Primary school admission nightmare - building new house

[betterstayanonymous]

Apologies in advance for the long post, but I'm looking for advice from anyone out there on primary schools admissions who might have some helpful thoughts on our unusual situation:

My DH and I are building a new house in London (from scratch, not renovating an old one. Actually builders are building it and I'm just looking on in awe). It was due to be finished by Christmas last year in time for the schools admissions deadline but builds being what they are, it's not due to finish till March.

We own the land and have title absolute of the property, the shell of which is now built but insides going to be done over the next 5 weeks.

I rang the LA Admissions Service in early Jan to ask what paperwork I should provide to get my child into the (over-subscribed) local school as we don't have a mortgage (yet), can't register for Council Tax till the house it's formally signed off by the Building Regulations Inspector (which is often a couple of months after the house is technically 'habitable') and won't have utility bills till the end of the first quarter. I was told that as we weren't actually living in the property, it wouldn't count as our address. We're temporarily living with family a few miles away.

I had to apply from our temporary address which is miles outside catchment despite the fact that we own this property and can provide letters from the utility companies showing that we will be the bill payers. We will be living here forever (after this much work we're never moving again!) but for the sake of a few weeks building delays, we're very likely to be placed in a school at the furthest end of the borough as all the local schools are over-subscribed, that will make taking her to school and going to work pretty impossible.

We will go on the waiting list as soon as we officially move but in the likely event that we don't get a place, does anyone know if we stand a chance on appeal of getting a place at the local school on the basis that the LA's decision was unreasonable, though probably not against the letter of the law?

Huge thanks in advance for any advice or pointers in the right direction.

Could you move in to it earlier while work is still on-going? Caravan in the garden? I don't know how they would treat your application if you moved before schools are allocated... Would you be a late application? In which case you may not go higher up the waiting list anyway....

Sorry not much help I'm afraid. It sounds to me as if they have applied their policy correctly, in which case I don't think you'd have strong grounds for appeal.

Thanks Runoutofideas. Living on site in a caravan isn't really feasible as there isn't the space - no garden - and it seems a bit harsh on the kids when we are really lucky to have the option of very lovely grandparents to stay with.

I was just hoping that reasonableness would prevail.

oh dear, awkward but agree with Turniphead1. you are not living there so a place should go to a child that is

oversubscription appeal are useless unless the LEA have made a mistake, 19 of us went to appeal last year and not a single case was won, and this was for my daughters catchment school which is 2 miles from our house, she is currently on the reserved list but is slowly going down that list she was 3 now 12 due only because we are last house in catchment, so everyone else that applies lives closer and get higher up the list!!!....we now attend a school which is the furthest away 4 miles from our house and have to pass her catchment school, none of this parental choice thing makes any sense to me as all 3 schools that we applied for all close by we didnt get and were given one that is the furthest...just dont get it, but best of luck to you x

The LA are correct in that the current address of your children is their grandparent's address. You have clearly missed the normal deadline for on-time admissions but all LAs have some leeway for people who are moving. You need to check that date with the LA but the end of March, as an expected move in date, sounds to be rather late.
As such you will be allocated a place based on the current address and therefore unlikely to get the local school in the initial allocation.
You need to make sure that you are covering all your bases for possible appeal situations, so I would suggest if you have not already done this that you again contact the LA, explain the situation and ask for confirmation in writing why you cannot use the new address as you do own the land and there is a moving in date. You will undoubtedly get a negative response but what you want is proof that you asked the right questions about what was needed to get the right address on the admission application.
You absolutely need to move in as soon as humanly possible, so that you can then inform the LA of that move and this needs to be before the actual allocations are made. Please make sure that the LA understand this is a move of address but you do not want to change the original application (unless you are within the cut off date). It is a change of address for contact purposes only, as any other change will mean you are then a late application and go to the bottom of the pile.
Assuming that you do not get the local school, you should accept the school offered (if you don't you run the risk of not having any school place) and then appeal. If the appeal is an infant class size case I think your chances of success are very very slim as you have to prove either a mistake by the LA or that the LA are unreasonable (read as perverse) in their decision not to admit. I would still run with the LA made a perverse decision in that they knew (and you have the evidence) that you were moving in well before the allocation date but accept that any panel that properly applies the rules will not admit. If the appeal is not an infant class size appeal, then again you should run with the LA are being perverse but this time at stage 2 of the appeal, you are saying that you have a good case to admit because you would under normal circumstances have got a place at the school and it is only because the LA were unwilling to accept the address that you are in this position.
As Turniphead says and if I am honest both potential appeals are not likely to win, but if you don't try, you will never win. There is far more likelihood of getting in by dint of there being movement on the waiting list.

You definitely need to get in asap and appeal asap. Movement on waiting lists depends on many factors especially how many other good primary schools there are in your area and how transient is the surrounding population. The independent schools will have all offered their results so depending upon your area, there can be movement in that respect. Also you would be surprised how many parents change their mind from the date of filling in the application form to actually receiving the offer especially with regard to rankings. Even the very oversubscribed primary schools in my area have significant movement on waiting lists in the first few weeks post offer day but your chances of success are of course dependent upon where you are on that waiting list . How close is your new house to the school ?

I chair many admission appeals in London and i would say you have a good case if you live very close to the school and would definitely have got a place had you lived in the new house but you will need to provide as much documentary evidence as you can with your appeal papers e.g original planned completion date from builders, evidence that it will be your family home etc and do turn up on the day of the appeal, personal appearances persuade much more than just written evidence. Unfortunately as mentioned above it will be up to you to prove that the council were perverse in their decision, you do have a case but its not going to be a foregone conclusion. Also try and get everything in writing when dealing with the council .

Thank you so much everyone for your advice. It is really helpful, not least as it will make me more realistic in terms of the appeal outcome so I have to come up with an acceptable Plan B now.

Can I just check, does the Infant Class Size case only apply if that Reception class has filled all its 30 places (or 90 places in this school's case as it is a three form entry). If there are places left (very unlikely as this is a very popular school), then we would be appealing on the grounds of reasonableness of applying the admissions criteria?

We live 0.13miles away, and last year's catchment was 0.48miles so we should be quite high up the waiting list if it's done on distance, and we'll have to keep our fingers crossed for the waiting list process to work in our favour.

If there are places left then they would offer you one I think, even from the grandparents' address.

If the school has a place they must fill it. So, given that the admission number is 90, any appeal will definitely be under infant class size rules. That means you can only win if the LA has not followed the rules or they have made a mistake.

No-one will stop you from appealing on the grounds that you believe the LA has been unreasonable in applying its admission criteria. However, I would expect such an appeal to fail. The LA is not being unreasonable. It is following the rules. The problem is that you want them to break the rules by accepting the address of your new house. However reasonable that may seem to you they cannot do that. Sorry.