Which grounds for appeal (if any) school accepting info after the published closing date for admissions ?

[CheeseMeisterGeneral]

Need some advice for a potential primary school appeal please.

My DD has missed out on a CofE school place with her sibling by one place.

School is in the process of sorting through those places not accepted ready to re-allocate. Families on the 'waiting list' along with us are providing additional information over and above their original applications in January to meet more of the over-subcription criteria.

If such info enables other applicants to move up the waiting list and secure re-allocated places above my DD l need to consider any grounds for appeal.

I cannot find any reference to how this sort of 'extra/late information' should be processed in the School Admission Code.

So are there any grounds for appeal based on a) admission arrangements contrary to the school admissions code or b) that the admissions authority acted unreasonably in not offering DD a place.

At the moment you do not appear to have any grounds for appeal as any places which may come free have not yet been reallocated to applicants on the waiting list so you have no idea how, if at all, this additional information may affect the decision on who gets those places. Do you have definite proof that families are supplying more information? What is this information? And, most importantly, do you have any proof that they have been asked by the school to provide this information? They could be sending unsolicited letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury or offering to build a new library for the school but if it does not change their place on the waiting list, then it doesn't appear to provide grounds for you to appeal.

On point b) from what you have said so far it does not appear that the school acted unreasonably in not offering your dd a place. I assume your other child is in an older class and that the class for which your dd was applying was full with children who were in a higher category than your DD? If a class is full, it's full and the school cannot generally offer places simply because a pupil has a younger sibling who applied but presumably didn't live close enough, or failed to get a place on other criteria.

Annh - you are right l do not know the outcome of the reallocation as yet.

However l am aware of at least one family providing a 'clergy reference' in the past few weeks. This confirms church attendance once monthly for twelve months previous to application (January 2011).

Secondly l have asked the school directly whether additional information can impact on the waiting list. I was firstly told no it cannot, and more recently was told the exact opposite that it can by the same person.

Clergy reference enables a higher prioritisation on the admission and over subscription criteria than sibling or distance to school.

I fully understand that late applicants have to be included and prioritised according to the criteria. But l cannot find any reference to whether the school/local authority should accept late information from existing applicants ?

CheeseMeister, I have just looked at some of your other threads and it looks as if you yourself were going to speak to the Vicar in APril and get a letter in an attempt to help your position on the waiting list. What happened to that? It seems hypocritical to condemn others for doing what you yourself wanted to do/have done? Having said that, I do not have any knowledge of whether additional information can be used to change positions of existing families on a waiting list. My logical head wants to say no in this case but if you have been told yes by a member of school staff, I am wavering. However, I wonder if there could be confusion about changes in circumstance changing your position on a waiting list (e.g. if a child on a waiting list gets a Statement while on the list or a family moves closer to the school) and merely supplying additional information for an existing application which otherwise has not changed? Have you phoned the LA and asked this question?

Would 'late' info mean things like child gone into care/new statement in place/updated address sort of things?

annh - yes l did approach the vicar. Whilst looking at our immediate options school confirmed that when they moved to 'waiting list' after reallocating spaces a clergy reference would strengthen our position.

Our school prospectus did not make clear the definition of regular worship, how this was measured and which church services in applied to, therefore l approached the vicar for some clarification. I have that clarification now but am still to be convinced that the prospectus is clear or that the measuring systems in both my church and others are robust enough to be considered fair and accurate.

I do not consider myself a 'hypocritical' or in a position to 'condemn others'. I believe given my situation it is my child's best interest to explore all opportunities to secure a school place with her sibling.

LA very vague and could not comment either way.

Hocus - it could mean that, and l would accept that and many other families changing circumstances as genuine and fair. Because l know not all churches are providing references as they are specified l obviously have concerns that they can be acquired late in the day. School will not tell me were in the waiting list i now am so l cannot be sure.

There is no question that as soon as the waiting list is being set up, that the admission authority is legally required to put in criteria order all those who are requesting a place. As such if parents can give additional information to move their child further up the admission criteria order then this is perfectly legal and in fact if the admission authority did not do that then they would be guilty of not applying the correct admission arrangements. What parents cannot do is expect that this will be of any value at appeal. The panel has to go on the information the admission authority had at the time the admission criteria order was put together not some how crystal ball gaze on what might have been, if the parents had played the game better!
You say that there is no specific definition of regular worship. What does the admission arrangements state in the LA admission booklet, because that is the key document? If it does not say that it is once a month etc then the whole admission arrangements are open to question at appeal. That however does not mean that you will get a place because from what you have posted you do not have an appropriate letter and therefore can not expect to be considered under any criteria but distance.

If it helps, a friend got her DD2 into a local faith school on appeal. Her grounds were that the vicar who should have provided a reference stating that she was a regular and faithful worshipper at her church (not the one linked to the school - they have a register for parents to sign at the end of each service...) was on a sabbatical at the relevant time and didn't do so. The reference was provided late, but the school neglected to take account of it when considering her DD2 for a place. To me, this implies that late clergy references, at least, can have an impact on waiting list positions.