School Admissions Help Please

[Hrobi]

Going to try and make a long story short but we recently moved house (and councils)
I applied for primary school place back in January prior to cut off date to the council we were moving to.
National offer day came and if heard nothing so rang for admissions to tell me that didn’t accept my application as I wasn’t living in the area when I applied (why did no one tell me this prior to national offer day?) I rang my current council and asked to apply as a late application and transfer over to new council which was the advise they gave.
first round of re allocations started 16th May and I rang 3 times a week for an update from admissions. They kept telling me I’ll hear next week. I finally rang the school we are hoping for this week to see if they could help and the secretary kindly rang admissions on my behalf only to be told we’ve missed the first round of re allocations because our new address never got updated.
Our case then got passed to the manager who has allocated us a place in the next village.
i will appeal this decision as I feel this is maladministration - through no fault of our own our ds now won’t have friends nearby etc
do I have a chance of winning this appeal? I’ve heard that most appeals get rejected
thanks so much if you can offer any advice on this situation.

Why did you apply to new LA? Even if moving it would be submitted via the one where you lived at the time, naming schools in new area if appropriate. Unless you were specifically told to do so (and have that in writing) I'm not sure you have much of a case.

Do any other schools have places or just the village one? If so they have to give it to your dc, but you have a place while awaiting any movement on waiting lists for first choice.

I think unfortunately as you applied in wrong LA at the time they won't uphold the complaint. We live on the border of 2 councils and you apply through the one you live in, even though you apply to a different area. I believe it's made pretty clear on gov.uk and certainly on the council portal I use. Sadly I think you'll probably just have to wait on the list for preferred school.

I applied to the council we were moving to uploading solicitor letters etc with the application . By the time national offer day came and appeals started we were in the new property in a new council. I must not have understood that when making the original application. I assumed someone would of told me though

Even if moving it would be submitted via the one where you lived at the time,

No, you need to be living in the area before submitting an application. OP’s mistake was applying to the new council before she had actually moved. That’s why her first application was discounted. I think it’s the new council’s fault -they didn’t update your address to the new correct one.

I couldn’t name schools in the new area if I had applied through the council we were leaving In at the time (if that makes sense)

The 'Essential Information for Parents' (or whatever the LA calls it) to be read before completing the CAF should have explained that the CAF must be submitted through the LA in which the applicant lives at the time, wherever the schools are for which they are applying.

That aside, if you actually missed out on being offered a place at a school because the admissions process was not followed correctly (that is, a place became available at School X, you had completed the process for informing the LA of your change of address by the date required and that address should have put you at the top of the waiting list, but because your change of address was not acted upon until after the deadline, that place was offered to someone else), then you should have a good chance of a successful appeal. The fact of not updating your address by the deadline will not in itself bring success if there was no place to be had, or there was, but you would not have been at the top of the waiting list at that point, even with your new address. i.e. the error in the process has to have affected you directly

Have I understood correctly that you applied to the new area while living in the old one but when you applied as a late applicant you applied to your old council despite now living in the new one?

I applied to the new council whilst living in the old area in January before cut off.
I then had to apply to the current council in April and ask for a transfer to new council which was accepted the day after the national offer day so went through as a late application to the new council. I think because we’d exchanged and were just waiting for a move date the new council accepted us

Were you not given the option to complete a paper form?

No, the second application was after she moved and it was to the new council -but that council failed to record the address correctly - it’s their fault. But as this is the second round, it may be that there aren’t any places left at the preferred school.

I am sorry you are having to deal with this, we were in a similar situation and despite doing everything correctly and applying to the schools in the new area though the LEA we were with before the move, we still had to do lots of chasing as our application wasn't passed to the new LEA and we had to go as a late application. We have relocated to a different part of the country and sorting the school has been the most stressful part. Hope you get it sorted

No. I feel so awful now as I’ve applied to the wrong council originally.
i was told that our application had ‘slipped through the net’ on the first round of reallocations too which is why I was hoping to appeal

There’s no way I can prove that we missed out on a place closer to us if the late application had been processed in the first round is there?

Unless that first reallocation error has denied your dc a place there is nothing to appeal.

You can't appeal but a) make sure your address is now correct with your new LA b) go on waiting lists for your preferred local schools. You'll probably get a place somewhere nearby as there is often movement over the summer

I think you can ask about any reallocated places your dc had missed out on.

Yes we didn’t get a place in first round of reallocations which finished 27th May.
ive had to do a lot of chasing as until today we didn’t have an offer at all

There seem to be two issues here -

1- you initially applied to a council you did not live in, rather than via the one you did. This is, as you now know, incorrect; you apply through the LA you are resident in at that time, but you can apply for schools in other LAs via that route. If the online system did not have the schools you wanted as options, the usual alternative is to do it via a paper application. It is up to you to read the applications booklets etc which would normally state this. It would have been good practise for the other LA to have noticed and refused the application but it's not maladministration. If you want to PM me the LA involved I can check whether they make this clear, but i don't think there are grounds for appeal here.

2- your late application under the new address was not dealt with promptly, meaning you did not go into the first round of reallocations. This is more serious, and could potentially have lost you a space (but not necessarily, it may be the case that you wouldn't have got a space anyway).

Is the appeal ICS? If so, you would need to show that the error made cost you a place; ask the LA to look back and see what place you would have been offered if your address had been updated as soon as you informed them of the new application. If their mistake cost you the place you wanted, you have a very good chance at appeal.

Agree with PatriciaHolm. The failure to deal promptly and correctly with the late application is your best chance of success, but only if you would have got a place if they had dealt with it properly.

Thank you so much everyone for your help. After our case being passed over to the manger and a very lengthy conversation yesterday on the phone, she admitted there had been errors made and offered us our second choice which I’m delighted about and that I also do not need to go to appeal.

For anyone dealing with school admissions during moving house, the long and short of what I heard yesterday was that generally if you move house, area or council between your application and national offer day you will not receive a place in the initial round of admissions and will be processed as a late application (very helpful for those who are also dealing with the stresses of moving house with children)

Not necessarily true, if a school is listed on the application form and undersubscribed you may get a place regardless of being out of area.

Great, I'm glad they managed to sort it out for you!