ALREADY ACCEPTED SCHOOL PLACEMENT BEING WITHDRAWN!

[Elzemni]

Help!

An already accepted school placement is being taken away because my landlord decided to renovate his property and i had to moved out way after school application deadline.

Basically I applied as normal like the rest of us parents for my 4 year olds school placement. Luckily he got a placement of first choice, visited the school and met his school teacher. Only to be sent an email from the local authority three weeks before him starting school requesting for proof of residency.

So i sent them the required documents again making them aware that my son is starting school on the 5th of September and will be starting as
normal.

However schools like to now come over and visit the child at their home address, so a day before me and my son were waiting for his teacher to arrive however she didn't show.

After calling the school and asking where the teacher was i was told to expect a call back for an update. Within 10 minutes i received the call only to be told that the placement had been withdrawn, i then explained to the receptionist i didn't receive an email only to be told "yes they will email you later today".

the day went by and nothing nor did i get one the following morning so as normal at 1.30pm i took my son in to school to visit his teacher and the rest of his class.

Upon arrival his teacher looked at me and said that he can't be here and i need to go to the school office as children and parents stood outside the class waiting to go in.

Bearing in mind im heavily pregnant and am due to give birth at any given moment. So i explained let's go in and let my son settle in and i will go and have a chat with
the office.

Few moments later the head teacher arrived and took me to her office, as soon as we sat down i was told that my son isn't allowed in school and it would be "illegal" of her to have him there as his place has been withdrawn.

I then asked yes i was told this yesterday on the phone that you had received an email can i have a look at this email, only for them to retract their statement and say oh no they told us over the phone! However i explained i had not received any correspondence and i was still waiting to hear from the local authority (LA).

The headteacher sat there really trying to patronise me explaining that i'm no longer living at the address when i had applied and that this place was now being withdrawn.

I then went on and asked her three simple questions: when applying for schools who do you apply to? she replied "local authority"

i then asked: who are school placement given by? she replied "local authority"

finally i asked and who has the right to take a placement away? to which she replied "local authority".

So my question was why am i sat here being told otherwise when they haven't even replied! further more rather then having your support given my circumstances i feel as if your trying to push me out because of something that was beyond my control!

The receptionist lady then popped her head from the door to tell me she had the LA on the phone, i explained i was waiting for them to email me so i'm fine not in a hurry to speak to them. (as to me my son has his position and is in school)

The head teacher then jumped out her seat to say "oh il have a word with them".
i waited for around 10 minutes only for the headteacher to walk in with an email from the LA to the school saying they hadnt received any information as required and that my placement will be withdrawn!

i then pointed out to the headteacher what i was saying to her 15 minutes ago that rather than having her support she wants me out and now she's waving an email in my face to say my son cant come back to school his place had been withdrawn and the LA will email me later! Now how does that work a school being told before the parent? the teacher then said if i was to bring my son in to school the following day she would then have to call the police!

i was not happy but kept my cool and went to grab my son who i found not in the room
with the rest of the children but with a teacher in an office reading him a book! they wanted my son out!

i then left, went home and contacted the LA explaining emails had been sent and nothing had been looked in to but simply on the say so of a headteacher my sons place in being withdrawn.

I explained i was due to have a baby at any given moment and resent the previous emails to show i did send what they required.

The position offered to my son was not at all conditional upon him remaining at the same address at the point of application. They had for some time details of the change of address and failed to take any measures in a sensible and judicious manner. It has been over two weeks now and my son is still not in school because it's states in their policy that a child needs to be living at the address from january 2019 up until September 2019 and beyond. this needs to be his normal place of residency which it was to be fair until due to unforeseen circumstances i had to move!

I simply don't know what to do is this fair? can they take his already accepted placement on their policy of having to still be living at the address?

There are a number of admissions experts who I imagine will be able to help you in the morning @prh47bridge I am sure will have a view on this and he is an expert in the area. By my understanding what they have in the school admission criteria is unlawful and prejudiced against people like you who are renting but he will be able to advise you further. Had you lived at the address you applied for long before you applied? Not that it should matter as it wasn't your choice to move, but it would strengthen your case if you lived there for a long time. Also which month did you move in and when did you tell the LA you had moved? Again the longer the time it took to withdraw the place (even if it was lawful to withdraw the place, which sounds doubtful), the stronger your case.

Finally, and not really relevant to your son's place but to consider for the future, you say you are pregnant, do you have any other dc? Would they be considered siblings under the school admission criteria? For the child you are about to have it is not as relevant as your son will be in yr5 by the time they start and fairly independent if you needed to do two school runs, it is more if you have intervening children. Siblings don't always get places and if your current residence is likely to be the address you apply for the next place you should consider the likely outcome of that application too.

She probably visited your old address only to be told that you no longer live there. Did she have your new address? Lots of parents move in to the catchment area temporarily only to move back when their place is secured. Schools become over subscribed and now check that all parents do actually live at the address as stated. They actually view it as fraud, if you no longer live there before enrollment. Can you reapply for a local school now?

Or the new occupants applied for a school place from the same address.
Or as a rental is well known to the LA as an address used for fraudulent admissions.

If I'm honest it could look like you have deliberately lived in an address for catchment purposes then moved out as soon as you got your place.

I'm unclear about when you told the LA your new address. Im guessing you moved in May as places were given in April but did I read that the LA only realised in August?

How did the school end up trying to do a home visit to your old address? Had you not told them of your new address?

When meeting with the headteacher and told the LA were on the phone why didn't you talk to them? That was your opportunity to find out first hand what was going on.

Rightly or wrongly your son no longer has a school place and yet you still haven't applied to your new LA for a place?

You are not helping yourself your son.

I'm guessing you didn't tell them you moved as you suspected you might loose your school place. The LA found out and withdrew your place. They might have written to you at the address they held for you - did you pay for your post to be redirected?

this was the day my son started school. i shouldn't have to re apply when he had a placement

You said yourself that you moved in May. The placement was based on an address that is no longer valid, therefore the placement was not valid. You can't just stage a sit in in the principal's office and expect that they are going to give you a spot that you are not eligible for. In fact, with your behaviour, you can't expect that they are going to be that keen to want you anyway. You've already marked your card.

I understand your stance and frustration.

But I don't think you come across as being proactive to resolve the situation in your DS's best interest. Surely you could have anticipated this in MAy? A phonecall to the LEA together with a scanned copy of the notice advising you to vacate the property would have been wise?

And what have you been doing in the last 2 weeks to get your DS into a school?

It's seems as though you are determined that he will go to this school or none at all.

Again, I understand why it seems as though you have been treated unfairly, but I don't think you're seeing this from their side.

And you seem to have a confrontational and stubborn approach which might not be helping.

From Redbridge LA Admissions booklet (2020, presumably the same as last year, but can't open last year right now):
Can I change the information in my application?
You can make changes to your preferences for schools before 15 January 2020 online. After 15 January 2020 this can only be done in exceptional circumstances. You will need to send us a new application; the information you give on your new application will replace the information on any previous application you have made. This
includes a change of address within the Borough.

What if I move?
If you change your address you must inform the Primary Admissions Team immediately after you have moved. Your application will be amended to reflect your new address once residence is confirmed and will be treated as on time if received by 10 February 2020. Changes received after this date will be treated as a late application.
Late Applications
Applications for schools received after the deadline of 15 January 2020 will generally be considered as late, as will any changes to on time application, except resulting from a change of address (see below).
Only if you can provide documentary evidence giving good reason for lateness, for example if there was an exceptional incident within your family, may your application be considered as on-time. This will need to be such that you could not have applied in the previous 4 and half months.
Between 15 January and 10 February 2020, if you change your address but have already made an application for specific Redbridge schools to your old local authority, your application will be accepted as on-time on the basis that an on-time application already exists within the co-ordinated admissions system. If you have moved to Redbridge from another London Borough or within Redbridge, you may change the preferred schools and still have this treated as on time with proof of new address.

After 10 February 2020, application data is exchanged between Boroughs. Any application after that date will be considered as late.
All late applications received will be considered against the oversubscription criteria, but only after all the applications received on-time have been processed. For those moving after 16 April 2020, you must inform the Primary Admissions Teams. It will then be decided whether you may keep the school offered. Your date of application will be the date your residence is confirmed in your new home.

The admissions Code says:

2.12 An admission authority must not withdraw an offer unless it has been offered in error, a parent has not responded within a reasonable period of
time, or it is established that the offer was obtained through a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application. Where the parent has not responded to the offer, the admission authority must give the parent a further opportunity torespond and explain that the offer may be withdrawn if they do not. Where an offer is withdrawn on the basis of misleading information, the application must be considered afresh, and a right of appeal offered if an offer is refused.
2.13 A school must not withdraw a place once a child has started at the school, except where that place was fraudulently obtained. In deciding
whether to withdraw the place, the length of time that the child has been at the school must be taken into account. For example, it might be
considered appropriate to withdraw the place if the child has been at the school for less than one term.

1. You didn't inform the LA of your change of address, as per their regulations. This stopped the LA from considering your change of address.

1. The bar for unreasonably withdrawing a place is not set, but up to one term is considered reasonable by the Code.

1. You were not wrong to continue with the presumption that your place stood, but you now know that the place has been withdrawn. You have the right to appeal.

1. The council should be reassessing your application, but if you have moved to another LA, it's your (new) home LA that needs to do that. If you don't put an application in, they can't assess it.

You say you and your son were waiting for the teacher’s visit, but where were you waiting? Presumably at your new address but the teacher went to your old one, so had you not given it to the school?

At what point did you notify the change of address, or did the LA find out for themselves? Did you and your ds attend any induction events?

2.12 an admission authority MUST NOT withdraw an offer unless made in error or fraudulently

So clearly they think you have acted fraudulently. You accepted the place and then immediately moved out of the area, even though the rules state that you have to be resident until at least Sept of year of entry. You seem to have been hoping that you could just bulldoze your DS into this school, regardless of the warnings you were given and the instruction to reapply. Sticking your fingers in your ears and singing 'la la la' is not the solution. You should have been dealing with this back when you were told you needed to move, not left it until the first day of term, hoping you could brazen it out! It really doesn't work like that.

zafferana it may be, alternatively, that they deem it to have been offered in error, because they would have withdrawn the offer of they had known about the change of address.

The OP’s son didn’t get a place because he didn’t qualify for it. That’s all. He wasn’t in the catchment area.

OP - at what point did you inform the local authority of your change of address and the reason for the move? If you can prove that you did so promptly then I think you have a good chance for an appeal.

If you didn't do so then I think they were right to assume you applied fraudulently - they visited a property you claimed to be living at to find you didnt.

If your move was above board and you made your best efforts to inform them as soon as possible then they were behaving unreasonably. If you didn't then you fail the reasonableness test.

In reality you must have known this was a risk and you could have avoided the turning up at school drama which must have been unsettling for your child. Your conduct at the school was not very adult.

Certainly consider an appeal (do it quickly) but you should also inform your new local authority and request a place. But if I were you I'd go through the appropriate procedure and avoid the stamping foot stubbornness - it makes you look less reasonable.

It's perfectly obvious that you won't be eligible to take a place at a school that you don't live in the correct county to attend without exceptional circumstances.
Your "sit in" was completely ridiculous, as is your attitude.

Wouldn't it be better for your child to attend a school close to where you live now?

I can’t imagine why anyone would thing the OP has acted fraudulently.

The receptionist lady then popped her head from the door to tell me she had the LA on the phone, i explained i was waiting for them to email me so i'm fine not in a hurry to speak to them

I think your attitude is shocking. Whatever happened with your move, you are really not helping your case and if this is the way you communicate with the school and the LA, then I can see why they might think there is something wrong here. Your actions affect not only you, but also your child. Consider that and apply for a school place in your current LA as per your actual address so that your child can start attending school and can settle in as soon as possible.

Kindly, OP - apply for a new school for your DS in the new local authority where you live now.

Yes, it sucks you had to move. Yes, it sucks you didn’t find out till now. Yes, the situation sounds poorly handled.

But your DS will be at school due 7 years at primary and you are off to an appalling start with the head of that school, and rightly or wrongly that will colour both your opinion if the school leadership and the school’s opinion of you.

Start afresh.

The position offered to my son was not at all conditional upon him remaining at the same address at the point of application.

I think if the policy wording says differently (“must reside at the address until September”) then you’re wrong. The onus was on you to absolutely make sure.

Your right op that this hasn't been dealt with well. Howrver

an admission authority MUST NOT withdraw an offer unless made in error or fraudulently
Their policy says you have to be living there come the September, you moved out in May. You didn't qualify the conditions of the offer so it was made in error and they may percoeve it as being accepted fraudulently given you knew you didn't meet the admission criteria.

Reapply to your LOCAL Authority and get on a waiting list for a new school. Or wait til next year's admissions and send him straight into year 1

You haven't met the admissions criteria. You haven't kept the LA properly informed of your circumstances. Perhaps you thought you could get away with it and hoped for the best. I understand the move may have been out of your control but everyone has to deal with these admissions issues and worries about getting the right place for their child. There will have been a child on the waiting list who met the admissions criteria. You need to get your son into school. Just focus on getting a place asap. You can always apply for an in year move if you aren't happy (though clearly not to the original school).

I’m not sure what else the school could have done, frankly...

Bert do you agree with op or the school?

OP hasn't told the school or the local authority about her change of address. Their policy states:

For example, it might be
considered appropriate to withdraw the place if the child has been at the school for less than one term.

1. You didn't inform the LA of your change of address, as per their regulations. This stopped the LA from considering your change of address.

You need to apply for a school place for your son in your area OP. Your behaviour was shocking. Sticking your fingers in your ears and refusing to speak to the local authority when this is about your child. Why did you think they'd have integrated him into the class while you staged a protest in the office? That would've been so awful for him when he had to leave.

The op reminds me of one of those parents who puts only one option on the application form under the mistaken belief they will 'have' to give their child a place, then when the don't get it threatens to not send their child to the allocated school, but keep them home instead.

It rarely works.

So you were told to reapply, which you did not do. You can't just put your head in the sand, you were told what to do, but didn't want to. This situation is entirely of your own making.

this was the day my son started school. i shouldn't have to re apply when he had a placement

They said you needed to reapply. You decided that you didn’t need to do that.

I don’t understand what makes you think that your ‘own’ rules override the local authority requirements

Based on the information given and the copy of the admissions procedure another poster has shared, this whole situation is a case of "parent didn't follow admissions procedure and had place withdrawn because their child didn't meet the criteria".

Sorry OP, it sounds really stressful for you now, but the procedure is clear and you were told what you needed to do and you've not done it.