School nightmare

[Rapha]

Can anyone help? DS has been given second choice school. DD is currently in year 2 at first choice. We still live in catchment for first choice school and I put him down as a sibling so can only assume council has made a mistake arrhggg!!! Half the year is sibling s and half not so he should have got in on the sibling rules. Has anyone been in this position before ? If I can show council made a mistake will he be offered a place or wil I have to go to appeal ? Any advice appreciated. TIA

This happened to someone I know. She hadn't ticked the sibling box. She queried it with LA. It was her error. She went on waiting list and got in within a couple of weeks. No need to appeal

You will need to contact the Lea and find out which criteria and distance the last child was admitted under. If the last child came lower down the criteria than your dc then they should have been admitted. If not then get in the waiting list. Get on the waiting list anyway for the school/s you would prefer.

As pp said if you failed to indicate the sibling link it won't be the LEAs fault.

Don't reject your current place. It will have no affect on any waiting lists or appeals but if you reject the LEA will have fulfilled it's duty to you.

Rapha,
Are you absolutely sure that you applied on time and that the application was received? If you have some acknowledgement of receipt and it was on time that is a good starting point. The other thing to be sure about is that you did say there was a sibling in the school already.
As Tiggy says email the admission department of the council and ask them for the specific reason you were not admitted, so at least you know the reason. Until you know that everything is conjecture.
But the most important thing is to ensure that you keep copies of all correspondence about the situation and if you have a telephone call with the admissions office that you confirm the gist of the outcome of the conversation back to them. I have done far to many appeals where it comes down to he said / she said and you have not got any evidence to back you up. LAs will record details of the conversation, so you should and make sure that the LA acknowledge your response. It is too easy for mistakes to get made because of misunderstandings around what somebody thought was said.

Thanks all. Sorted now as error was their end in failing to link him up with his sibling. He now has a place at first choice school. PHEW!!!

Wait a minute. Your local authority made an admissions error for an over subscribed school, ADMITTED their mistake, and FIXED it on the SAME day?

Where on earth do you live? Do you all also have pet unicorns :)

Good news and also nice hearing of a fault being fixed quickly and without alot of hassle.

good on the LA for doing it quickly and causing the least amount of hassle.

I too am surprised that it was rectified so quickly, I imagined months of phone calls , paperwork , appeals etc. I do think however that was no point in the LEA making me take this to appeal as they have clearly not fulfilled their legal obligations in respect of admissions criteria and so I believe have no choice but to offer a space.