Ex changed school without informing me.

[Gooddad09]

Hi All,

I was informed on Friday 1st of November at around 2pm that my ex partner has applied to move my childrens schools. This obviously came as a shock. I strongly believe this is not in the best interests of my children.

My Children are 10 and 5.

I visited my children's current school this morning and had a conversation with the head teacher.

He left the office and confirmed that according to school records I have both parental responsibility and residency.
He was then able to confirm that an application had been made
He also confirmed that the application did not have my name listed among those with parental responsibility.

I have spoken to the LEA and provided them with this evidence.

There response is that they have to take the forms at face value and that because this has been processed that the kids will start there new school next Monday.

My kids are upset and I seemingly can’t undo this as processed paperwork despite it being incorrect has well been processed.

Any advice would be welcome as this is not in the best interest of the kids.

Thanks

I agree with a PP that your MP should be able to help.

Is he the resident parent?

Can you speak to the Head teacher again, confirm that he is happy for them to continue at the school and ask what you need to do.

Then phone the LEA, and tell them categorically that you are the resident parent, you have given no authority for them to change schools and you don't give a flying fuck what they think they will be remaining at their existing school as the form was filled in fraudulently.

They are talking bollocks. If they can be processed they you can apply for them to go to their old school. You can then complain the original form was incorrectly processed. Get your MP involved asap. Don't take them to the new school.

Ring the lea back and tell them no they will not be starting a new school monday they are settled in there normal school and you are the resident parent

Go to there normal school tell them as the resident Parent you want a place there

If you have sole parental responsibility it is completely wrong that your current school and the LA have just allowed this to happen, only if ex partner has equal parental responsibility is there any case for accepting a change of school but even then somebody should have been asking a sensible question, like where is other partner.
I think you need to go back to the current school with evidence of parental responsibility and insist that the children are staying in this school. Then you need to sort out the ex!

There's a shocking lack of safeguarding here. Utterly shocking negligence from your LEA. See your local Councillor and your MP, if you get no joy from the LEA.

Is your children's current school oversubscribed (so their places might have been offered to others)? Really seems like you need some kind of legal advice, a prohibited steps order against ex.

Also consider why he is changing schools. Do you think he might be aiming to seek fully residency next week or not return then to you.

Do you have shared residency?

Have you spoken to your ex wife and asked why she’s done this? I assume she will have reasons and must think it’s in the children’s best interests? Or do you think she would do this just to fuck about?

I’m assuming she also has parental rights?

It seems shared residency is a surprise to you?

Does your ex have residency and pr? You refer to "my" children , is there any court order?

Children change schools all the time as circumstances change, so I'm not sure that arguing losing nursery friendships will carry much weight, especially for dc2. Unless there are more substantial reasons for concern.

To be fair I applied for a high school place for my eldest son and didnt consult my ex I consulted our son and applied but he is less interested in his child I just need to tell him where to collect him from

There response is that they have to take the forms at face value and that because this has been processed that the kids will start there new school next Monday.

Utter nonsense. Otherwise anyone could just submit a form to them and get a child's school named. They should have checked the position with the school and indeed with you as you were presumably previously on their records as someone with parental responsibility. At the very least they should have asked how come you apparently no longer had it and requested evidence.

Have you asked your ex why she has changed schools? There might be a very good reason...

Have you asked your Ex?

That sounds wrong. I know someone who wanted to move schools but her ex was able to block her.

I wouldn't bother with your MP. They have other things on their mind at the moment.

I'm completely with Admission on this. Insist to the LA and the school that your children are staying put. Even if your ex has PR as well as you, you are entitled to a say in where your children are educated.

If they continue to insist, tell them in no uncertain terms that you will be referring the matter to the LGO for clear maladministration in ignoring the law on parental responsibility.

To do this I would have thought ex needed a Specific Issue Order from the court.

Tell the LA that they should be asking for evidence of this from the court before taking action as the judge will decide what is in the child's best interests if the parents cant agree on an issue like schools.

To do this I would have thought ex needed a Specific Issue Order from the court

Unless both parents agree the ex does indeed need an SIO.

As a bare minimum, once the LA is aware that there is a disagreement they should leave the situation alone until either the parents have come to an agreement or there has been a court order. They certainly should not, in my view, process a request to change school from the non-resident parent unless there is evidence that the parent with care supports the request or an appropriate court order is in place.

When I phoned our LA to enquire about my sisters children changing schools as she was leaving an abusive marriage they told me basically that if an application was received they would act upon it and allocate a school space and that if the other parent disagreed then they would need to get a court order to prevent it. In essence, they allocate a space and it’s down to the parents/courts to sort it out between themselves if there is a disagreement, the LA won’t get involved beyond acting upon an application.

I think your LA would be wrong to treat it that way, ChaoticKate. Other issues apart, if a school removes a child from its roll without both parents' consent, that is potentially an unlawful exclusion which could get the school into a world of trouble, and the LA could well find itself on the wrong end of a judicial review application along with the school if it had facilitated it.