cynically enrol her at any available primary school, and then sit back to wait for some churn to open up places.

Why did I say LGO, it was of course the Schools Adjudicator who was considering a complaint about Chorlton High School, who use the same admission criteria as Manchester LA does for all community secondary schools.

It is because a parent complained to the LGO and they have re-considered the admission criteria and decided that it does not meet the guidance.

Just an update for any future lurkers, although it's too late for the OP.
Manchester have changed their entrance criteria and dropped the 'need to attend a Manchester state primary' bit. The MEN says the change is due to parents complaining.

True but but Trafford have defined catchments at primary and over subscribed in many areas.

Manchester is an odd situation - Greater Manchester it's self is very big but it includes several LEAs all with different admissions systems (some have catchments and feeders, some not) and one that operates selective state grammars. Admissions distances for Manchester primaries are typically about 0.5 miles often with popular ones much lower. That plus the long thin geography prob led to the policy

Interesting criteria. But Manchester children can go to Trafford schools, but the Manchester criteria totally rules out the other way?!

I have to admit that i don't know manchester schools. In my area I know of people who have chosen to send their children to private primary and then state secondary. I know people who have had to pull put of private primary because of a change in circumstances.

I feel that private school children should have the right to apply to state secondaries. The only exception is grammar schools where private school kids have an unfair advantage in entrance exams.

And most schools have wrap round 8-6 min and holiday provision is plentiful.

All true but Manchester LEA is small. The no of Private schools can be counted on fingers. Manchester comps are good but not amazing ...

"I guess the number of people travelling miles to go to one of the private schools then going to comp is limited !!"

You really think so. Sometimes parents choose private primary for better wrap around care. Often people cannot afford the fees of secondary. Sometimes the super rich Daddy loses his job and the family have to transfer to state schools.

I guess the number of people travelling miles to go to one of the private schools then going to comp is limited !!

Some of the RC schools do have parish maps which are entirely Manchester. I am not sure how many tho.

"I do wonder if it should be 'Children at Manchester schools or registered as HEd in the Manchester LEA area and resident. That would still exclude those in private - but people could travel miles into the Manchester private school"

Why should children at private schools be discriminated against when applying for comprehensive schools. Private education only gives an unfair advantage when applying for grammar schools.

Having thought about this a lot, I would be tempted to have another go at the schools adjudicator. Things change with time and it is quite easy to argue that both the Greenwich judgement and Rotherham judgement have some bearing on this along with paras 1.8 and 1.9 of the 2012 school admission code, especially around having to be named feeder schools.
I am not sure that the previous judgement would have been under the 2012 code and therefore any new referral would have to be considered against what is a different set of codes than before.
The other relevant point which seems to have escaped the schools adjudicator the first time round is that there are many primary schools in Manchester that are their own admission authority, who can set their own admission criteria, not necessarily based on distance. The secondary admission arrangement which the schools adjudicator accepted is based on the premis that anybody can get into a primary school as it is based mainly on distance and hence cross LA borders etc.However there a schools that have catchment zones, for instance lots of the faith schools who use parish boundaries to give priority, which could easily lie totally within the manchester LA border.

I do wonder if it should be 'Children at Manchester schools or registered as HEd in the Manchester LEA area and resident. That would still exclude those in private - but people could travel miles into the Manchester private school

Sorry to drag the whole thing round in a circle again

If I were in the LOp's situation, I would ask that question, as you say, because the whole thing appears to be wrong and against the spirit and intention of the law. And based in loopholes and cunning mechanisms. And ultimately discriminates against Home Edded children.

I thought it was illegal to discriminate in an admissions code on grounds of being in a particular borough?

The Greenwich judgement ruled that an LA could not have admission criteria that said children living within the LA got priority over those who didn't. The Schools Adjudicator has already ruled that these criteria do not fall foul of the Greenwich judgement on the grounds that children from outside Manchester are able to get places at primary schools in Manchester, giving them priority for secondary schools. It is possible but by no means certain the courts would take a different view if someone chose to take this to judicial review.

These admission criteria have already been referred to the Adjudicator who ruled that they are acceptable. However the question as to whether they comply with the rules regarding feeder schools was not considered so it might be worth someone referring these again and raising that question.

"The reason for the admission criteria (which is not illegal) is that otherwise many places would be taken by kids outside the LEA who would get in on distance above Manchester kids."

I thought it was illegal to discriminate in an admissions code on grounds of being in a particular borough?

I would be reporting the whole thing to the schools adjudicator. It can't be right to discriminate against home educated children who live close to the school.

Its not that big a wait list bearing in mind the over subscribed schools have e.g. 700-800 preferences for e.g. 300 places. William Hulme is more like 1000 preferences for 250 places. Everyone who puts those schools as 1st choice is automatically then on the waiting list initially. 125th if you are cat 5 and not class 4 (at an LA school) sounds normal. There are spaces at half the high schools in Manchester and huge WL at others.

The waiting list referred to is a secondary school.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/196491/response/490278/attach/html/2/55%2026%20final.xls.html

It's not that big a waiting list. Some of the primaries have c90 on wait list. Parrswood had about 800 applications for 300 spaces last year

I am sure mightyming the admissions info on line and info on here means it's easy to work out :)