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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

How far below the line? Can I find out?

11 replies

Yvonne99 · 22/04/2012 19:53

On Friday we found out our daughter to a school of our first choice. It is a Catholic school, oversubscribed. They took it by a distance. If i contact them ( any suggestions phone or email?) will they be able to tell me how far we live ( according to them) and the furthest distance they took? If i push will they give me postcodes of all kids taken? I want to know how far we were below the line, so is the waiting list done aleady and they will be able to tell me our position on Monday? Thank you!

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quickhide · 22/04/2012 20:01

I assume you mean you didn't get your 1st choice? Where I live, it is on the council's admissions website- you can find out how far in metres the furthest child was, and how far in metres you are. We missed out by 5 metres

I was told we won't be able to find out where we are on the continuing interest list until all the allocated places have been accepted/ rejected. So, in a few weeks I think.

quickhide · 22/04/2012 20:01

I was told we won't be able to find out where we are on the continuing interest list until all the allocated places have been accepted/ rejected. So, in a few weeks I think.

Guitargirl · 22/04/2012 20:05

Last year we didn't get offered our first choice school on distance, we live 0.6 miles away and the furthest distance offered was 0.3. We appealed (on grounds of speech therapy which DD was already receiving within the nursery of the first choice school). When the appeal papers came through there was a list of all applicants to that school giving details of the name of the road where the applicant lived (not house number obviously), postcode and distance in miles from the school.

I don't know how it works in your area but here it would be the LEA that holds that info not the school itself at this stage.

Good luck!

Original poster

Yvonne99 · 22/04/2012 20:32

That's right we did not get a place in our 1st choice. We got a letter on Friday but the distance from school is blank and it says that distance ranks are not available for voluntary aided schools. Primary places announcements will be available online tomorrow. Not sure if I get the info there.
The letter said that all 30 places were allocated to kids from 3 parishes ( including ours) so I assume we lost by a distance:(
Will school then we able to tell me the distance we lost by? Doo they have to reveal ( on request) postcodes of kids taken?

OP posts:

PanelChair · 22/04/2012 22:53

They don't have to reveal the postcodes of the children who got places on demand although (as mentioned earlier) this might be in the LEA's papers for the appeal. (Our LEA gives parents the list of all applications, ranked by admissions priority and distance, so that they can see where they were placed, but only the street name and postcode is given).

The LEA should be able to confirm the distance at which they measured you and the distance at which the last place was awarded in your admissions category. If it is further than your distance then obviously a mistake has been made, but you do need to be sure that you are comparing like with like and it is someone in the same admissions category as you.

sunnyday123 · 22/04/2012 23:02

PanelChair, do they give you just street name, distance etc or pair that next to a name? Even without a house number, if you have a childs name and street name together, that still quite a lot of personal info?!

PanelChair · 22/04/2012 23:22

No, all names are removed for data protection/child protection reasons, so it will say something like

Medical/social [name removed] 55 Acacia Avenue AA1 5ZZ 2246 metres

Original poster

Yvonne99 · 22/04/2012 23:26

Can I get a list like that before I make decision whether appeal or not?

OP posts:

PanelChair · 22/04/2012 23:37

You need to ask your LEA.

I suspect that mine would say no, because there's quite a lot of manual work in anonymising the lists and although they do this for people making appeals, I doubt they would do it for others.

What your LEA (or the school) should give you, though, is the distance measurement for you and for the last place awarded in the same admissions category. It isn't good enough to say that this isn't available for VA schools. Schools and LEAs are required by law to give you the information you need to prepare your appeal. If they don't, you can point out to the appeal panel that the school/LEA has been obstructive.

prh47bridge · 23/04/2012 00:32

I have to say that I haven't seen the kind of list PanelChair talks about at any of the appeals I have attended.

I agree with PanelChair that the LA or the school must give you the distance for you and also for the last place awarded in your admissions category. Many LAs include this information on the allocation letters. Personally I think they all should as the admissions code requires them to give a full explanations as to why you didn't get a place at your preferred schools.

PanelChair · 23/04/2012 00:42

That why I say the OP has to check - the LEAs where I have been involved produce this sort of list (it's quite useful for showing parents at appeal where they are on the ranked list) but I have no idea how common (or not) this is. And, as I said, I imagine my LEA would only hand this list to appellants - not to all and sundry.

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