Anyone an expert in Admissions Law?

[DastardlyandSmugly]

Hi Primary school places were offered in my borough on Friday and my son was not offered a place anywhere, including at our closest school which we applied to.

The only options we've been offered by the council are to apply to the schools that have places available - all of which are miles away from us and completely impractical as both DH and I work f-t, I don't drive, DH is frequently away with work and I have an 18m old to get to nursery as well as getting DS to school.

Does anyone have any advice - thanks!

Bump

I'm surprised you weren't offered a place anywhere. Normal practise when you don't get a place at any of the schools you apply for is to admit the child to the nearest school with places.

You can appeal for a place at any of your preferred schools. You should have been informed of that right when they told you that you hadn't been allocated a place. Your chances of success depend on whether or not it is an infant class size appeal. Basically, if the school has 30 children in infant classes you are unlikely to succeed. If it has fewer than 30 you have a better chance, although the transport difficulties won't necessarily cut much ice with the appeal panel. You would need to justify why your son's education would suffer if he isn't admitted to the school.

By the way, if the schools with places are more than 2 miles away from your home by the shortest safe walking route, the LA is required to provide free transport if you need it.

I think the school is full but last year they had an additional class whereas this year there are only 2. We're disputing the distance the council have stated.

The additional class last year won't make any difference to your case.

If the council have made a mistake and your son would have been admitted but for the mistake they have to admit him, even if the school is already full.

How does your LA measure distances? Some use straight line, some go for the shortest walking route and some go for the shortest approved walking route. Can you give some more information as to why you think they've got it wrong? Also it might help to know which LA is involved.

The LA is Wandsworth.

We've requested details of the route they've used but haven't received it in the mail yet, but believe they have used the shortest lit route rather than a straight line.

From our house to the school gate, which they stated on the phone is apparently where they measure to, is approximately 540m. They are measuring us as 635m, nearly 100m difference. The only thing we can think of is that they are measuring us to the the school postcode, which is around the corner from the actual gate and, where there is no entrance.

Wandsworth use the shortest walking route with street lighting as measured by their Geographical Information System. They don't specify whether it is from your front door, back door or some other point. Similarly they don't specify whether it is to the school gate, centre of the school or some other point. I would expect them to be measuring from front door to school gate but, as they haven't specified, we can't be sure.

If they've got the location of the school wrong that is a serious problem which could affect a lot of children. It is also a possibility that they've measured from the centre of your postcode rather than from your house. Another possibility is that they've simply mislocated your house for some reason.

You really need to see the route they've used so you can work out how they've arrived at their figure. Let us know how you get on with that.

I will do and thanks for all your help. Hopefully the information will be at home when I get back as the person in Pupil Services we spoke to said he couldn't e-mail it so would send a hard copy.

I spoke to the school Admissions Officer earlier and she said the distance should be measured to the school gate on Swaffield Road which is at out side of the school.

That's good. It will be interesting to know if they've mislocated your house, missed a short cut (possibly on the grounds their records say it is unlit) or simply disagree with your measurement.

I'll let you know. I've hired a measuring wheel for the weekend so we can do it via that too but all the online resources we've tried agree with our measurements.