Withdrawal of a place

[dadonfire]

Could anyone offer me some advice please we are currently going through the application process for my daughter who is due to start school in September.

We are on the border of 2 LEA's and in our application chose one school from are a and two from area b. We were declined for all three places and offered a different school from area a's LEA which is going to be untenable in terms of travel etc but area b offered us a place at another school which would be perfect but we live 8 miles away so were very perplexed and on the first day of term after easter went into school to provide proof of address, age etc.

The offer letter is a good two weeks old and the school has today come back to us to say sorry that offer was made in error and we have withdrawn it.

The heartbreaking point of view for us is that all my daughters friends from Nursery are going to our first choice school so she was devastated she could not go to school with her friends, we managed to console her by showing her the fantastic school and bigging it up and showing her the school etc so to now tell her she can't go to that one either is going to break her heart and is just destroying us - any help gratefully recd.

The experts will be along soon to advise you. They can only withdraw an offer in a few days not weeks.

I agree that the experts will be along later but the impression I've got from them before is that two weeks is too long.

Thanks much appreciated if your suspicion is confirmed by the experts I could do with some help on what to do next, I am just at a loss at the minute.

Did you accept the place? Sorry to be thick!

had you turned down the original allocated place or did you have 2 offers on the table at once ?

Yes you are correct we did have two offers on the table rejected on and accepted the other :( which has subsequently withdrawn so now we have no place or offers and are in a real mess

Have they said why it was withdrawn ? Could it be that they discovered you already had an offer and things have crossed over?

No I don't think it was anything to do with the other place they have just said we should never have recd that offer it was sent to us in error - despite being an offer for my child at our address?

The headteacher of the school in question has said we should probably not appeal as we did not originally apply for that school other parents who did apply for that school are appealing and would be prioritised above our appeal - is this correct?

Don't think so , they hear every appeal on its merits but it depends whether your child has been unfairly denied a place. Where are you on the waiting list ?

No we didn't ever apply for that school as didn't think we would ever have a chance, hence our confusion when the offer for it came through but having said that they other offer from the adjoining LEA was for a school we hadn't applied for either so we just presumed as we couldn't get in any of our choice schools both LEA's had offered us a replacement?

Yes one application with schools in 2 areas and then received 2 offer letters from the 2 LEA's in the different areas

by LEA's i mean local councils sorry

Maybe they can use the fact that you hadn't actually applied to the school to strengthen their arguement that the place was offered in error?
I can't work out from your op whether you actually accepted the place or not???

Sorry I am trying to be as clear as possible but still ranting ha - When my partner went into the school to accept the offer and provide birth cert etc this was when they realised the error so we didn't get chance to accept the offer they just sort of ushered her out of the school and said someone would call us, which they did 2 days later to say the place had been withdrawn :(

As a back up get your daughter on the waiting list for the schools you wanted. You can do this even if you have accepted a place elsewhere, or have no place like you do op.

Then if you wish to appeal for this school they offered you, you can do so using the appeals process, but you have more of a safety net. Depending where you are there can be a lot of movement on lists.

Thanks Tiggy yes that's exactly what happened we received two offers despite only send one application in, both apps from different councils in different envelopes etc and neither were for the schools we applied for so we just presumed each local council had offered us a replacement and decided to accept the one that was 8 miles from home (many reasons some being we intend to move to that area in the next 6 months or so, even if we don't move its directly on the commute for my wife and I so collection is easier, it is half a mile from grandma's house so if we can't collect grandma can).

We declined the other place so now are left with no school and the only reason we knew about the error was when we tried to accept the place after the Easter break. So we are in a horrible position through as I see it no fault of ours and more importantly my daughter now does not have a place again because of someone else's error. At not point have we dont anything wrong in this process.

p.s.
The school do have our acceptance letter.

Did you send the letter or hand it in when you visited?

handed it in

Did your lea give you a deadline to accept offers? Mine is 30 April so I assume you were well within it.

We have late today been speaking to the admissions team who made the offer in error and they seem to be being very helpful (guilt?) and have offered to put us on waiting lists in the area - if they do and we get offered and accept a place does this make any appeal for the school in question null and void?

Also if she is offered a couple of places if we get to the top of a couple of waiting lists do we get a preference? or again once you accept are all other offers rescinded?

Waiting lists are completely separate from accepting places and appeals, so do join waiting lists for any school you'd be happy to accept a place at.

You can still appeal for the withdrawn place to be reinstated.