Is it worth appealing?

[Nurse1980]

Hi,

We have just moved house and my son is due to start school this September.

My daughter has an EHCP and after much searching (back in December) we chose a suitable state school for her in the new area. The school was named in section I of her EHCP with a start date of May 2022.

When I competed my sons school application, I applied for same the school. I did put on that form that the school was named on my daughters EHCP.

Sibling link states that they will be a sibling on the date of application or in September.

Distance came after siblings.

He didn’t get a place. He got given a school place in our old area (40 min drive away). Even though all of children that did get a place didn’t meet section 1 or 2 criteria. Section 2 was sibling link.

The school has a class 1 with YR, Y1 and Y2. The current Y1 cohort has 4 places.

Is it worth an appeal? I understand that PAN is 30. The current mixed class has 26 children in it due to the spaces in Y1.

I have put him on the waiting list, the head has told me that all 10 children have accepted their place.

Thank you for reading.

Is there a waiting list? Presumably he is not considered a sibling until dd has actually started there but should then be at top of wl.

In terms of admission to the reception class from what you have said the school /LA have done it correctly. You would not have been counted as sibling because daughter was not registered in the school till May 2022 as I understand your post. If daughter is now a registered pupil at the school you will need to confirm that the LA admission office know that you are now in a situation of having sibling priority, which should get you up the waiting list.
If the admission number for the school is 10 then the school will have admitted to 10 for reception, which would from your post mean that there are not 10 in year 1 but 6. Whilst there might appear to therefore be 4 "spare" places, there are not because admissions are treated for individual year groups. If anybody applies for a place in year 1 then they have to by law be accepted as the school have not reached the admission number of 10, which they cannot officially dmit to other year groups, like reception year.

As others have said, sibling priority would not have counted as your daughter was not on roll at the school at the time of application. You do need to update the LA though, to say your son is now a sibling, as this will move him up the waiting list as he’ll be in a higher category. No grounds for appeal as no error has been made.

You say sibling priority applies if the sibling is attending the school at the time of application or in September. I think the previous two posters have missed that as your daughter will clearly be attending the school in September. What is the exact wording on sibling priority? And when did the EHCP come through?

Ah yes, good point @prh47bridge Does the child not have to already be on roll, and still on roll in September, for sibling priority to count? Guess you could argue the wording though.

As prh notes, this will come down to the exact wording of the admissions criteria. Can you copy them here? Or PM me the school and I can check.