To be this upset about a school place

[cdoth]

Been in tears since I found out my DS didn't get offered a place at the school I applied for.

For background - he has significant speech delay and is on the pathway for an autism diagnosis. He is currently at the nursery of the school we put as our first choice, he is really settled there and they have been fantastic with regards to his SEN. They are helping us to gather as much evidence as possible for his EHCP. The school is also the closest one to us.

I am distraught with worry for what the future holds for him now having to go to a completely new school. I can't stop crying because this seems so unfair for him. He is not good with new places/people, when he started his current nursery last year it took weeks for him to settle in because he was so upset. And for him to have to go through that again genuinely breaks my heart.

I know we can appeal but I don't feel hopeful. Has anybody else been in the same situation? I just don't know where to go from here now.

This is so far from accurate it’s untrue.

Please ignore all of it.

I was in a staff meeting last night (teacher) and the head was talking about our intake for next year and how we’re at risk of being over subscribed. She mentioned that most parents win appeals. So don’t give up hope.

The Infant Class Size appeal success rate is 0.4% in my LA. Most parents do not win ICS appeals.

Oh wow. I guess it depends on the panel. Maybe our LA is more “sympathetic”. We’ve had our PAN size reduced to 60, but there’s a chance that appeals will be successful, which will over subscribe us.

Nothing to do with the LA, and I suspect the Head is mistaken, or grumpy at that moment for some reason ;-) Appeals are heard by independent panels and the vast majority lose.

ICS appeals are very hard to win. Overall, around 16/17% of primary appeals are won, but ICS is around or under 1%. Secondary win rate is about 20%.

What was your PAN? If it wasn't a multiple of 30, appeals so far won't have been ICS so they run a higher chance of winning, and if your school/Admissions authority has a weak case (for example you have a good sized school, well staffed etc) you may lose more.

Not if they're following the law. The only grounds for an ICS appeal to succeed are:
~ The admissions process was not followed correctly, and if it had been the child would have been given a place. (E.g. the admissions policy states that siblings are prioritised over distance, but a sibling was refused a place and a child who only qualified for a 'distance' place was admitted)

~The admissions policy was contrary to the Schools Admissions Code and the child would have been given a place if it was not (e.g. the school admissions policy makes no provision for Looked After Children, but the Admissions Code mandates that LAC are given priority)

~The decision not to admit the child was perverse in the light of the admissions arrangements (but the bar is 'Wedensbury unreasonableness' which means that no other admissions authority would have refused a place in the same circumstances).

This means that almost all discretion is removed from the panel. They can't say 'That sounds really hard' and award a place.

OP if your EHCP names the school your child will usually go to the top of the awarded places (after looked after/ previously looked after children). Going forward this is the way to guarantee a place at the school you want for primary or secondary.

Given all the letters would have gone out on the same day. It was probably within 3 days timeframe.

The person who had their place take away (then given back at a later date) lived in a different local authority as well and much further away than me

@Kennykenkencat Ok, but your original post (maybe unintentionally) makes it sound as though you reminded the LA of their requirement to pay for transport if your DD went to her allocated school and they therefore magically came up with a place at the school you wanted. Your latest post saying that an error was made which was very quickly rectified and you got the place you should have been offered in the first place is a different scenario.

LockInAtTheFeathers

but your original post (maybe unintentionally) makes it sound as though you reminded the LA of their requirement to pay for transport if your DD went to her allocated school and they therefore magically came up with a place at the school you wanted

That is exactly what happened. I think the person I got in the phone was on a power trip. He told me there was little point in me appealing. I didn’t have any reason to appeal. That was the school I had been given and that was the school Dd would go to and there was nothing I could do to change that.

I then agreed she would go there but as it was over 3 miles away (even as the crow flies) I would need for them to get me a taxi for her each day as per their terms and conditions.
He took my address and the address of the school and I think looked at it on a map and saw how ridiculous the journey was. He said he would get back to me.

He never did. The next call I had was later that day from the HT of the school nearest to us saying they would like to offer Dd a place there.

You then mentioned that offered places could only be rescinded within a 3 day timeframe and I was saying that this was all within the timeframe.

Ultimately our road is in a unique position being miles away from the nearest schools in our “catchment area” but closest to schools which are technically outside the catchment area. However the pupil who got bumped and then reinstated later on was also outside the catchment area for the school but very close to schools in their own catchment area. IYSWIM

I did call the LEA over a change of schools a couple of years later (school was very much a primary only school. Junior school was in a different location) and was told because of the anomaly of the catchment area and where we lived we could choose any school we wanted in the county and as long as I could transport dc there and back myself and there were current spaces we would get in.
If I didnt choose a school in our “catchment area” and was then allocated one, because of distances the LEA would have to pay for transport for Dc

It was a case of we would cost too much money.

I don’t think anyone had ever considered that our road (9 houses) would have children living on it. I was the youngest by about 30 years when I moved in and I was late 30s.

@Kennykenkencat Ok, I'm going back to saying it all sounds incredibly dodgy then. School places HAVE to be offered strictly in accordance with the published admissions criteria- there is no subjectivity over how near you live to other schools, etc, and they can't just bump someone because they could more easily get to another school. It doesn't matter how soon you pull someone else's place away if it's a place that should have been genuinely theirs- the 3 day window only applies to places offered in error.

I'm not commenting on how fair the published admissions criteria are here btw (there are 'black holes' where it is difficult to get into any local school due to being just outside of the admissions distance of them all, and I understand that it is very unfair and harsh on those living there), but they are the ones that need to be followed. There would have been no argument whatsoever if the person with the original place hadn't got it back and had gone to appeal.

All I'm trying to say is that any LA that did this is going very strongly against the Admissions Code, so no one reading this should assume that they can get a nearby place by bringing up paying for transport.

@Kennykenkencat I also don't understand your comment about how you were told you could apply to any school and get in if they had places because of your catchment. That applies to anyone- any school with places has to take anyone who applies no matter where they live

They have very strict criteria which is in a hierarchy and they will stick to it. For example, siblings might be given first priority. Distance often comes after that and it’s as the crow flies. Even if you are within catchment, you might be further out in the circumference than another family. Places will be given to those closest to the school first.