Child refused school place

[Truelylittle]

Hi,

My child has been refused primary school first choice place, yet your next door neighbour has been given a place? Does anyone think this has rights to appeal?

Not adopted, they are my friend we were pregnant together

I also do not want to say to the school that I know someone who lives further away yet was given a place

You do have a good grounds to appeal if they were cat 4 too and live further away from you
My personal suspicion if she lives really that much far out to you is that she put a different address
Ring school tomorrow and check you were cat 4 and that they didn’t loose your certificates etc (was my fear when we applied!)

You make it objective - ask for furthest cat 4 person
If you live within that distance you have a very good grounds to appeal
However if it’s your neighbour and it’s 4 meters close than you you don’t

Would I have to mention the fact they live further away from the church than me in the appeal? Yea I will have to ask first thing on Monday morning. No cat 5s were offered a place. Cat 4s 22 applied 21 accepted and 1 rejected

It says on the council website last offer of distance offered which works out as her address

So unless they have misplaced our certs and placed us in cat 5 I can’t work out why we were not offered

Oh and btw if the furthest cat 4 person was closer than you think your friend lives than clearly she lied on her application and personally I would have no problem reporting her as it’s fraud and she’s took a place away from your child!

okay, yes I will ask the school for the furthest distance offered

Ask specifically for distance for cat 4s
And that you are cat 4 - then yes you have a good grounds for appeal

Yes I agree, I have not slept all week over it, scratching my head, I have gone over everything and it just doesn’t make sense to me how she was offered. The fact that even my neighbour was offered made it worse. I understand my neighbour may be closer but not my friend who lives much further out than me

Probably most likely they’ve lost your certs?
It is odd - i can understand now why you are aggrieved.

Who would I have to report to if they did use a different address to where they actually live?

Get some sleep and call the school first thing to ask

1. Are you cat 4
2. What’s the furthest cat 4 distance offered

Thank you! I felt like I was going insane going over all the info and checking distances. I feel a bit relieved

Council and school I think

I have also checked on the internet and it seems appeals don’t often get accepted as they cannot let the class go over 30

Would that still be the case if someone in the same cat as me living further was accepted?
I also haven’t received a reason for refusal letter. Am I meant to ask the school for this or should they give it to me automatically?

Should I still accept place offered from council?

Accept the place. Otherwise your child won’t have any school to go to in September.
I don’t think you will get a letter explaining anything. Contact the admissions team at the school and speak to them.

There is no reason for refusal letter here. Because you were technically refused by 4 schools not just 1. We were too.
And the council has allocated you a school you chose. Just not the first choice school.
Your appeal will succeed if you can show:
1 that someone in your category was unfairly admitted OR
2 you were unfairly excluded
As I said speak to the admissions team, get the facts, get your paperwork ready.
But also accept the school place given. If you don’t the LA has no obligation to find your child a school.

And much more importantly remember that in the appeal the fact that you went there, or the school is lovely and your daughter goes to Nursery there are not factors. All that matters is whether the admission criteria was correctly applied.

Yes I feel like something isn’t right in terms of refusal, like apples and pears said I will need to check I was placed in correct criteria etc.

You say ‘we were too’.. was that this year? Or a previous year? If it was a previous year did you manage to get a position in a high preference school through the waiting list?

Sorry also if the title is misleading, I didn’t mean for it to be, I am very eghasted at the moment.

I also used an online software and it showed distance as the crows fly as exactly the same in a straight line distance

Online software is not accurate. A computerised system will have been used to measure distances. This is very accurate. It may well show that your neighbour is a metre or two closer to the school than you.

My partner and I have refused our offer

That is a bad move. Accepting the offer will not affect your place on the waiting list. Refusing it leaves you without a school. The council don't have to come up with an alternative offer. And it may damage any appeal as it might look to the appeal panel like you are trying to bully them by refusing any other offers.

There are reasons someone living further away than you might get a place while you miss out. The obvious ones are being in a higher category or having an EHCP naming the school. However, if neither of these applies it raises questions. It may be that you have been placed in the wrong category (category 5 or possibly even lower if they didn't have your child as a baptised Catholic). If this is because you failed to submit the evidence required by the school to get into category 4 it won't help you. Similarly it won't help if the school is one of those that requires the child to be baptised within a few months of birth and you failed to meet that deadline. However, if you did give them all the evidence and they still put you into the wrong category that gives you a clear case for appeal. Indeed, in that situation they should offer you a place without any appeal but most schools ignore that and force parents to appeal anyway.

Prh47bridge how do I message you privately? I cannot figure out how to do so