Hideous Primary School Admissons Offer - Advice needed, please!

[Dworkin9to5]

Hello, I'll try to give all the details, but it will probably be long, so apologies in advance. I don't want to give my location, if that's okay, but we live in England.

My son will be 4 in May. We live in a smallish town, where there are 4 decent primaries. We live just round the corner from one, in fact, we can see it from one of our bedroom windows. We applied for all 4 schools in our area, although our no. 1 choice was the second nearest - still under 1mile away.

I didn't get a letter or email on Thurs. 16th, so I went and checked the offer online. We had been rejected for all 4 choices, and instead, given a place at a school we've never heard of, in another town nearby. When we checked on Google, we discovered that it is an hour's walk away, over 20 mins by car, and is not served by public transport. It is also a new school, in an old building, and the second Google hit for it is a local newspaper article condemning the use of the building because it is crumbling, with exposed asbestos, and so on. There is no OFSTED report yet because it is new. Looking on the map, there are SIX schools nearer to our home than this one. I know they legally have to provide transport, but I've checked, and it would mean my son travelling in a taxi without me, and I simply refuse to allow that.

More facts: I cannot drive, and I have mecfs. I sent a Dr's note in with the original application stating that I cannot walk far or drive, so need my son to go to a school within reasonable walking distance. My partner, his father, cannot do the school run due to work hours. I am a SAHM, and DS does 15 free nursery hours at a lovely local nursery that's not affiliated to a school. He is our only child.

My son is bright (has taught himself the alphabet, how to read and count to 100), but is Summer-born, emotionally immature, very shy, to the point of nursery worrying about elective mutism, very clingy to me, very nervous of other children, wears glasses and has a speech impediment. He is also not very gender-conforming, and likes pink, dolls, etc. (We don't believe in gender-stereotyping children). So we were already worried about him starting school before this development.

We are going to appeal, but what worries me is that we're only allowed on the form to say why we want him to go to his first choice. We're not allowed to give reasons why the admissions offer is unsuitable, or even say that we're happy for him to go to the other choices, so long as it's not the offer school! If they've already rejected us once, despite our existing suitability, what can we say to change their minds?!

Everyone else we know has got their 1st or 2nd choice, we don't know how come we've been so unlucky, especially living in such close proximity to two schools, and what with my mobility issues.

I really need some advice with the appeal, because there is no way we are going to send our son to the offered school. We will not send him to school this year if it's our only option. Please help?

Mistakes absolutely happen in allocations. Last year our 4yo was initially refused a place at our first choice school because the council had forgotten to include the sibling priority. We weren't the only people this happened to either. Luckily it was sorted without going to appeal - the council just accepted the error and allocated us a place. Fingers crossed for you!

Also, our LEA publish a document with, for each school, the last category offers were made up until (so say for eg category no.4 - siblings out of catchment), and the furthest distance an offer was made within this. So you can check instantly whether a mistake on distance has occurred. I'm presuming that not all LEAs do this, but it might be worth a good root around the council website just in case.

Will they have posted the allocation informatiion for this year already? I suspect not and last year's information is not relevant to the 2015 cohort. It is historical.

Our 4th round of allocation is on 10th July 2015. There can be all sorts of movements before then. People giving up places to go to private school, people who move, people changing their minds, rectification of mistakes.....

I know someone who put her child on the WL for the school she is very close to (was an in-year admission) and was told he was number 32. She can see the school from her window and queried how there could possibly be 31 children closer than him, even allowing for siblings/LAC etc - they had just stuck him on the list in time order and not applied the address. He moved to number 2 and had a place within a couple of months.

LA's will publish the initial allocation stats - not sure if all do but some have already and others are due to soon.

Well, they were more informative, but it was still disappointing. Apparently it was all down to distance - they said at the school down the road, there was only a few feet between him and the child who got the last place. I pointed out that I know people who have got in who live a lot further away than we do, but it's to do with the 'as the crow flies' distance. I doubt someone who lives a 15 walk away, like my friend, does actually live nearer than us only 10 houses away, but heyho.

Also, they won't provide a taxi for him. They would reimburse petrol or bus fares, but seeing as I can't drive and we'd have to get 2 buses and still do 50mins walk anyway, this is no help. So it remains impossible for me to get him there and back.

They don't take things like parental mobility into account, which is v annoying, seeing as I had to pay for the medical note about my health. They couldn't give me a decent answer for why they demanded one if they don't take it into consideration.

Anyway, he is 18, 14, 23, and 35 respectively on the waiting lists for our choices. I have no idea how good 18 or 14 is. So it's full steam ahead with an appeal and keeping fingers crossed. Still all v frustrating and worrying. Thanks for the advice and support x

Did they provide your distance and the last admitted distance for each school?

How can you be 14th on the waiting list if you were only a few feet further away as the crow flies from a school 10 houses away than the last child offered? That sounds a bit fishy to me. Did they actually confirm last distances for each of the four schools you listed, referenced to your own distance from the schools?

If he lost out by a few feet how come he isn't near the top of the list? That seems really odd.
You need to get a map and measure the distance as the crow flies for yourself. Do the same for your friends houses to their allocated schools.
It could be you've been very unlucky but something seems off on the waiting list front.

Did you ask for a breakdown of the last admitted distance?

There is a website where you can put in your postcode and it if gives you the crow flying distance to any given school- could you put your friend's postcode in and see what happens?

My understanding is that if you have been given a school more than 3 miles away they have to provide transport- is that not the case?

And I second the how can he be 14th on the waiting list if you live feet from someone who got in - unless they were admitted on some other criterion.

There's not a county border involved or something?

You should have out down the school nearest to you. But no point going into that now.

I'd get on the waiting lists for all the local schools asap if I were you.

Did you read the thread Aggy?
They applied for all 4 local schools and they are on the waiting lists but in odd positions on at least one.

Can they tell you the distance to the last accepted child at each of your 4 chosen schools? Check these distances against your own distance from each and appeal if this throws up any anomalies - very unlikely. Is there a faith criterion for any of them, that you didn't meet?

Concentrate on getting him a place at one of the other 4-6 schools. Make sure he is on the waiting list for ALL of them and ask what position he is on, on each list. Lists do move between now and Sept.

Realistically, can you walk 4 hours a day? If not, if you can't find another place for him, your options will be to homeschool him or use the taxi. Many thousands of children get to school by taxi from YR - I know it is scary but children with special needs and others in villages routinely do taxi or school bus from YR.

I am going to focus on school 2, because that is where it sounds most likely a mistake has been made.

To be able to see the school, to be a few feet outside the furthest admitted distance and to be no. 14 on the waiting list seem odd (we lost out by 20m and were 6th, for comparison). I can see that there would be some late applicants, and I suppose if a large development of flats or something fell on the boundary it might be possible, but otherwise it seems unlikely.

AmateurSeamstress - the LA say that they will just reimburse mileage, not a taxi. (Though not sure how legal that is. I suspect it's pushing it)>

Do you live near a nuclear reactor plant that's caused a town wide epidemic of quadruplets, how can you be 14th on the list yet only 10 houses away. somethings not right here. You poor thing

OP do you know if you have such a thing as a School Preference Advisor in your LEA? This so someone employed by the LEA specifically as an imperial adviser to appeals and to advise on procedures and protocols. They usually know a lot more about the rules and laws than the admissions dept and they can help put together an appeal. Our local LEA has advice surgeries run by the School Preference Advisor. We found him incredibly reassuring and helpful after being told untruths by admissions dept.

Something is just wrong here. It doesn't add up. Crows flies distance is shorter than walking distance so that seems an odd reason for your friends further away getting in. You need to put pressure on them to supply the last distances offered AND the measurement they have for you because it looks very much like a mistake has been made.

Also, try your local councillors. Just explain the situation to them. You'd be surprised what a call to the admissions people from one of them can do to free up information.

Also, sorry, just occurred to me. Are you in an area with catchments? Sometimes they can be a bit odd so you can be close to a school but not in its catchment and therefore lower down the list of criteria. But I'd have hoped the council would have mentioned that if it were the case.

Check the distance criteria for the exact wording. Here the main category is distance to your nearest school. The next category is closest to the school. If your friends live further away than you from the school they got into but it is their nearest school then that might be why they got a place. If it is not your nearest school then that might be why you didn't get a place because all the places were filled from the main category. Hope this makes sense.
This happened in my town. School A filled it's furthest place at 500m. My friend lives 400m away but didn't get a place because she lives 300m from School B and they filled all their places with the furthest distance being 250m. So she didn't get any of her choices. I just wondered if this is what has happened to you.

Surrey have the nearest school rule do they not? Another poster had a thread on it and that was the roof of her issue. She was closer but her friend got in ahead of her.
Our LA published distance cut offs on offer day.
Op can you say which LA it is?

toospotty, that is true, our catchment school is actually twice the distance of our nearest voluntary aided school which both my dc attend. Granted neither are far but it makes me wonder whether our school has a catchment at all.

OP, you have been exceptionally unlucky. If I were you,

sorry, if I were you, I'd keep him in preschool if thats an option, or homeschool until a suitable place comes up. Even without mobility issues, I can't imagine theres many who would find that school run acceptable.