School Admissions

[redtension]

Could any please help, I have had my appeal for the school I wanted my dd to go and have still been refused a place. I am a little concerned as during the appeal it was noted that there were 60 admission spaces and my dd was applicant number 59. When I asked about this I was told it was because a child with a sibling at this particular school had the school as second preference and accepted the space. I am confused as if this was the case then surely my dd would still have been offered a place as she was number 59 not 60, and that the applicant of number 60 would have been declined a space.
I would really appreciate anyone?s help/advice/opinion on this. I am currently sending a letter to the head of admissions with this information, but would be good to know others opinions.
Thanx

If the school has an admission number of 60 and your daughter was ranked 59 against the admission criteria she should have been admitted. The explanation regarding a sibling doesn't make sense. If the head of admissions doesn't come up with a satisfactory explanation you may want to consider referring the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Agree with PRH. I suspect the admission authority appear to be confusing parts of the admission code. The admission code paragraph 2.25 says that admission authorities should ensure in their oversubscription criteria that siblings can attend the same primary school. However what it goes on to say is that it applies as long as they comply with the ICS regs. With an admission number of 60 this would apply to your appeal and the admission authority have then made a mistake in giving priority to what the code says on siblings rather than the fact that they clearly disadvantaging you child. You should have been given a place in the original allocation if you were 59th on the priority list.
There is also apparently an issue over the way that the admission authority is giving some priority to somebody who put it down as second preference. They are not allowed to take the level of preference into account within the admission criteria.

Thank you both v much for your help/opinions. Much appreciated.