How common is it for a school place to be withdrawn?

[parentseekingadvice]

We're on the edge of the usual max distance for admission to our first choice primary, which is always oversubscribed. We were lucky to get ds1 into it a few years back. Need to put in the application for ds2 shortly. Good news is around half the places typically go to siblings before opening up to everyone on the basis of distance. School admission policy is that the older sibling must be enrolled at the point that younger sibling starts (not just when you apply). We are considering moving the older sibling for the start of next term, but nothing is firmed up yet, just an idea at this stage. My questions are:

1. If an offer is received based on a sibling link on offer day, which is accepted, but then the older sibling is subsequently moved before the start of term, how common would it be for council's to withdrawn an accepted offer because of the change of sibling link status? I understand that LA's could technically withdraw the place for the younger sibling (apparently an old version of the admissions code prevented this, but the latest one doesn't) but I have no feel for whether they do take this measure in practice.

2. If they did revisit the offer and decide that the sibling link is broken, would younger sibling be kicked out and then treated as a late application, or would they first look at distance and whether it is less than the longest distance for offered places without sibling link, in which case would they then simply maintain the place based on distance. Or do you first have to be added to a waiting list, then processed accordingly?

Thanks in advance. Any experiences would be appreciated. Threads on this topic typically only get created when there is a problem, not a smooth experience, so hard to gauge the average experience.

Unless you had already made arrangements to move your child when you applied, I would say you are sitting pretty!

Most LA-trained appeal panels are actually trained by an external agency engaged by the LA, are indeed properly trained and do a good job. Even those actually trained by the LA are generally properly trained in my experience.