Help needed with a complicated out of catchment sibling issue

[Celestia26]

Hi, I'm hoping for some advice please, slightly complicated situation.......
My son was refused all our 6 choices (the 6 nearest) of primary school 3 years ago. We were given a far away out of catchment school which we eventually rejected due to personal reasons.
We moved to a different county and got our son into a school mid year, which is very slightly out of our catchment.

Now we are in the situation where the school is looking to change it's admission criteria to change to give preference to in catchment children over out of catchment siblings.
I don't disagree with this really, as out of catchment siblings getting school places over catchment children were the reason we had to move in the first place.
My question is this.....If the school does change its criteria, where do we stand on asking for our child to be considered an in catchment sibling? I understand this happens if a child couldn't be placed in a preferred in catchment school. This is complicated by the fact that it's now a different Borough than the one we were in previously and also that the admission was done mid year, so perhaps different rules apply?
I really want to avoid going through all this heartache again for my second child. Going to different schools would be a nightmare and I couldn't face moving again for the same reasons as before!
Can anyone shed some light on this? Much appreciated.

In the consultation period ask that they add a clause that a child would count as an in-catchment sibling if they live in catchment, if they live in the same house that they were in when the older child applied to the school or they live nearer than they did when they applied for the older sibling. We have similar rules but based on distance - so a sibling must either still live within 2 miles, live in the same house as the original application or live nearer (even if still not within 2 miles).

Over the years as the population becomes more locally based there won't be too many out of catchment siblings so generally the clause won't affect too many children each year. Crucially though it would mean that people who live in the catchment to get the first child in but then move away will not benefit from the rule.

So child A is sent to the school as nearest school oversubscribed and lives 4 miles away, Their sibling gets a place. Child B lives in catchment but then move 4 miles away - their sibling doesn't get a place.

A school in our area did this but added a clause that exempted siblings of students already in the school on the day the policy changed and treated them as in catchment siblings

Could you approach the school and ask them to consider this? It only involved a handful of families in the schools case and felt much fairer

Thanks for your advice, when you say consultation period, do you mean when we submit our choices for our second child?

I think your second child will be seen as an out of catchment sibling, because that is what your child will be. I doubt the LA will take historic applications into account when looking at a new application. It sounds as though you rejected the original borough allocation and found the present school by making a separate application mid year from your new address, if this is so then it was not the LA offering an out of catchment place for your first child so even if they had a policy of supporting out of catchment siblings at a later date this would not be the case in your situation.

Since you admit that you recognise the difficulty accepting out of catchment siblings over catchment siblings I think you realise that your application will need a bit of fairy dust to succeed. Since your first child got a place there, presumably reception, mid year then there is a possibility that not all available places are allocated to catchment and catchment siblings so you might be lucky and get an out of catchment sibling place.

Schroedingerscat, I will ask them thank you.

Viques yes that's what happened. We rejected their offer and found another school to take him. We'll just have to hope it's not a big intake.

Celestia a school has to enter in to a consultation phase before they can implement any changes to the admissions policy. They have to give a reasonable amount of time for people to comment on the proposed changes (can't remember how long but it's a least a few weeks!).

Chimpandzee thank you, that makes sense.

Yes you need to find out when the consultation period finishes, if possible (might be easier in a small school) find out roughly how many siblings are affected as a small number might make them feel more positively disposed. Recruit their parents to also contribute. Explain the hardship that it would be to those siblings and families. Point out that it is likely to be for a transitional period rather than a long term impact. You probably need to act fairly quickly, long before the admission period for your youngest comes around. You might be in a stronger position than those who moved out but had previously been in catchment (as it is this practise the change in criteria is aiming to discourage) so it is worth proposing both Schroedingerscat's suggestion and as an alternative the suggestion about admitting those living outside of the catchment when older child admitted. You could suggest this wording:

The sibling claim will stand if the family have continued to live at the same house as when the older sibling was admitted into the school, or the family have moved, and they have moved within catchment of the school; or the family have moved nearer to the school from where they were living previously.

There should be a link to the consultation document on the school's website (admissions tab, but most schools put a mention on the home page), along with the closing date for the a submission of comments on / objections to the proposed policy. It should also be on the LA website.

I think it's quite common to have a clause that any child currently at the school, the sibling counts as catchment. I've certainly seen it a couple of times.

I don't know though if you had 3 dc, dc1 had started, dc2 counted as catchment, whether it would then carry through to dc3, but that won't effect you.