Twins got places in different secondary schools

Sorry missed your post - congratulations!

I have twins and was looking into the same issue at one point. It may be different from your high schools - but the sibling policy in our high schools is so far down the list that it made it irrelevant. ie kids in catchment and teachers kids all got in before siblings.
I think others must be right though - your 2nd twin should in theory be first on the waiting list and if they are not you would need to ask them why. At this stage I think you will find there is movement before school starts and fingers crossed you will get lucky. We have 120 year 7s in our local high school and I did not expect there to be movement before September but there was.

Crazy system. This is def worth an appeal OP and one that will probably win, unlike most!

My twins (also croydon!) were on a waiting list for their preferred school and one got s place a few weeks before the other so I thought I was facing this. Luckily another place came up before the start of term.

Good luck.

Forgot to say the school operated a banding entry system where they were tested and placed into the relevant band. Sibling policy was then applied to each band and then a lottery following this.

This happened to us. Appealed but lost. Twin started at second choice school but the first week of starting was offered preferred school from the waiting list. Because her twin had started at preferred school she was top of the waiting list because of the sibling policy! Cost a fortune having to buy in effect three sets of uniform.

All local secondaries to me (7 within 5 miles) have the multiple births rule

My sons secondary have this policy. PAn doesn't change though.

Was that for primary schools, though, youarenotkiddingme? Such an arrangement is pretty common for primary schools but much less so for secondary schools - I’m not aware of it for any near me.

Wow I've never known this.

Every school admission I've read have said that where the last admitted person within the pan is a multiple then the multiples will be included. But if pupils leave they then won't admit more until they are under pan for that year group.

This seems to have happened with twins in DD year too - she thinks they put the same choices but we offered different places

Did you contact the council Make sure you ask about twin 2 being put on the waitlist for the school you want as soon as possible.

The English school system totally baffles me Thank fuck I live in Scotland and we’re terribly sensible and ( mostly) send our kids to their local schools.
As you were

I agree that this might be an error, or the first twin might have got the last available place, but it could turn out to be a result of the twins being in different bands with different admission distances.

Also, as stated earlier, any sibling criteria will depend on whether it is sibling (sibling on roll) in which case that won't apply until September 1st, or sibling (sibling accepted place) in which case that could apply immediately.

Sibling only trumps distance if the admissions criteria says it does, and if it doesn't, then any late applicants in catchment or closer than the OP's twin 2 will be ahead of them in the queue. Without knowing what order the admissions criteria is in, it's impossible to say.

Just saw this story in the news so if this isn't you then you're not alone:

https://inews.co.uk/news/education/school-offers-twins-split-up-first-choice-worthing/

Pretty crappy situation, can't believe there is no policy for this!

Eigercounter there is no older sibling.

Surely once on the waiting list the twin goes to the top because they have a sibling at the school (offer has been accepted) and sibling priority trumps distance...

Appeal. If twin 1 is allowed to claim sibling status with the older sibling, then surely twin 2 has the same relationship to the older sibling and can therefore also claim sibling status based on that relationship.

Equally, in the county in which I work, sibling status is afforded if a child has a sibling who holds and has accepted an offer of a place at that school. So therefore, in my county, twin 2 would have double sibling status - i.e., sibling to the older child, and sibling to twin 1 (not 'double sibling' status is a thing!).

Not all schools allocate on distance. The twins at different schools happened to someone I know. Twin 2 was allocated a school across town and had to start there before the sibling kicked in when twin 1 started in September and then it still took a few weeks to sort out. It's a ridiculous system.

Blimey. Sounds ridiculous. Seem most likely that it is a mistake?

Appeal!

Have they said why the respective twin did not get a place in each school?
What was the reason for Twin 2 not getting your first preference?

Admission "Because of the way that the admission criteria system works, one twin must have been allocated the last available place and one must be the next on the agreed list. The only other possibility is a mistake in the admission criteria order."

What if the school operates 'fair banding' and one twin was in a band with a really big distance and the other into a band with a very small reach? The second twin could be quit a way down that band in terms of distance.

At a school near me some bands are more than twice the distance as others, in some years.