Does this warrant an appeal?

[Frariedeamin]

Today we were allocated our 4th choice school. On reviewing the admissions data for our 2nd choice we found that out of a PAN of 30 17 siblings were offered a space, no SEN, social, CLA etc. The remaining 11 spaces were allocated to children based on distance, the furthest away being 863.49m. We live 812.1m from the school (according to the council, not our own calculations!). My understanding is that we should have been offered a place as we are closer? Is this grounds for an appeal?

Yes you have grounds for an appeal if the council have made a mistake.

It certainly sounds like one... Good luck.

I’m in Herts and all the schools are community schools if that helps! Thanks so much for any advice!

@LalalalalaLlama our council website says all applications are considered equal regardless of how you rank them

Yes that sounds like grounds for appeal. Not sure how the mistake was made as it’s generally by a computer not a person, but definitely query. Good luck.

Yes it would still be a mistake- that's a common misconception but not how the system works. It is the law for all LEAs in England to operate an equal preference system, so you gain no advantage from putting a school first rather than elsewhere in your preferences. For each school, a list will be made of everyone who has listed it somewhere in their preferences in order of the admissions criteria, and the places offered according to this. The preference order only comes into play if more than one school is able to offer you a place, in which case you will be offered a place at the higher preference school. If X lives 800m from the school and puts it 6th, they will be offered the place above Y who put the school 1st but lives 801m away (assuming no sibling, etc).

Good luck OP- it certainly sounds like it is worth looking into.

Sorry, beaten to correcting @LalalalalaLlama

Lala 1st preferences don't get priority.

OP - Is there an issue of in catchment v out of catchment, and although you live closer you are out of catchment?

Yes it would lalala. Where you place the school on your list should make no difference unless the you have been offered her first choice, in which case she’d have been removed from list of the second choice school.

If this is such an obvious mistake the LA might not make you appeal. It might be worth contacting them to point out the error.

Is it definitely just a distance criteria. There’s no advantage given to children for whom it is the nearest school,

Could the furthest distance be a sibling place or is it just the ones offered on distance that are listed?

There is something missing from your data as that adds up to 28. There must be others accepted in other categories?

Is the 863m definitely one of the kids allocated based on distance, or could it be a sibling (who have priority regardless of distance)?

Are you sure they haven’t allocated some on rule 5? Does the allocation letter tell you about distances? When you go on the Admissions website and put your address in the home to school distance part, does it give you the same distance you’ve posted?

Echoing others: are you sure that distance is the final distance in your category? So, for the community places, what was the final distance offered?

Mistakes do happen unfortunately.

Ds was denied a place originally in our catchment primary while 3 out of catchment children were offered places.

I spoke with the school who contacted the LA on our behalf and we were informed within a week that he had a place due to their error - no appeal needed.

If the two distances quoted are direct from the allocation letter then that would normally be picked up as an error before the allocations are made public.
The most obvious explanation is that there is a catchment category and that you are not in the catchment, so will be further down the allocations list.The next explanation is that this is a genuine mistake in which case it will get corrected at appeal under most circumstances.
If you pp me the school and LA involved I can look and see if there is anything in the way of a criteria between siblings and distance.

Ask admissions what the distance was for the last admitted child.

And did admissions give you your distance as in your OP? Have you spoken to them at all?

You need to evidence any error AND that you Should of been offered a place. An error is not enough.

If it's the school I'm thinking of, going from the published admissions data, then the remaining 13 children were admitted under rule 5, nearest school, not distance. That means that someone who lives closer but has a nearer nearest school would not get the place.

Check what your LA's position will be on appeals this year as they may be delayed due to CV19.

Whether or not you decide to appeal, accept the place you have been offered, unless you would prefer to home-school rather than take the offered place. Also put your child's name on the waiting lists for all the higher-preference schools that you still want as there may well be movement as people move away or decide to take up a private school place.

As this is Herts and you say this is a community school, category 5 is for children for whom this is the nearest school or academy excluding faith schools. So if there is another school nearer to you than this school you would not be in this category. It is quite possible that there are people for whom this is their nearest school even though they live further away from it than you.

It may be that a mistake has been made but I would expect something this obvious to be picked up before offers went out. I think it is more likely that you've been placed in category 6. If you think you should have been in category 5 you may have a case.

Appeals are planned to be online this year and obviously deadlines are fluid.

Can I ask a dull question? How did you get hold of the admissions data? We are contemplating an appeal but we've not been sent anything about our precise distance from school compared to the precise distance from others who were accepted? Good luck for your appeal by the way. X