School had an in-year place when I applied, now they don’t

[WhyamIalwaysthatmother]

We moved house 2 weeks ago. When I applied for the house 4 weeks ago I also applied for a place at the local school, as there was one available in my daughter’s year (Year 3). The local authority couldn’t process the application until they had had a final bill from our old address, and by the time we got that the place had already been allocated to someone else.

We are currently first on the waiting list. It is a small school with mixed age group classes.

One of my friends said because it is a C of E school they can make their own decisions on class sizes? Is this true?

Dd is currently at home with me while we wait for a school place. The next nearest state primary school is 5 miles away (there are two independent schools in between but they are way out of budget).

Oh that’s gutting. I’ve no advice but I would pick the other primary school, your dd can move when a space appears in your local school. Otherwise it’s homeschooling for goodness knows how long

I don’t see how being CofE has any bearing on class size… Is it an LA school? or an Academy?…

Read the schools policies in depth and ask to have a chat with the HT.

You need to appeal.

You can appeal. Some local authorities will provide transport to a school out of catchment if the catchment one is full

Or a child with higher placing was given the place, e.g. foster, adoption etc.

Appeal. And in the meantime, apply for and attend the further away school, as having your child out of school when a place at a non-preferred school is available is not usually seen particularly favourably by an appeal panel. It may also be a long time before a place is available or you are successful at alpeal.

You will have a better chance on appeal if the class is mixed Y3/4 not Y2/3, as if the class contains sone KS1 children then (iirc) the Infant Class Size limit of 30 applies and can only be increased under very exceptional circumstances. If Y3/4 then you only have to prove that the prejudice to your child of not attending is greater than the prejudice to the school of admitting them.

You can appeal once per year, so if this year ICS applies so you fail to get a place, next year you can try again.

You should have got information on how to appeal with the rejection of your application for a place. If not, ring the LA agsin to find out the procedure.