Can a school withdraw an offer of a place?

[zippyswife]

Ds did not get his first choice for primary school. He got the second choice which is a sought after faith (Catholic-we are Catholic) school at some distance from our home. I was really shocked at this at the time as the school offered is so sought after I didn't think anyone would get it if it wasn't their first choice.

Anyway. I was happy enough with the offer. Today I heard that someone who was not Catholic and put it down as their first choice didn't get the school. I'm now worried that they will work out that it wasn't our first choice and our offer will be withdrawn.

Can this mistake have happened? And can they withdraw our offer?

Thanks

It doesn't matter what order preference you put the school on your application, if you're higher up the admission criteria (eg by being Catholic) then you'll get the place.

I'm not sure if I explained that properly. Basically, it's not a mistake. You won't lose the place.

They can withdraw it if you didn't tell the truth on your application. I

Your place has nothing to do with whether you put them first or not. And your application has nothing to with hers. What happened to her has no bearing on your application I mean.

If you heard this on the grapevine as it were, there might be more to it. It might all be a rumour. Maybe she didn't put it first. Maybe her application was late.

Disclaimer-I'm no expert!

Thank you! I can tick that one off my list of worries now!

Agree with pp. Your order of preference has no effect on whether you are offered a place or not. It's only used if you qualify for more than one school.

So in theory if I had put it as 4th choice I would still have been offered the school over non-Catholics who had put it as their first choice? (Criteria is Catholics over non-Catholics)

Or have I really missed the point here?

Yes. Your order of preference only comes into play if you come far enough up the list of applicants for more than one school. They can only offer you one place, so they look at the order you placed them in, then offer you your preferred one and remove you from the list of your least preferred.