Reception Allocation - Can I appeal?

[Maria2Day]

We got our third choice and are heartbroken! Son already attends preschool at the school in catchment, and we’ve lived in the village 10 years (my partner’s been here his whole life!)

At a loss of what to do, I’m really struggling with this and have cried every day since. It just doesn’t seem a fair system, I get there has to be something but still!

The stats published on our LA website says that for the school we did get, last person offered was 1900m away but were 2200 away?? Surely this is an error, either on their published info or our admission? If it’s the latter, is it grounds for appeal? It wouldn’t necessarily help us get into the one we want but, what if it could?

Any advice would be much appreciated xoxo

Agreed! There is another issue which is a lot of new builds but no expansion in the school (which I get happens everywhere) but they’re also very close to the school boundaries which means the catchment gets tighter and tighter (no shade on newbuilds, we’ve had one and I don’t like hating on people who live in them, it’s a planning issue!!)

That is really awful OP. Our LA does it the way your allocated school does, which I think is overall their fairest way - local siblings are prioritised, but it stops people moving miles away but holding onto school places…however it only works if there is some kind of guarantee that first borns allocated a school out of catchment who haven’t then moved house can have their siblings attend too. Honestly, if there is no policy prioritising siblings from an address that hasn’t changed I’d chance your arm appealing on that ground alone.

It’s normally the LA not the school. But not always

Siblings are always preferred over distance, how can a parent drop two kids off at different schools at the same time? Siblings will therefore always take up a large chunk of the school allocated places
appealing a primary school allocation is very hard as you’d need to convince the school to go over subscribed ie put 31 in a class instead of the recommended 30 so the reason has to be very good.
it’s tough when it’s not the choice but the appeal process is not easy, good luck op

So hang on, does the school you wanted have a set catchment that doesn’t change, or are you using ‘catchment’ to mean the area in which kids got in from, which can change year on year?

This was a few years ago now, but a friend of mine couldn’t understand why everyone else on her road had managed to get into the local School, but her daughter didn’t. She went through the appeal process and it turned out. They had measured the distance from her house to the school incorrectly. They had dropped the mapping pin in her back garden rather than in the middle of her house which made a difference to the outcome.

The headteacher of the school was asked by the local authority to make an exception to allow her daughter to attend the school, meaning there would be a class size of 31. He refused so her daughter couldn’t go there. The School she was given was miles away across the other side of the borough and there was no way they could get her there very easily and hold down their jobs. In the end they moved to a completely different area. It was incredibly stressful for them and I really felt for her.

Placements do go to those being within the catchment area of course. If it's a tiny measurement like being the next road not within this then appealing wil help.

However, if much further away and school is oversubscribed because all parents want to send them there, this is going to be more difficult.

Agree @fashionqueen0123
there were real issues with people renting near best schools in more expensive areas then immediately moving to a cheaper area hence the change. In my LA siblings regardless get in and it was rife in my dc year groups. Loads sibling kids lived miles away and yet first borns had to be within 0.3 miles for school with an intake of 90. Less of an issue now demand has dropped.

Not always. Some LAs changed it to stop people renting then moving etc

Not true. In our LA it’s LAC, EHCP/medical, siblings in catchment, catchment, siblings not in catchment, everyone else. So kids who live in catchment get priority over those who have siblings but live further away. (Only discovered this this week, and am slightly worried as I think we were lucky to get the school we got - the next 3 years we’ve been too far away - and I had assumed my little one would get in cos his sibling is there but is not as guaranteed as I thought!!)

But the stats on distances are based on last year aren’t they? Could have been this year less people applied as first choice to your allocated school. It’s a frustrating system, not sure what grounds to appeal you’d have. I mean you did get one of your choices 🤷‍♀️. Just stay on the waiting list and hope that something comes up I guess. I assume the 3rd choice school was ok for you to have even put it in the form?

They aren’t always prioritised over distance. Schools in our LA mostly has defined catchment areas and, if you move out of catchment, sibling link disappears.

On the other thread where you have posted, you talk about using the council's website to measure from your home to the school. That will measure from the centre of your postcode to the centre of the school's postcode, so may differ significantly from the LA's measurement, which will be from your address to a defined point on the school premises.

It may be that a mistake has been made, but a mistake related to the school you have been allocated won't win an appeal for you. You need to see if there has been a mistake related to the school you want. If you are in the correct admissions category, check how they measure home to school distance and see if the distance they give sounds about right.

No they’ll be showing the furthest distance someone got in from this year.

last year wouldn’t help.

I get it OP, the exact same thing happened to my son years ago. He attended the attached pre-school, school had assured me there was never any issues getting a place, and then on admissions day he hadn’t got in.

We were on the waiting list for our first choice and he did end up getting a place but it wasn’t offered until a week before schools went back so it was very tight!

Either way, your son will be fine I promise. He will adjust and he’ll make new friends if he does have to go to another school x

Needed to hear this today, thank you! I know he’ll be fine, I went to loads of schools as an army kid and I turned out ok! (She says, crying daily about school placements 🤪) it just feels like such an injustice!

I know there are waiting list chances but I feel mine are slim as there are people closer who didn’t get in - going to try and be positive, I’m usually an “everything happens for a reason” kinda person so I don’t know why it’s getting to me so much!

Why is it mad? That's pretty standard for most schools that in catchment siblings take priority

That would make sense but in our local school it’s siblings regardless of location. So yes that is pretty mad. Especially as we’ve ended up somewhere we’re not in catchment for, which favours in catchment siblings so there’s a high chance my daughter will end up in a different school.

But you knew that when you applied? If the school is often over subscribed you can look at previous years to see how many siblings were admitted. For a 1 form entry class if they are frequently taking more than 10 siblings a year it is a risk of you don't live right next door

What a ridiculous comment, yes silly me I should have bought the school itself so I was guaranteed a place!! It’s not something you know when you purchase a house and before you have kids, and even so my house was well in catchment last year which I did check before applying. Never in a million years could I have foreseen half of the intake being siblings of kids inside the school.

In our school, people often move away as if they live on one side of the school, they are likely to be offered a very poor secondary school. So the younger siblings might live further away which I understand is unfair to others but again it’s a planning issue.

Ironically, I understand there was a perfectly good secondary school very close by which was closed in the 90s. It’s led to huge demand on the one remaining good secondary in walking distance of the primary.

I agree planning has been a huge issue in our village, with all the new housing centred around the school which means there are more and more living in very close proximity taking up places, while those who were relatively close end up narrowly missing out despite having lived there a long time! Plus the number of houses never equates to the number of places in the school…

If it’s any comfort, there does seem to be movement in the early years with families relocating for jobs etc. I don’t think you have anything to lose by appealing but it doesn’t seem like you would be successful.

So are these measurements correct? If so, you missed out by 50m and no error was made. The letter should give you more specific details. Has there perhaps been housing built within those 500m recently so more children applied from there than previous years? An appeal is for the school you prefer, the criteria for the allocated school is not relevant, but if it is an Infant Class Size appeal you will only win if an error was made which denied your child a place.

The only detail given is: A place could not be allocated at your higher preference school(s) because there were more applications than places available at the school.