Primary School Appeal

[Cloudyday91]

My daughter will be starting primary school in September in Reception class. We got rejected from our first choice and got given our second. The first school isn’t classed as our catchment but is two miles closer than our catchment.

We are appealing the decision as my daughter attends the nursery attached to choice one. I rang the first choice primary school today as we are on the waiting list. They were at full capacity in April but said people have since declined offers and all the spaces were given away to late applicants in that catchment instead of those on the waiting list.

This doesn’t seem right to me, I would have presumed the waiting list would have priority at this stage. Has anybody experienced similar? Im struggling with this as all of our friends will be attending choice one, so it’s a lifestyle curveball too.

Without knowing more, I cannot comment on the specific case, but LAs have never had any power to delay a free school changing its PAN, nor have they ever had any power to intervene in any other way. PAN is entirely a question for the school. Once the free school has set the figure, the LA must include the correct figure in the composite prospectus and must use that figure when processing applications. If the LA stuck to an incorrect figure and parents missed out on places as a result of this, that should have been an easy win at appeal. Indeed, if, say, the LA used a figure of 30 but the school had actually set PAN at 60, the school could (and should) have offered places to the first 30 pupils off the waiting list as soon as the LA submitted it to them.

@prh47bridge That is why I was surprised to see it. Evidence of contract with builders possibly? It’s a big estate. I didn’t investigate further. They use the LA admissions process.

@TizerorFizz It would be interesting to see the wording on intending to live in catchment together with details of what date the applicants have to have changed their intention to be resident to actually being resident, e.g. before national offer day, by a specified date or in advance of the start of the academic year in September. Of course, lots of developers would love to hold back spaces so those moving into a new build estate in the future will have a school place - it helps sell houses, especially where schools open with more than one cohort, so siblings can attend the same school. However, especially where the next nearest schools are underperforming or perhaps in the middle of a gridlocked town, parents may wish to travel a mile or two to the newly established school, especially if it is a good fit with their daily commute, childcare or location of secondary schools for older siblings. If the school has vacant places, then applicants are usually entitled to a place, in order according to the oversubscription criteria.

@LadyLapsang It’s a Bucks school and it’s a new one. See condition 4. Admission has nothing whatsoever to do with developers. This is an academy with admission handled by Bucks. Intended must be there by national offer day. Quite difficult if the builder gets behind!

@TizerorFizz Thanks for sharing.

Hi,
I mostly agree with what others have said but where I differ is that I think you could have won this on appeal. Is that now too late - did you try to appeal and lose? If so you'd have to prove the appeal itself was done wrong due to incorrect information, incorrect process etc.
We recently won a primary appeal mainly off our own back but also we bought in services of a school appeals advisor which was worth it given the stakes. In our case it was because the policy was so poorly written it was unclear (and therefore unlawful), there were numerous breaches of school admissions code, and ultimately the school (an academy), the council (who administered) and us all argued different interpretations of the policy - only possible because so poorly written - and ultimately the appeal panel agreed with us an gave siblings a high priority. We had to be very forensic about it, explain why arrangements were unlawful (unclear); why misapplied (wrong interpretation used); why our son would have got a place if done correctly.
In your instance I would say you have a couple of options.

1. The arrangements are unlawful because they are not easily understandable by parents, not objective, not in the spirit of the admissions code that you publish a PAN then admit on that basis
2. The admissions authority is acting unreasonably / perversely

If you're unsure and can still appeal I'd find an admissions advisor to help. You have to be very clear eyed about allowable grounds for appeal and argue everything on that basis.

I am glad you received good advice. However, I usually recommend avoiding people offering paid services. I have come across far too many winnable appeals that have been lost due to bad advice from such people. There may be some good ones, but there are far too many bad ones. Good advice is available for free on Mumsnet.