reception place appeal

[maddison08]

hi was just wondering if anyone can help? my youngest daughter has attended nursery at the same school as her older sister who has one year left and my step daughter has 2 years left. 3 year ago we moved out the catchment area but only a 10 min drive so we left my daughter at the school where she is happy and settled and my step daughter also attends the same school and we pick her up from school everynight. My daugher has been refused a place because it is full but would not impact the school till 2014 if they were to take extra children. I am also a carer for my partner who has mental health problems .I handed a letter in for the appeal from a social worker supporting my case to have my child in the same school as her sisters, when my partner is bad my dad has the children over night and takes them to school as he is only a short walk away.The pannel declined and now i am in a situation where i dont no what to do for the best.I dont want to move my oldest daughter with 1 yr left but i cannot be at 2 schools at the same time, and even if i did move them both i still have my stepdaughter at the oher school ,any advice would be grately appreciated thanks

AS you have been to appeal, I am afraid your options are likely to be limited to how best you can organise the situation.
I would certainly contact the LA admission office and confirm that you are on the waiting list for the school you would prefer and establish where you are on the waiting list. As tiggytape says it is possible that you can accept the school place offered and then defer entry until they are 5. Can you do that? That at least gives you more time to hopefully get a place or in the worst scenario reduces to a minimum the level of time that you will have children in two schools.
However I would be interested in exactly why you were turned down. From your explanation it would appear to be based on future prejudice as an infant class size case but normally that would be for 2013-14 school year. You say 2014 so are you talking about future prejudice for school year 2014 -15 that is september 2014. That is an awfully long stretch for a panel to make such a decision and in fact I sat on a panel a few weeks ago where such a decision was not allowed to stand.
You also have sibling priority so again slightly surprised that you did not get a place. Does your LA operate a criteria where it is siblings in catchment, then catchment and then siblings out of catchment or what?
It is just possible depending on what was actually said that you could refer the case to the Local Government Ombudsman if the circumstances were such that the panel were wrongly advised on the issue of future prejudice. Please fell free to PM me if you would rather not put information on the post.

thanks i didnt want to move my oldest because it means her settling in to a new school and this year is important as she will be attending senior school the year after. and although we pick my step daughter up everyday i dont think her mam would agree to it .She is 6 on the list so i think the only thing i can do is see about leaving her in nursery.In most other areas having siblings in the school makes them catagory 2 but not gateshead its a cat 4.The reception could cope as they have a 2 teachers and loads of assistants but would impact in 2014 yrs time when they reached yr 2.
thanks for advice i think i will defer.