Infant class size appeal- Can anyone help?

[Rah01]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone will see this and can offer guidance/help. It's a long one so here goes...

My son attends a junior school and is in Year 3.

Back in November I logged onto the school portal (which already held all of my sons details) and applied for my daughter to start this September at the infant school. The infant and junior schools are at two different sites, different heads, different ofsted inspections, different websites, phone numbers etc but they are linked.

I knew I needed to add that my son was at the juniors when applying for my daughter.

When I completed the form I had two options to show this.
Option 1- child attends linked infant school (junior only)

Option 2- sibling attends the school.

I asked two friends and they said tick Option 1 (which I also thought was right) because Option 2 says "sibling attends the school and my son doesn't attend THE infant school I was applying to, he attends the linked junior school. So I read Option 2 as "I have a child who attends a junior school linked to the infants"

The offer came through last week and my daughter has been given a different school. I emailed admissions and they basically said I ticked the wrong box and the box I ticked is for junior for transfers and isn't relevant to the application.

I then checked the supporting guidance and that says if you have a sibling tick the box that says "sibling attends infant school or a linked junior school"- THIS WAS NOT AN OPTION TO TICK ON THE ONLINE LINE FORM. If it had of been, I'd have ticked it because that's very clear.

So now I'm appealing on the basis that:

1. Why did the online form have a section for junior transfers if that wasn't relevant to the application I made as this was misleading.

2. Why does the online supporting guidance tell you to tick a box that doesn't exist on the application form.

3. My confirmation email clearly states that I have made an application for starting school Sept 2024 and does not say anything about a junior transfer.

4. Why did no one in admissions call me to clarify why I had selected that box if it wasn't relevant to the application.

5. Telling parents to tick the box "Sibling attends the school" is incorrect. My son doesn't attend the infant school, he attends the linked junior school.

Do you think I have grounds for appeal bassd on the fact my application was incorrectly peocessed? Any further advice?

My daughter is on the waiting list and admissions have updated her status to sibling link, we are out of catchment. They also won't tell me where she is on the waiting list. I've done a FOI request but I am super stressed by this whole thing. I don't think the online form was clear and the supporting guidance doesn't match the form.

Thanks for reading and please be kinds to a super stressed/sad/ emotional wreck of a mum.

Have you gone to appeal? You could state the issue with option they said to tick not being there and it's down to them you didn't get a place. No harm in appealing. It sounds like unfortunately you made a mistake during the application process and they processed it off what was submitted.
I'm assuming they won't say what place your child is on the list due to possible changes, but siblings is normally pretty high priority in admissions for primary schools.
We had issues when dc started primary, we went from 1st to 5th place on the waiting list, but got offered a place 2 weeks before term started. So try not to stress too much yet it's still pretty early and alot of movement happens. Good luck op

I think you may have a decent case for appeal. The boxes sound like they are confusing and don't match the guidance. If the box you ticked is for junior transfers, why is it there on a form used for applying for infants? If you want a common form for both, why do you need two boxes? And, since you had clearly ticked a box saying your daughter should get sibling priority, why didn't they check? In my view, if you would have got a place based on the sibling link, you should win your appeal. However, if the sibling link wouldn't have made any difference, your appeal will fail.