I know its late but can ANYONE say ANYTHING to give me some hope? School place thats suddenly...not!

[AhLaVache]

Have posted in chat for quick responses but adding link here too. chat thread

Ds due to start reception on monday, has gone to nursery at the school over the last year, uniform bought, done settling in week, met his teachers etc etc...he's very excited and looking forward to seeing all his friends again.

Except that this evening the new owners (I assume) of the house next door bring round a letter that has been delivered to them by mistake - dated from early july - from the local authority saying that as i hadnt returned the confirmation slip (I did )saying that i do want the place they would allocate it to someone else. I had until 21 july to confirm.

Fuck fuck fuck. I just cant believe it

Its a popular school, there's no way they wont have filled the places.

Theres no way they'll be able to do anything, is there? And who do I ring first thing - school or LA?

phone the school tomorrow and see if he is on the register, if not then give LA a bollocking

If he has done settling in week, etc., surely the school was expecting him. If a child turned up for orientation meetings and settling in sessions and they had no record of him, someone would be bound to say something, surely...

AFAIK, since the mistake appears to be entirely theirs (because you DID return the confirmation slip), they will HAVE to give you a place - even if it means a class size is strictly too big by one place. They will just have to live with that 'plus one' until one child leaves, then the class will go back to normal size.

My ds' school had to become five-form entry instead of four-form entry because they mucked up admissions one year and just accepted too many pupils. Dramatic consequences for a school admin mistake.

You can make one hell of a fuss about this if they don't let your ds in. Believe me, it will be easier to let your son in than fight you on this if you are fully informed. People on here can give you loads of advice, and your local ward councillor will fight for you.

Do you have a friend who's a lawyer? He or she could accompany you to any meetings with the LEA - doesn't need to say a word to be terribly, terribly intimidating. LEA never needs to know your "lawyer" specialises in tax or shipping

Perhaps I am cynical but I think public services fob off those people they think will take it meekly. If you act like a scrupulously polite but potentially formidable pain in the arse your dealings with all branches of the public service are much more likely to be satisfactory!

does your school do home visits? Have you had your one??? If so then I would definalty say you have a place as your child's name is on their register

Following on from your chat thread.

The fact that class size is 26 should work in your favour. Infant class size regulations say that the class may not exceed 30 children, so if your son would be the 31st child then you would have a harder battle to fight (although as I said before, you ought to win on the basis that this has been the LEA's gaffe and your son could/should be admitted an an 'excepted pupil'). If the LEA is adamant that the place has been withdrawn - which they might not, if somehow this was not communicated to the school and your son has remained on the register and has been invited to settling-in day etc - then the mistake could and should be rectified without the infant class size regulations kicking in. If the LEA won't rectify their mistake and insists on you taking the matter to appeal, then the panel is likely to be more inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt, as admitting your son won't take the class above the 30 threshold.

Don't worry too much about not having proof of postage because it's equally true that the LEA won't have proof that you didn't send back the acceptance. The fact that they didn't record having received it is a different matter. You could (if necessary) mention that they mislaid your friend's acceptance slip too.

I hope you can get this sorting out quickly. And yes, Admission and Prh47bridge (and BetsyBoop who I forgot to namecheck last night) are regular contributors to threads about school admissions and appeals.

Someone mentioned me?

Contact the LA. Kick up a fuss if they say your son doesn't have a place. If they stand their ground, write to them and lodge an appeal.

It can be difficult to predict appeal panels but, with a class size of 26 and evidence that the LA has lost at least one other acceptance slip, I would be disappointed if an appeal panel came down against you. As Panelmember says, it might be harder if there were 30 in the class but there would still be a reasonable chance that you could convince the panel that the LA had made a mistake by mislaying your acceptance slip.

I had something similar (my online acceptance apparently didn't get registered) and it turned out that our school assumes you want the place unless you actively say No - it won't take the absence of a Yes, it needs to be an active No, iyswim? I found out because my DD already goes there and her lovely teacher noticed DS was still down as "unconfirmed" when she knew we wanted him to go there, so I managed to get to the school admin and confirm without going through the LA. So ring the school now - there might be someone there if they start on Monday.

Thank you all so much, you lovely, lovely bunch

HE'S IN!!

Oh my god, I am so utterly relieved! I cried when the lady told me - she was unbelievably sweet, didn't make me feel at all odd for blubbing like a big girl and apologised for them having scared me

Turns out the LEA contacted the school when they didn't hear back from me and the school confirmed that ds was going to be attending, so he was never actually off the list at all.

My jaw aches from grinning, and I'm practically bouncing...ugh, such a relief!

I think you're all bloody marvellous to offer such fab advice to a complete stranger - so kind, thank you x

Phew! I love a story with a happy ending. I thought the invitation to the settling-in day was a good sign, but I do my appeal panel member thing in an area where the LEAs can be very rigid and jobsworth, so I hardly dared hope!

Excellent news.

Flipping heck, that made me well up .

Aw, another happy ending :o

Having been in a similar position a few years ago I completely empathise! Bloody LEA, brilliant school.

Heart stopping when you have it all planned and it all falls apart. My lea were actually planning on making ds1 miss his first week because they'd lost his paperwork. Said they'd call me the morning of his first day to let me know the decision

Spoke to the headmaster who just said, "don't be ridiculous, he's coming to school on the first day and he's more than welcome!"

Thank god for sensible schools!

Aww read this earlier. Just checking back and am thrilled to hear its all sorted. Made me cry a little bit.

So glad it is all fine