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is a good two weeks old and the school has today come back to us to say sorry that offer was made in error and we have withdrawn it.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

Clearly the LA are trying to wriggle out of this. I agree with tiggytape, no matter it was a mistake, you were made an official offer by the LA, which you accepted in good faith. The LA can under the new regs potentially remove the place as it was an error but you have an absolute right to apply for any school place and appeal for any school.
This is for an appeal panel to resolve as to where they think the fault lies and whether they think the old case law still applies.
I would email the LA and say that you did accept an official offer from them and as such you wish to exercise your right to appeal for a place at the school. I would say that you wish to have confirmation within 24 hours that they have received the appeal document, that they have accepted it and given an indication of when the appeal is. If they come back again saying they did not send you an offer and you cannot appeal, then I would send the email correspondence and a copy of the original offer to the LGO and ask them to intercede as the LA are clearly trying to stop your lawful ability to appeal for a school place.

The other thing you can do is threaten to refer them to the LGO. I am sure the LGO would take the view that you are entitled to appeal against this decision.

You could also point out to them that paragraph 2.12 of the Admissions Code defines what they have done as withdrawing an offer due to an error.

Thanks all much appreciated I will take up the baton again and see where we get to this time :)