Advice please as in a dilemma

[Natwild]

This will be long so bare with me right i first applied for my sons school place in december ontime to the borough i was moving to so he didnt miss out. I was offered my council house in kirklees yorkshire so thought id best apply and also transfer my oldest whos 5 but she was rejected on the grounds unable to prove my new address. Fair enough i had to wait until she got a place at a school where they do there own admissions so she got it and they told the council about this in February. On offer day i logged on to find his school places withdrawn and a place was given 13 miles away at previous address. I am starting the appeal as he has no school offer in our current borough on the grounds of a house move, a sibling at this school and being unable to travel 13 miles and get both kids to school ontime with my ill health i feel the council have fobbed me off made me jump through hoops and rejected me deliberately.

Where were you living on 15th Jan? If you hadn't moved and given proof of your move by the cut-off date they have used your old address for allocating a place. I think for moving house the cut-off date for amending the address is sometimes a few weeks later than the application deadline, around end of Jan.

Your best bet would be to get on the waiting lists for any local schools. Your son will probably be very near the top at your eldest's school based on sibling priority, so hopefully a place may become available.

An appeal will realistically only succeed if they made an error i.e. you had moved in time and provided the relevant proof, but they didn't act on it. It sounds like you were unlucky with timing.

Ive just found this quoted by law as i originally applied im december and they rejected his place it states that by law you can apply for a school place in any area as long as its state funded. I then applied in February as a late application and it states the same they can only reject a school place if its fraudulent but i provided evidence and the school even rang to say my oldest has started at that school

In December you were entitled to apply to schools near your new house but if they were oversubscribed, you were unlikely to get a place as you lived 13 miles away. You are correct that they should have given you a place if there was one. Where did you apply to? At this point you needed to apply to your old (current at the time) LA even if you named schools in a different LA.

When you applied in February, your application will have been looked at after all the on time applications, so it is possible that your daughter's school had already filled their Reception places. The fact the school allocated is right by your old address suggests they didn't amend your address for application purposes, as otherwise you would expect a school nearer your new home. Were you given any advice on what to do when you moved? Did you make an on time application and amend it or decide to wait until Feb to apply once you had moved?

When did you actually move?

The council will have used the address you were living in at the time of application; they cannot use a future address. Some areas will allow a change of address for a good reason for a short time after allocations close, but they don't have to. So even if the new school told them he was a sibling in February, they didn't have to use that address (though hopefully they are using it now for waiting lists, and as a sibling he should be very high on the list). Which LA is it? (PM me if you don't want to say, and I will look at their rules)

You can indeed apply for a place anywhere, but as most places are allocated on distances or siblings, you were very unlikely to get a place at a school from 13 miles away - they rejected the first application because you used an address you didn't live at at the time.

You say they withdrew the place - did they actually formally withdraw an offer? Did they actually offer the place in writing/in the portal and then withdraw it? Or did they just not offer the requested school and offered something else?

It does state by law on the school admissions code that a council cannot legally reject an application if its not fraudulent. The council ive move to have offered a place with my previous addresd and expect me to travel 13 miles. The very council who withdrew his offer because i was out of area and yes he was offered a place i got a letter and on the portal says withdrawn on the grounds of being offered a place where i previously lived. So they aren't following the correct procedures. I appplied 3 times first in december the house is owned by kirklees council the school are kirklees council the house move was put on hold because of covid. I changed my childs school place on 6th feb before the closing date for late applications its a joke. Ive contacted my local councillor because its been nothing but passing the blame. I moved into my house in February 10th provided tenancy agreement and council tax is with kirklees same council so they are just acting thick no common sense at all

Did you provide written evidence of your new address to the school admissions team prior to 15 February? It will not be sufficient for you to say they should have known.

Also, did you make multiple applications rather than amending your application? I’m sure you’re not meant to apply multiple times, even with a move.

If you didn't move until February 10th, then they were correct not to accept your application under your new address in December, or even up until the closing date in January. Feb 6 is irrelevant too.

However, Kirklees do say on their website
"Proof of change of address will be accepted until the latest reasonable date before the final allocation of school places. It is expected that the allocation process for children transferring to junior or middle school and for the reception year group will take place in early March 2021 which means that the latest reasonable date for evidence of a significant house move will be 15 February 2021."

So if they received full proof of a change of address before Feb 15, you may have a case that they should have accepted it and used the new address.

I won haha got an email stating was withdrawn in error. People should know the law it states by law which alot of you on here are ignoring that you can apply for a school in any town as long as its state funded. And the council by law has to offer you a place within the town they reside so they broke the law.

We’re looking at moving and I’m sure they do not have to give you a place in the town you reside- it’s just not possible. If they do place you further than a certain distance they provide free transport though.

@Natwild

I won haha got an email stating was withdrawn in error. People should know the law it states by law which alot of you on here are ignoring that you can apply for a school in any town as long as its state funded. And the council by law has to offer you a place within the town they reside so they broke the law.

I think your idea of ‘law’ is slightly oversimplified.

You can apply for any school you like, regardless of how far it is from your house, but there’s no obligation for a place to be offered at it and a place will only be offered if it’s undersubscribed locally.

An LA has to find ANY school place for a child, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t your local school.

I suspect you’ve been lucky getting the place (and unlucky getting a place revoked in the first place) here, rather than you actually understanding the workings of applications as a lot of the people here are very knowledgeable.

People should know the law it states by law which alot of you on here are ignoring that you can apply for a school in any town as long as its state funded.

Yes, you can. But you have to apply from the address the child actually lives in.

* And the council by law has to offer you a place within the town they reside so they broke the law.*

No, they do not. The Local Authority in which you live has an obligation to offer you a place, but not necessarily within the town in which you live. For reception, a 2 mile walk is acceptable, and further is possible, in which case free transport for the child will be provided.

I'm pleased they have now offered the place; if you got them the new address details by feb 15, that is the correct thing for them to have done.