Please help- place withdrawn!

[StellarforStarofAfrica]

DD has had her place withdrawn for our 1st choice school, on the basis that her foster sibling won't be starting in their nursery until January, and not September.

They have just picked this up now due to an internal audit, and for the last 6 weeks, we've been telling her she's going to the school attached to the nursery she's been attending.

I am devastated. Not only has she missed the first appeals date, she is now probably at the bottom of the waiting list, all because of an admin issue at the admissions office.

The admin officer I have spoken to was very lovely, and explained all the protocol to me, but I am still fuming! Ther is NO WAY she is going to go to the school they have allocated her, she wouldn't last a week there, so it's either get through to first choice on appeal (I have no idea how likely this is) or home ed (gulp) which I have no idea of how to do.

Has this happened to anyone else? If so, how did you get through it?

Sorry this is a bit of a stream of consciousness, but I am really shocked and upset.

Well looking at what Admissions says they'd be bloody stupid to! Waste of their resources...they simply MUST listen and do as they are bloody well told!

I hope so, House. I am sending it now and hoping I won't have to present my case.

Just saying to DP, it's like the Good Wife but without the designer jackets and fancy offices!

It's not even vaguely similar Stellar but, 2.5 years ago when DD1 was eventually offered a place at the school we wanted and where she'd been at nursery (having attended another local school for her first term of Reception) the LA made moves to withdraw her offer of a place too.

In our case what had happened was that the LA had over-allocated a vacancy and intended to withdraw DD1's offer so that a parent who'd been found to have fraudulently secured a place at a different local school (but whose DC was due to start in January, not September) was pacified slightly by being given their second choice in spite of the fact that there were no vacancies at that specific moment in time .

Unfortunately for the LA, I had already formally accepted the offer in writing 2 weeks prior to that and had no intention of telling DD1 that she wasn't going back to her school after all. I made it very clear to the LA that I'd sought legal advice and, that were they to persist with their threats to withdraw DD's place, I would take it to the highest level to prove that they were acting against the Admission Code and would publicise widely their disregard for, and poor understanding of, the law. Funnily enough, a few days later they decided that DD's offer of a place would stand... and that child of fraudulent parent would be admitted as an 'excepted pupil' .

To this day I dread to think what might have happened if I wasn't so stroppy and determined or didn't have solicitor friends who were willing to be the legal advice I'd mentioned. It was an horrendous experience and yet I pretty much knew I was in the right and that the LA were wrong - what must it be like for those parents who don't have access to the support/knowledge that I was able to call upon? LAs do make mistakes sometimes. They need to get better at admitting that and working out how to accommodate the situations they've created as a result instead of relying upon parents not knowing the law .

So, the moral of my story is... sometimes it all works out in the end, and hopefully this will be the same for you too.

Fingers crossed for you.

LAs are frequently a law unto themselves.

Any news yet? Keeping everything crossed for you

Nothing yet, i'm going to start the phone calls soon.

I spoke to the head teacher who is not I.pressed (and incidentally hasn't heard anything from the LA saying dd has been withdrawn) and has told me to keep at them, as this is only the second time in four years a place has been allocated at dd's school in error.

Just waiting to see what they have got to say when they speak to me later.

You keep at it, you literally have nothing to lose by fighting them tooth and nail all the way. Remember it is NOT the school you are fighting here who seem very much on your side but some beaurocrat in an office to whom your dd is a faceless child who they don't have to feel responsible for. (Sorry faceless beaurocrats out there but you know what I mean )

Oh no, what a stressful thing to happen! I hope it's all resolved soon.

I just asked ht if she knew of any other places being withdrawn and if she had any wisdom to impart!

She gave me a couple of numbers to call and told me to come and speak to her when I know more about what's happened. She's baffled and quite curious!

Yes Tiggy they made a mistake twice...first in allocating and 2nd in trying to grab it back too late....OP should not be made to suffer.

I'm on my phone so can't put too much detail, but they are refusing to reinstate and are citing 2.12 of the 2012 admission code for the withdrawal.

She was adamant that was the code they are and should be using.

Well, according to admissions (who knows her stuff) they're wrong.
You're not going to give up, are you?

No. Way.

I'm going to fight until my last breath, and I hope the chairs in the appeal hearing are comfy, because I've got a lot to say.

you need to get Admissions or someone to point to the definitive source which it states that for sept 2012 entry, the 2010 admission code applies and send it to them - you shouldn't be forced to take this to appeal with all the resultant stress, they are wrong and should reinstate your place now!

Mahonga, I kept telling her that the 12 code wasn't in use for this academic year and the 10 code applied, but she kept saying "we use the 12" over and over again!

She was really trying to make me doubt myself, but she was nervous. Oh, and they waited until 4.47 to call!

I am going to be Googled to death tonight.

Hmm, her saying "we use the 12" doesn't actually mean that they should be using it. Sounds like you, courtesy of the informed bods on here, know more than she does!
You can look forward to enlightening her!

This should help from the Dept of Education website. It says that the 2012 code came into force on 1 Feb 2012 and take effect for the 2013/14 academic year onwards. Your LEA are wrong.

www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/schooladmissions/a00195/current-codes-and-regulations

here's a start for the googling:

www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/schooladmissions/a00195/current-codes-and-regulations

which states "The revised [2012] School Admissions Code and School Admission Appeals Code came into force on 1 February. The School Admissions Code takes full effect on admissions arrangements being locally determined in respect of the pupil intake for the 2013/14 academic year and thereafter. "

which is unequivocal, but you ideally need to present that in conjunction with a statement saying that the 2010 still applies to 2012 entry....

I'm sure the experts will be along shortly to help!

x-posted!