Did not receive any primary choice - appeal grounds faith school

[justamum1988]

Hi all

We were shocked yesterday not to receive any of our 3 school choices and the only schools with free places are not very good. We've been really unlucky with our top 2 - 1 had 50% applications than normal and allocates religious applications on the basis of a draw out of a hat and we are 3 places too far. With an intake of 30 we suspect we don't have any chance of securing a place there.

School 2 also had lots more than expected and the catchment are halved so again it seems we don't have much of a chance.

School 3 we thought we had in the bag as it has a large intake and it was an application on the basis of faith. We provided a copy of the baptism certificate in the application to the council and made a note in the application that the application was being made on a faith basis. When I contacted the school yesterday they said DS was considered in the last category "all other children" because they didn't have a copy of his baptism certificate. I feel that we have been failed by the council and someone should have contacted us to advise we need to send the certificate to the school direct or advised the school of the basis for application and they could have contacted us.

We were told by the school to send the cert so they can update the criteria for round 2 but I expressed my concern about this as I feel we've been let down by the council here.

Has anyone come across this? Do you think we have a basis for appeal after round 2 if we don't get a place?

Many thanks!

You might be best asking on primary education. It's usually very clear that faith schools require the additional evidence to be submitted to them, not the council - you'd need to re read the admissions policy to check.

Did you not visit the school? The faith school we applied to gave us the application pack at the visit and went through it all with us. It was also clear on their website.

I'm fairly sure that when we applied to a school that required evidence of school attendance, they emailed us directly to ask for the proof to be brought in.
Could you ask the school how and when they ask parents for that information. It may be that the council was meant to pass on your details and didn't it may be that it did say on the application form and you just missed it.
There are a couple of really knowledgable posters on the education forum who are good with appeals and it may be worth posting there.

Thank you all for your responses.

We did visit the school and had a chat with someone about catchment and my husband exchanged emails where he asked and was told that for faith based applications catchment is not relevant but I don't recall being told we need to send the baptism certificate direct to the school. We didn't get given a pack. It just seems mad that the council application lets you attach supporting docs and make comments and then it looks like nobody bothers to read them and pass on the relevant information to the schools. What is the point in applying centrally if the school needs me to send information I already provided to the council. We're so upset about it.

I will post in the primary education area and wait to hear back from the school. I asked them if I should be appealing - perhaps that wasn't the best of questions but I just didn't know what my options are.