Starting primary school

[Thank1]

My granddaughter is due to start primary school in September we picked 3 schools and also explained we wanted her to attend a primary school near me away from her home due to her father not knowing where she is due to domestic violence on her mum but was offered school near home which he was told she attended the sure start part of that school what can we do

If the school near you has vacancies, you can apply there, if it doesn’t, you can appeal or go on a waiting list.Check whether it has social/ emotional reasons as a criteria.

You should be on the waiting lists for the schools you applied for. You can also ask if any other schools near you (maybe a bit further away) have spaces, and if not go on their waiting lists. You could consider an appeal, but this is very hard to win. You would need lots of evidence that the offered school would make your child unsafe.

In the appeal you would have to prove that the school she got isn’t able to keep her safe and only the ones near you can. I very much doubt you would be able to show this.

I'm assuming she moved to you after the application deadline if she's been allocated somewhere near the old home address? Changes like that cannot be considered in this round of applications I'm afraid, no matter the circumstances. It'll go through as a late application. The space allocated will be based on the original information submitted before the closing date in January.

I think the second round spaces are allocated in May, although the exact date should be found on your local authority website.

I would find which schools local to you have spaces before submitting it. Plenty of schools will have space, due to it being a low birth rate year. Do you have custody or is her mum living with you all too? If so, it is her who will need to submit the application. Does her Dad definitely not know where his ex in laws live? I don't mean to be nosey, it's just I would assume that's the first area he would look of he wanted to track her. If there's any possibility she's in danger, I would be considering whether this location is the best for her long term. Not meaning to worry you, just something I'd be seriously considering when applying for her school place.

We put applications in early and my daughter moved from my address a couple of years ago lt is disgustingly that they didn’t take it into consideration and I get there is other children needing a place but she will definitely not be attending the school offered due to safety reasons not against the school but how can we settle that’s she is safe

Timing of applications makes no difference.

You say your daughter moved from your address years ago. School places are decided on distance typically so you were unlikely to get a place near to you.

Has your grand daughter been given a place near your daughter’s address.

Which address did you use when applying? I assume the schools near you are all oversubscribed.

Check what position you are on the waiting lists. There is always some movement

Was there a medical and social needs category. If your preferred school is full, distance to home address would be checked to determine who can be offered a place , after Looked After, EHCP and likely Siblings. You can go on Waiting Lists for any schools and Appeal for the preferred one (but if full only an error in the application process will succeed) . If you can find another school which has not allocated all spaces she can apply there and be given the space, which would be better than allocated one if she feels at risk.

Clearly something has gone wrong in the application process. I understand your annoyance but I would hold fire accusing them of disgusting actions. There is a system they have to follow in order to make it fair for everyone. At a guess, I'd say there wasn't enough evidence of your address being her permanent place of residence. The old address would have come up as that, hence the offer being made at a school local to that. So many people sadly try to pull as fast one on address (including, sadly, with stories like your own). I am not for one moment suggesting you are not telling the truth, just that other people do try it on for why they apparently need a school in a different area. Admissions simply have to go on the evidence they have in terms of the child's permanent place of residence at the time of the application.

It WILL get sorted. There's every chance schools close to you still have spaces. Do your research, follow the process to change it and it will all work out ok. Don't waste energy on accusing people who are following a system of disgusting actions. With all due respect, they are simply doing their job which is to allocate places based on permanent place of residence. They are not the police or social services, it is not their job to keep your grandchild safe.

Provide the evidence that your house is her new permanent place of residence and it will get sorted.

What evidence did you submit with the application to support that she could only attend the school near you? Unless you have a court order, your granddaughter would have been ranked along side every other child.
I understand your concern, but can you imagine how easy it would be to manipulate the application process if no one needed any evidence to support special circumstances?

Apologies, may I clarify where your daughter and granddaughter live? Do they live with you at your address, or elsewhere, and which address went on the application?

If the schools you named on the application weren’t able to make an offer, for example because more children lived closer to the school, they will have offered the nearest school with a space, using the address on the application.

Unless you applied for a Medical/Social need category, your circumstances won’t have been looked at. I know it’s incredibly difficult when it’s so important to you, but you need to not take this personally. The best thing you can do is try to navigate this logically and rationally using the waiting list (and potentially appeals) options available to you.

Make sure she is on every waiting list you can get her on. You shouldn’t be restricted to just the three schools you named. Any school you’d prefer over what you’ve got.

Sorry, I have re-read your post and think I misunderstood. I assumed you meant your granddaughter had moved from the old address, where the DV took place, and now lived with you. That's why I refer to a change of address.

Upon re-reading, I think you're explaining that she still lives at the address near the school she's been allocated? Your daughter applied to schools near you instead, in the hope she'd get in, but she hasn't and has therefore been allocated a place at her nearest available school with places, ie her local school. Is that right?

I'm sorry, but your anger at admissions is completely misplaced. The circumstances are unfortunate but admissions have to do their job correctly. Their job is to allocate places, based on how well each applicant meets the criteria (based on home address). If your granddaughter is living with her mum still she is not a LAC (looked-after child). Her circumstances would not have allowed her special consideration. As 'disgusting' as that seems to you, those are the rules admissions are legally bound to follow. The schools your daughter applied to must be full, for her to have not been given a space. Your granddaughter's address means she sadly wasn't entitled to a place ahead of other children who applied. There's nothing admissions can do about that, regardless of what requests were apparently put in place. They can't allocate based on what individual sob-stories each family submits. I'm not calling your circumstances a sob-story by the way, I'm just explaining that that's not how it works. Otherwise people would make up all sorts of crap to try and get the schools they want (and sadly some do try). Your granddaughter's circumstances are unfortunate, but not something admissions would have legally been able to take into consideration. They've done nothing wrong.

You were hoping she would be given a school near you, to make her less traceable to her Dad. That hasn't happened, due to those schools being oversubscribed and her home address being too far away compared to other applicants. She didn't meet the criteria for any of the schools applied for, therefore she was given the local school by default as they still had places. Admissions can only work on listed preferences. There is no option of listing schools you definitely don't want under any circumstances. Your only way to state this is by rejecting the place which has now been offered.

You could try going on waiting lists for those schools she applied to, but I wouldn't hold out hope of her getting a space any time soon that way as there are bound to be others who live even closer who missed out (or move into the area afterwards and end up further to the top of list as a greater priority than your granddaughter, due to living closer to the school). Unfortunately, your granddaughter's current circumstances, awful as they are, would not give her priority over those who live closer.

Your best bet is to look at other options, which currently have spaces, in the area. Ones which your daughter can realistically get your grandchild to. I'm assuming she applied near to you in the hope you could help with childcare, as well as those schools being further away from the home address and therefore less traceable? Could you still support her with childcare from a school further away from you (if you drive? Obviously I'm not sure of your personal circumstances, but it could be an option if you do). Accept she may not end up in a school near you, but she could still get a place at one a safe distance enough away from the local school, maybe in the opposite direction?

Is there a court order in place? If there is, her Dad would not be able to collect her from any school, whether it's the local one or not. I'm just trying to reassure that she should still be safe in those circumstances, even if he knows what school she attends. If there's not a court order and he has parental responsibility it becomes trickier, as legally he could attempt to collect her from any school, whether that's the local one or any school in the area if he's managed to track down where she is. Again I'm not trying to scare you, it's just that forewarned is forearmed.

Look into other options. It's a very unfortunate situation, but admissions have done nothing wrong here.

Admissions can only apply the set criteria. Your grandaughters circumstances are upsetting but DV against her mother doesn't give admissions any right to over ride the published criteria. The address should always be the childs permanent place of residence. You are best advised to accept the place given and go on waiting lists unless you/ the parent are going to make other arrangements.
Your daughter can apply for a prohibited steps order to prevent your granddaughters father gaining access to her in school (but that obviously requires a court to agree that the risk to your granddaughter is sufficiently high)
Please also be aware that no school can 'ban' a parent with parental responsibility from receiving information about their child unless there is a court order preventing it (personal experience of DV and my ex husband was allowed to walk into DS school for all events) **

The way I understand it. Your granddaughter lives in a different area to you but you applied to schools near to you? You did this because her father won't find out what area they live in?

Places are generally allocated based on distance. You can explain your reasons till you're blue in the face but you have to have evidence to support it.

Did you provide evidence?

I am not saying that you are lying - but people lie, they lie a lot when it comes to school admissions and without strong evidence priority cannot be given.

Gather police reports, victim support statements, social workers etc to all stating clearly that the father is a risk to you granddaughter if she attends school in the area she lives in. You may be able to get your waiting list position amended. without evidence it is very unlikely that they will be able to consider your reasons.

Does your daughter’s ex still have parental rights? Does she have a social worker? Any school will do everything they can to keep her safe - people can’t just walk into schools nowadays. If the school is instructed not to allow him in then they won’t. However if there is no ss or court involvement this is trickier and even a school a million miles away might struggle.

i would remain on the waiting lists, maybe even appeal but I’d also discuss with the school you have asap. You may be surprised at how well-versed schools are in these matters.