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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Need advice about admission

66 replies

17anna · 10/05/2011 20:36

My child got a places in her first and second choice schools, of which we accepted first choice. We were all happy and in the mean time i got job offer which i was able to accept because my child was admitted to this school(friend got child in the same school and agree to drop and pick my child up).Today we got phone call from Lambeth informing us that this place was withdrawn because it was offered in error. They said that she can go to her second choice school but my situation changed and this choice is not valid any more(got nobody to take my daughter there). I can not give up job because my employer would have to give up hers.I ask them if she could go to another school nearby but they said they haven't got any places and it wasn't on my list. I really don't know what should i do? I don't know if i can still appeal( deadline was last week)? If only they did let me know 2 weeks ago i would not committed myself. pls help.

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Original poster

17anna · 11/05/2011 21:31

i don't think Lambeth LA are going to be so helpful:( I got the comment from them ' we can not bully school to accept your child'

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Original poster

17anna · 11/05/2011 21:38

@admission thank you for all the advice and the comments. you have been really, really helpful.

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mummytime · 11/05/2011 22:40

If it is a C of E school the appeals maybe carried out my a diocesian appeals panel, at least that is what happens here. They operate very much like an LEA one (except probably meet closer, as our LEA one meets outside the LEA for very weird historic reasons).

Blu · 12/05/2011 10:13

17Anna - I wonder whether one of your local councillors could help? What ward are you in? I know some Lambeth Cllrs have taken up the case of residents who have been badly treated by the system. (I live in Lambeth)

southofthethames · 12/05/2011 15:48

Sounds fair enough from CheeseMeisterGeneral's example - if LA makes the mistake, LA has to pay for the extra teacher and take the extra pupils. You should be able to appeal, whether it is a faith school, foundation school or community school. Suggest you press the school for the paperwork. If the school and LA say you have to accept it then there is nothing to stop them from withdrawing places as late as Aug 31 and sending the whole system into chaos.

southofthethames · 12/05/2011 15:52

PS. Ignore what the person at Lambeth LA said about "we cannot bully school to accept your child" but actually that is precisely what councils do because they are in charge of school allocations rather than the schools! (Sounds like what she/he meant was "we dare not ask the school to cover up our mistake so we'll bully the parent into giving up her job instead".....) What a very unprofessional remark for them to make. Do they not realise phone calls can be recorded??!

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 16:04

Spoke to school today. They checked paper work and it seams that they didn't offer her place. She is 15th on the waiting list. Also said that they can do nothing about it and sent me back to LA.

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Panelmember · 12/05/2011 17:08

SOTT - The person at the LEA used an ugly and inappropriate turn of words but they are right, in the sense that they cannot order a school which isn't a community school to admit any particular pupil. Admission decisions for a VA or foundation school are for the school to make, and not for the LEA. That is why the admissions code (as I quoted above) allows places to be withdrawn where an LEA makes an offer on behalf of a VA or foundation school which it should not have done.

That seems to be what happened here and, as Admission has said, OP's argument should be that the LEA took far too long to acknowledge and act on its mistake and so she has a reasonable expectation that her child will go to the school.

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 18:48

I don't blame the school at all. I understand that they followed procedures and are not at fault. So if i want to appeal against the manner and timing of the place being withdrawn who do i appeal to now? I Can not make an appeal against school.LA?

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PanelMember · 12/05/2011 18:56

It seems to me that you have to appeal to the school, because it's the school that hasn't offered the place. You can then argue that you expected to have a place there, and show the letter/email you had from the LEA which offered the place. Make it clear when you submit the appeal that you will be examining the LEA's role in this and then the school can (if they wish) ask for a statement (or even a representative) from the LEA.

Admission - what do you think?

PanelMember · 12/05/2011 18:57

Should have said that it's always the non-offer of a school place that attracts the appeal.

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 19:07

Where can i get a copy of admission code? Can i find it somewhere on line?

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Blu · 12/05/2011 19:20

This sounds very difficult.

It was clearly the LA's fault that they offered you the place by mistake.
BUT they have also offered you your second choice, and may well argue that it is not their fault that your personal circumstances have changed - they have offered you a place in one of your top choices.

If I were you, and unless any expert (which I am NOT) advises otherwise I would accept that place for now - just so that you have somewhere, put your dd on the waiting list for the other nearby school, and explore other ways of getting your dd dropped off in school. Does your second choice school have a Breakfast Club? Many schools do, or the ajoining Children's Centre may do, and they take children from the Breakfast club into school. There may be a ,ocal childminder who does before and after school care and will drop at school. It is worth looking on the notice board of the second choice school for childminders who 'deliver' children to that school. Or if your second chpoice school is v local to you, you may find that other neighbours / freinds also have children there.

LOADS of Mumsnetters in Lambeth - in Brixton, Streatham, and probably other areas - you could put a call out on the MN Local board for Lambeth.

So sorry you are having this stress.

BetsyBoop · 12/05/2011 19:34

17anna Thu 12-May-11 19:07:14
Where can i get a copy of admission code? Can i find it somewhere on line?

HERE :)

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 20:18

BetsyBoop thx.
Blu unfortunately i can only now choose school where my friends got children and who are able to help me. I will need to be away for 2 school days and my hubby finishes late so it means one overnight stay at friends for my child. As you see child minder or any other childcare is out of the question. If i knew i'm gonna be in this situation i would never accepted this job.

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admission · 12/05/2011 21:42

Anna,
The appeal is for a place at the school, so you need to talk to the school and establish their admission appeal process and follow it. If the school is using the LA appeal process it may well be that all the correspondance will be from the LA. It is however for the school to make the appeal statement to not admit. That is simply going to say we are full and you were 15th on the waiting list and therefore you were not offered a place. You will obviously be saying totally agree but I was offfered a place by the LA and accepted it. Whilst I accept that you do have the right to remove the place in the circumstances the timing of it is such that it should not have happened. Legal precedence says that the place should have been maintained given the extended period of time between offer and the place being withdrawn.

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 22:09

admission is there any organization that could represent my case or act on my behalf. It is getting to 'legal' for me. I feel that if it comes to appeal and they start throwing paragraphs at me i'll be lost:(

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ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 12/05/2011 22:15

Contact the Advisory Centre for Education

Blu · 12/05/2011 22:44

I wonder if the Lambeth Law Centre would help you?
Does the Brixton Advice centre on the corner of Railton Rd and Shakespeare rd still operate, I wonder?
If one of your local Cllrs is LibDem or Tory they may well be very active in your support...Labour possibly less energetic in tackling their own council..alledgedly! As I say I have come across Cllrs (a labour one as it happens) advocating over schools admissions cases.
It's very time consuming - if you ask anyone for help, take a copy of Admissions last post. Copy and paste it into a document and say this is what you have been advised.

Original poster

17anna · 12/05/2011 23:20

Blu at the moment i think i need solicitor specializing in education, but definitely will find out local Cllrs. Copy and paste all relevant comments into a document- good idea.I just hate being put in the middle of this mess by no fault of my own. Today my daughter asked me ' why don't they(school)want me any more?' Just did't know what to say.

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Blu · 12/05/2011 23:29

You can search for solicitors by area and law category on the Law Society site - I searched Education law / SW2 and got this

From that list I have had Fisher Meredith recommended as good for another matter.

Blu · 12/05/2011 23:29

Oh, sorry, link just goes to the search facility page, not the list.

prh47bridge · 13/05/2011 14:49

17anna - I would strongly recommend representing yourself. In my experience solictors, even if the specialise in education, often don't help and can damage your appeal. I recently saw some "advice" on admissions from a top education lawyer that was wrong on every point. Your case is straightforward. The time between the offer being made and being withdrawn was unreasonable. Point out that the LGO has decided that it is unreasonable to withdraw an offer more than a few days after it was made.

admission · 13/05/2011 15:11

I agree with PRH, if you get a lawyer involved apart from the expense, they have never when they have been involved with panels i have sat on, done a good job. Unless you get a top notch education lawyer who understands the situation and knows that it is not about scoring "points" then it will not help. They cannot seem to understand that whilst the panel have to keep to the law, it is not about evidence to the standard of beyond reasonable doubt. They seem to think that if they find a few nooks and crevasses in the schools case they will win. It is not like that, it is about on the balance of probability who has the most prejudice attached to the case.

Original poster

17anna · 13/05/2011 16:57

thx prh47bridge and admission. So it looks like is admission code weekend for me:) Do you know which paragraph of admission code talks about time they got to correct errors or withdraw places?

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