Withdrawal of high school place after 11 weeks

Agree. Please listen to the ever helpful and knowledgeable experts listed in this message. They know what they are talking about.

I in turn agree with PatriciaHolm.

I expect the appeal panel will want to look at key dates: when did it become apparent that the older sibling could not remain at the school, when was a managed move first discussed and so on? National offer day was 1 March and (without scrolling back to check) I recall you said the managed move happened on 17 March, so things happened very quickly. I also suspect the school might change their argument and say this wasn’t an “error” on their part but bad faith on yours. All the more reason for insisting on your right to an independent appeal.

@Mel198 you mentioned that you are new to this forum so I would urge you to focus on the replies from @PanelChair @PatriciaHolm @prh47bridge and follow the advice they have given.
They are experts in this topic and have given invaluable advice to many over the years.

An error hasn't been made so they can't withdraw on those grounds (and not after 11 weeks anyway).

The only question is whether you applied fraudulently.

Did you know, when you applied/on offer day, that your child wouldn't have a sibling at the school in September?

Either way I would appeal and argue your case asap.

Personally, I would wait until you have moved into the new house and apply again. If refused, appeal under their fair access policy.

This too. If they are withdrawing the place, they need to do so, and then you can reapply based on your new address, and appeal - they can't sort-of withdraw it, but hold it in case.

I agree with PanelChair and prhbridge, as ever. You are entitled to an appeal, and request one immediately.

The exact wording of the admissions criteria and the exact dates of the managed move, will I suspect be critical here. For example, Surrey make it very clear in their criteria that -

"If a sibling leaves the school concerned or a linked school after the application but before the national offer day, the applicant must let the School Admissions team know as this may affect the child’s sibling priority. We reserve the right to withdraw an offer of a place that has been made on the basis of sibling priority if information comes to light that the applicant had claimed that priority in the knowledge that the child’s sibling would have left the school or linked school by the time of the child’s admission; or if the applicant failed to tell us of a change that took place prior to the national offer day that would affect the child’s sibling priority"

If the criteria are as above, and the issues with the sibling were such before March 1 that is was clear they would not be at the school come Sept, the LA could make a case - as the managed move happened in March, the sibling was clearly having issues for a while before that as they are normally pretty much a last resort before expulsion.

However, as PanelChair says, the fact they are saying it's a error is contradictory - that suggests they made an error, which they didn't, and it's usually quite clear that an error on the LAs part cannot be corrected this late.

If they were saying it was withdrawn because the application was misleading, that is slightly different. I suspect if you go to appeal, this will be their case, and they would need to show that OP was deliberately misleading.

I’m struggling to keep up with the pace of this thread.

I’ve now read the email from the LEA. To me, it’s nonsense. The decision to give your child a place was correct at the time. It’s too much of a stretch to say the later change of circumstances made the earlier decision wrong or an “error”.

Insist on your right to appeal.

The offer to keep the place open for four weeks sounds dodgy as hell too. Potentially if they believe they should withdraw your place they should do so immediately, thus freeing up a waiting list place.

It's unlucky to say the least.

There was a similar case once where the sibling at the school sadly died and then the LA removed the place for the sibling who was joining. It made the local paper.

Glad to see prh47bridge here!

The school’s position (as you describe it) is contradictory. A change of circumstances is not (in my view) an “error”, which is why I suggested taking this to appeal to get the panel’s view. Even if it is an “error”, it’s far too late to withdraw the place now. If the school believe you misled them, they will need to show that you applied for the place knowing that you would be withdrawing your older child and (as the admissions code says) they must allow you to appeal.

For all those people saying that you “have” to have the older sibling attending the school when the younger sibling starts; that is what the admissions criteria usually say, but the system allows for there to be a change in circumstances. The nearest parallel (in my view) is when after offer day families move out of catchment or beyond the distance at which the last place was awarded. As prh says, places can’t then be withdrawn.

This needs an appeal, so the panel can take an independent look.

Surely you appeal, and move to new house which will.move her up waiting list as well?

Given the timings of the plan to move him they may have reason to believe that it was intentional

Yes, I know all that. I was lazily using “catchment” as a shorthand, meaning near enough the school to have been accepted on distance in the first place.

What does it say on your LA website OP re siblings? Or if the school has its own admission criteria, what does that say?

There is a lot of incorrect advice on this thread.

An offer cannot be withdrawn due to a change in circumstances. The Admissions Code is clear that an offer can only be withdrawn if it was made in error, or the application was fraudulent or intentionally misleading, or the parent has not accepted the offer in a reasonable amount of time.

The offer was clearly not made in error, and you have accepted it, so the only grounds on which the place can be withdrawn is if they can argue that the application was fraudulent or intentionally misleading. Their justification, therefore, would be that you intended to move your son when you applied. Assuming that you genuinely expected your son to stay at this school, the place should not have been withdrawn.

This is similar to LAs that withdraw places when the parents move after receiving the offer. They regularly lose appeals because they aren't allowed to do that. Unfortunately, they carry on because they know that some parents aren't aware that they can't do this and won't appeal.

I don't know why you say you can't appeal. You can. You should do so. Provided the appeal panel accepts that your application was genuine and that you didn't have any intention of moving your son, you should win.

I had no idea they could do this! If the offer was correctly made at the time of offering, then I think it should be honoured.

This is interesting, it is the specific sibling criterion for one of the non-community schools in my borough.

You can see from this that the condition is that at the time of application it was reasonably expected that the sibling would be on the roll at the time of admission.

So if yours is worded similarly you may be able to argue that when you applied for your daughter you did not expect you son to be moved. (Only if this is true of course).

Its the same situation as someone who applies from the current address, then gets the Section 21 from the landlord, and has to move after allocations. Technically the school could say they no longer meet the requirements... but morally its wrong to punish a child for a situation beyond their control, bearing in mind that all schools may now be full or they've missed out on a waiting list place elsewhere.

I really feel for you, OP. It’s clear you applied in good faith and things changed for your son well after application

PanelChair and the other admissions experts are the best help.

Not all schools have catchments. Some allocate places according to distance and it depends on the makeup of the applicants- in some years the last place will go to a child who lives further away from the school than in a previous year.

So if OP's son applied in a year when there were fewer applicants who filled up the list in front of him he may have qualified on distance. But this year there are more applicants ahead of her daughter.

(And more people nabbing sibling places, which are higher priority than distance, mean that the distance of the furthest away pupil will shrink).

Why not? The PTA may run a second hand uniform sale for new starters this term, for example.