Withdrawal of school place after two weeks (in year transfer)

[maucat]

My child was offered a school place for an in year transfer. We applied and received place by end July for sept start in yr 2.
Just today I have had a letter saying the place is withdrawn as the school is full. We are in a different borough but our home address is unchanged etc. Many people gain admission from our distance (rural edge of borough).
I believe we have to appeal and as it's a small rural school they are not at 30 class size maximum.
Guess I'm looking for any advice. Searches (on Mumsnet) mention things about 3 day limits and historical cases. Would this apply as they still have a place at their old school? (further away and several significant issues).
All our dealings have been with the borough as the school have handed admissions to them. It is not an academy. Thanks for any advice. Especially if anyone has successfully managed to overturn a place withdrawal.
My first post having used the place for reference searches for years so sorry if I mess up replies.

As it is the summer, the usual people may not be monitoring these boards so I am going to tag some of the experts who may be able to advise you if they aren't sunning themselves in Blackpool or the Med.
@prh47bridge @PatriciaHolm @admission

So it isn't an Infant Class Size issue.

Did they give any explanation as to how they came to offer you a place if the school was full?

Depending on whether anyone will answer office emails during the summer (we do), I'd try to be in touch with the school direct before appealing. It would be very unusual for a school not to want 30 in a class because that's extra funding for them. More likely there has been a glitch in the admissions system, where the school is actually full but admissions for some reason have a lower number. I'd try to resolve this with the school, who may know of someone else leaving and/or be able to help in some way before you go into appeal.

It sounds like they are saying the place was offered in error and therefore they are withdrawing the offer. The precedents are clear that an admission authority only has limited time to withdraw an offer that was made in error, with 3 days appearing to be the limit. Some local authorities suggest that these precedents no longer apply as the Admissions Code has changed, but the changes do not affect the relevant parts of the Code so the precedents almost certainly still apply. The fact that your child still has a place at their old school is irrelevant.

If they don't have 30 in the class, this will not be an infant class size appeal. even if it was, you would still have a strong case on the basis that they have taken too long to withdraw the offer. That is clearly your strongest point. However, you should also argue that your child will be disadvantaged if they don't go to this school by highlighting things this school offers that are missing from their current school and that are particularly relevant to them.

Hello
Thanks for the replies. The school definitely only takes 22 in a year(original choice 2 years ago-unsuccessful). I believe it's as the rooms are too small. It's not a traditional 15 or 20 for a class combination.

I tried contacting the school but received no reply when place was allocated. I'm guessing they won't be very cooperative as I believe they have defended normal appeals and won in the past. This is only hearsay. We judged it to not be worth trying originally. We have only started really pursuing the school again as her current place has become increasingly difficult.

Pretty devastated about it all and uniform is a total mess as we've started getting rid of old and spent loads on new. Child started saying goodbye to friends and now in limbo.

We are also wondering about the maladministration angle. Bit confused if we should hold off on appeal and try the council formal complaints route. But then maybe they can't overide and reinstate the place. Assuming they can't resolve would we then go to the gov ombudsman?

If we fail appeal it looks like we can't go to Local government ombudsman except to dispute the function of the appeal committee. Any way I guess I'm jumping ahead.

Thanks for the advice.

The fact you've started to get rid of old uniform and buy new illustrates why offers made in error must be withdrawn quickly.

Don't bother with a complaint to the council. That just delays things. You can't go to the LGO until you've had an appeal. They won't get involved in school admissions cases unless there has been an unsuccessful appeal.

The time they have taken to withdraw the offer means you have a good case.

@prh47bridge Thank you for the good advice. I will start writing the appeal letter tomorrow. Main part to focus on the legality of withdrawn place. I will also mention why it's a better fit.

I'm wondering if I need to get into technical questions. Do I need to dispute the 22 restriction by asking for calculations and room sizes?I think the school will be reluctant to give me this information. Would I have to wait for this evidence or is this raised in questions during the hearing? I don't want to distract from the main maladministration angle.
Can I ask for an emergency hearing to get it sorted before September? Is there a way of triggering this?
Thanks again

You certainly don't need to at this stage, but you should ask for room sizes. Don't worry about calculations. Once you have the room sizes, I and others will be able to advise whether they can accommodate more pupils. They have to answer any reasonable question you ask to help you prepare for your appeal, so don't worry about them being reluctant. I wouldn't wait for this before submitting your appeal. Personally, if it does show that they can take more, I would use it when questioning the school in the hearing.

There is no process to get an emergency hearing. There is no harm in asking them to set it up as quickly as possible, but they've got until mid-October to hold the hearing.

This happened to us 2 years ago. And by the time we had found out - DC was taken off the roll at his last school (this was mis August).

So they had no school to go to. It was an awful panic.

We too had new uniform, said goodbyes and moved house. Thankfully we only moved 10 miles away.

It was harder getting him into his old school than finding a new one locally (they were all full). All schools and most of the council were uncontactable.

It was all resolved once we phoned the local attendance advisor at the council to prewarn her why DC will not be at school in September as I was worried about being fined. She sorted it out within 2 days and DC were back on the register for the old school in time for a September start.

We had to pull out of the house sale and move back. Everything was a mess.

Hopefully you'll get sorted OP!

Would it be worth a phone call on Monday? Ask to speak to the person who decided to withdraw the place and point out it is against the admissions code to withdraw this late, and thus to save everyone's time and their money, why don't they just re-instate it straight away rather than go through appeal?
Worth a try?

A phone call won't do any harm, but in my experience the vast majority of admission authorities insist on an appeal even when they know they've fouled up.

Thanks again for the advice. I've been typing away on document and trying to gather evidence for submission either tomorrow or Tuesday. It turns out they actually waited 17 days before the withdrawal.

We have the offer/withdraw documents to submit. We will also submit the receipts for uniform shops. If we end up being unsuccessful and the replacement bits of old uniform are included it's going to be over £200 which is quite annoying. After focussing on the withdrawal and consequences we state it's not seemingly a ICS appeal and state that we would like to query classroom measurements. I'm not sure how we get this information as no one at school is answering the phone or emails. We move onto why the school is a better fit and end with reasons for moving.

I have order the book "How to win your school appeal" by B.Rooney. It doesn't arrive until Tue/Wed and I'm wondering if it has any critical details details about style or layout of appeal documents. Do we need to hold off until this arrives?
We have gone with subheadings with paragraph details and link to applicable evidence in PDF form(once DH has scanned these in). There's no style guideline that I can find for writing an appeal letter.

Thanks again for the help and will keep posted.

The hearing probably won't happen until October. You will be able to get answers to your questions before the hearing.

I've never looked at Rooney's book. As it hasn't been updated since 2009, I would be somewhat cautious of any advice it gives. A lot has changed in the last 13 years. However, there is nothing critical about style or layout of appeal documents. Some parents submit an essay running to several pages, some just submit a list of bullet points. It makes no difference to your chance of winning. The only advice I would give is to keep it focussed on your strongest points and avoid it getting too long. I've seen appeals that have run to more than 100 pages. At that length, it is unlikely to be focussed and the appeal panel won't thank you for the amount of reading you've given them to do.

I'm chairing appeals tomorrow, so there should be someone in admissions available to speak to, the admissions team don't get the school summer holiday break.
Our LA do have a standard appeals form to fill in, but many parents just fill in the name, DOB, address etc. part and write on the form please see accompanying letter/information, so carry on with the way you are currently doing things.

Thanks again. The appeal has gone in today. Will post with and update when we hear. Abandoned trying to chase anyone in the council and in truth the explanation probably won't have much bearing. They gave the place and later withdrew place admitting it was their error.

apologies, I've just seen this! Prh has as ever covered it though. Your key argument is the length of time taken to withdraw the place, which is unreasonable, and if you have clearly evidenced that, you should have a good case.

It could be that the child who was meant to be leaving no longer is / what do you suggest they do? This very scenario happened to me, house sale fell through

Follow the rules! The child meant to be leaving stays on the register until they have actually stopped attending, so there is no vacancy at that point and no offers should be made. When they stop attending, they are removed from the register and the place can be offered.