Advice regarding appeal for Yr R admission

[jheqt]

Hi,

We have 3 children; 8, 5 & 4.

When we moved to the area, our eldest was in Yr 2. There was no space at the catchment school, and he was eventually (4 months later) offered a place at an out of catchment school (our second preference).

When it came time for our 2nd child to start school, we therefore put the same (out of catchment) school down as first preference, and thankfully he was given a place.

You can probably tell where this is going....

Our youngest did not get in to the same school, and has been offered the original catchment school which our eldest was displaced from.

So we will have one in Year R at one school, and 2 in Year 1 and 5 at another school. The schools are about 10 minutes apart and the school day hours are identical.

There are other complications which I won't go into, but safe to say it's going to be a nightmare.

I've spoken to the LA and they are basically saying "all you can really do is appeal", but as this will be an infant class size appeal, I'm wondering if there is any point? She is currently number 3 on the waiting list.

I can find lots of similar cases on the internet, but always where the parents have chosen and out of catchment school for their eldest child. But we tried unsuccessfully to get our eldest into the catchment school, and he was ultimately displaced by the LA.

I just wondered if anyone had any advice, or has been in the same situation and appealed? This is in West Sussex.

Thanks

I guess it might be relevant, in that if the LEA made a mistake in the admissions process for DC2 (by classifying DC2 as out-of-area sibling rather than catchment sibling despite you having indicated the circumstances in the application), then their records were wrong due to their mistake, and if they hadn't made that mistake with DC2, their automatic systems would have realised that DC3 qualifies for the same thing, and DC3 would have been offered under 'in-area-sibling' even without you having to make it explicit again. If that makes sense at all?

I guess you could argue that having indicated the circumstances in DC2's application, you could reasonably assume that DC2 was admitted as 'in-area-sibling' (you shouldn't be required to check if they applied criteria correctly even when you do get an offer).
And you could thus perhaps reasonably assume that the circumstances were now 'on record' with the council and thus needn't be reiterated in DC3's application.

It's great that you have been moved up the waitlist and I hope that this is enough to sort the problem for you. If you do go to appeal, I'd focus on the fact that the information you needed is rather buried and there is no prompt whatsoever in the actual application form, and the wording is misleading in the sense that it doesn't make you immediately think that this will apply to you. You shouldn't need to be a lawyer to work out all the info you need to provide to make your case/to work out if you have a case at all.
And secondarily perhaps (depending on what the experts think) mention that it is not your fault that they wrongly (and unbeknownst to you) classified DC2 as out-of-area sibling when you DID indicate in your application the circumstances making DC2 qualify as in-area-sibling, and thus it is not your fault that the LEA had wrong info and you couldn't have known that they had wrong info. I wouldn't think this argument would gain much traction, as though there was a mistake, it was in DC2's case not in current appeal case for DC3. But might be worth mentioning anyway. (IF you can ascertain that you did indeed mention the circumstances in your DC2 application.)

Good points, I like your thinking.

I have replied, stating my disappointment about the whole situation, my concern regarding the wording of this exception, the fact that I highlighted all this to them on 18th April and still no-one mentioned it, the admissions team never mentioned it when our eldest was given a place at this school, the school never mentioned it, and no other parent we have spoken to before or since was even aware such a thing existed. Not to mention that there is no reference to it on the form (I forgot to put that last part!). I also questioned why this can’t be automated as they obviously have a record of children who were displaced.

I have asked them to send me the information from both previous applications so I can confirm this for myself.

Conveniently, they do not send you a transcript of your application, they just confirm it has been received.

Would there be an argument to say that you should have been moved to the top of the waiting list once you had highlighted this on 18th April? Do you know if anyone was given a place off the waiting list since 18th April? If so, you should be able to appeal on the grounds that you should have been moved to 1st place on waiting list on 18th April and so have lost out on a place due to their error

I have said as much in my email back to the senior admissions officer.

He is out of the office for a few days, someone else replied to me today advising that is is best that he replies, but they did thank me for my comments regarding the wording and they will take this on board as they always welcome feedback from parents!!!

I couldn’t get through today with regards to checking waiting list position. I will try again on Monday and also enquire whether anyone has been given a place from the waiting list since 18th April, as I think we would have a good case to appeal on those grounds if so, as we officially advised them of the situation on that date.

The senior officer is out of the office until tomorrow afternoon, but I called today to check the waiting list position. I was transferred to the person dealing with the case but advised to leave a message as she was on the phone. Did not receive a call back although she did respond to my email from Thursday, basically saying she could not answer so to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Called back now to simply check waiting list position, to be told she has left for the day. Asked for someone else to tell me, after being put on hold I was told they cannot give that information - the waiting lists are not set until a place becomes available. I understand that they assess everyone when a place is available, so your position is only indicative, but when I called on May 16th I was informed she was 3rd on the list. I asked when their procedure changed and she said “a couple of weeks ago” ?!

Asked if they can tell me if anyone has been offered a place from the waiting list for that school? Apparently they cannot see that information ?! Not being particularly helpful. I have put in an appeal notification anyway, but how can I prepare if I don’t know if she has missed out on a place after we informed them of the precise situation on April 18th !

They are required to answer any questions you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. These are reasonable questions. Keep pushing and remind them that the Appeals Code requires them to answer your questions.

Quick update...

So, we met with the head today who was very supportive.

As mentioned, I emailed Admission on 18th April to clearly advise on the exact circumstances regarding DC1's dispalcement (I did not realise the massive significance of this at the time).

We have it on good authority that since the 15th May, a place became available and was given to someone on the waiting list.

The Senior officer is reviewing all the correspondence to see if they should have regarded DC3 as in-catchment sibling for waiting list purposes from 18th April, and will be advising the Manager on Monday, indications are that if they have made a mistake, she will be offered a place.

That's excellent news. Well done.

Sounds promising. Hope it all works out. Good luck!

Good luck. It sounds like you have a strong case.
Wonderful to see @prh47bridge and others doing what they do best.
He (and others) helped me to win a secondary appeal last year so you are in good hands!

Yes, I really appreciate all the help and advice from everyone who has contributed.

I do have another question which hopefully someone can answer...

IF the LEA do not accept to making a mistake by not updating DC3's priority on 18th April (which quite clearly they did), which has resulted in her missing a place via the waiting list, could this be used in our appeal ?

We would obviously make a formal complaint, including to the Chief Executive and Ombudsman.

*For reference, the first 2 paragraphs of my email to them on 18th April was as follows:

"I was looking for some fairly urgent advice. When we moved to the area in 2016 you were not able to offer our son [DC1] a place at his catchment school [School A]. He was therefore given a place at [School B] when we moved here 2 years ago.

We therefore obviously applied for DC1's brother [DC2] to go to [School B] and he was also allocated a place there last year. We have just found out that our daughter [DC3] did not get a place and will be sent to [School A] in September."

Any more news OP?

Sorry - I did fully intend to update this thread, but the events of the past few days have meant my mind has been elsewhere (in a good way! )

So I didn't hear anything by Monday evening, spoke to the Snr officer (about 4pm) who hadn't had a chance to discuss with his Manager at that time but advised they would get back to me with a decision by close of play.

Then at 17:12 I received the following email:
_

Thank you. We have investigated the circumstances and decided to offer a place at [School B] for reception class 2018.

I will send you a formal offer letter. This will mean the place offered at [School A] will be withdrawn and your appeal for [School B] cancelled.

I will make the Headteacher at [School B] aware.

Please contact me if you have any further queries.
_

Result!

Thank you again for everyone's help, I am certain that if I had not posted on here, it would not have prompted me to revisit the admissions criteria and discover the exception which we (and evidently numerous staff at the LEA) did not even realise existed!

I've effectively been a "single parent" since Sunday as my wife is visiting relatives overseas, so she woke to the news on Monday and can now actually enjoy the rest of her holiday, without having to worry about how on earth she will be able to embark on her degree in September with the prospect of young children at different schools.

This was followed by more good news yesterday regarding another matter.

Then today I found out that I have been accepted onto an employee degree programme, so from September I will be spending one day a week at uni for 4 years working towards a degree (fully funded by my employer), which is something I have always wanted to do - I just ended up going down a different route career wise.

But most importantly, our DCs can all now attend the same great school which we have come to love, and we can all share the experience together.

It's funny how so much can happen in a short space of time..

Thinking I should maybe buy a Lotto ticket tomorrow !

Excellent result. I am pleased they gave you the place without making you go through an appeal.