Secondary Appeal on the grounds of error in letter

[Forsythia]

We have received a leter from our first choice school today explaining why we did not get a place, this was on the basis of distance. They have calculated the home to school distance correctly but state that the distance of last place offered is GREATER than our home to school distance. Another family has received the same letter. Does anybody else have a similar experience ? Is it possible to resolve this by simply speaking to the school or will we need to go through the appeals process ?Any advice ?

speak to the school first and ask for clarification

do they have the sibling rule? It could be that the dc living further away has a sibling at the school already?

or could be because of statement or other needs.

Thanks for the input I didn't think of the sibling rule. Will ask on Monday.

It could just be a typing error on the master copy and might be meant to read the distance from your home to school is greater than that of the last place offered.

You need to check wth them.

The letter says that last place offered to a child in the same band ( children are put in ability bands in our area )lived x distance further.

Does anybody know if schools enter into discussions about letters though. This school is so oversubscribed I feel they might just say that they don't want to discuss individual letters.

I think that a typographical error of this kind i.e. writing GREATER rather than lesser or other word would not be grounds for appeal.

It would be seen as a nullity. When I worked in our planning department they once accidentally sent a letter saying, broadly, "Planning permission has been GRANTED on the grounds that the proposal would have a seriously adverse impact on the residential amenities of neighbouring residents".

The applicant called sharpish. We reissued a corrected decision notice. He appealed.

It was so clearly a contradiction in terms that the planning inspector agreed that the error did not confer permission or invalidate the decision.

I know it's not an educational example - but if it is a typo, and not the case that they've actually buggered up and offered a place to a non-connected first born applicant who lives further away, then I don't think there would be an appeal case.

Best to ring them.

Thanks for all the input.Good point Pooka

The distance given would be for the last category of admissions concerned, so it won't be for a sibling or SEN child. I know our council has made this error for 1 or 2 families before at our secondary school. When it happens they automatically offer you a place. So the school offers 1 or 2 places over its PAN as a result. You should not need to appeal as it would be sorted out pretty quickly. Best bet is to speak to LEA on Monday. Good luck.

Now if they'd sent a letter offering a place.... ;)

Hope you manage to clear up the confusion and get a great school.

Oh Wow Silverstreet ! If that's the case it would be great. Am concerned that they may have made the error with a lot of families though as we know of one other who lived very near with the same letter

If they have failed to follow their admissions process they know they would loose hands down at appeal, so may as well offer once error is confirmed. Chances are they will have some places turned down (re people with independent school offers), and so they won't go over PAN as a result. Looks like you are a different authority to us (I'm Surrey) but I would expect they would have same approach. If you want someone who knows appeals process inside out to confirm try getting a response from Admission or one of the other experts, but I am pretty sure I am right re how Surrey would do this as I have seen it happen. We had this a couple of years ago here and I know parents were sent "late" offer letters.

Thanks Silverstreet. My my LEA is in London. Anyone else with similar experience ?

Forsythia,
Firstly you need to refer back to the admission criteria for the school and check this out very carefully.
If it is using bands then most of them then use a lottery as the way of chosing the successful pupils but the way that you have posted it would seem that they are using distance from the school as the criteria in each band.
If they are using a lottery, then obviously where you live is not relevent. If however it is on distance, then I would suggest that you write to the school pointing out that you appear to live within the distance for the last pupil admitted and state that you believe that you have been disadvantaged and should have been offered a place.
There may well be a sensible and correct reason why you were not offered a place but it is for the school, as the admission authority, to give you an explanation.
I would also separate to that letter ask to go on the waiting list and to appeal for a place at the school. That will ensure that you keep all your options open. Also any other schools that you want to - don't just rely on this coming good.
In theory the school should acknowledge a mistake has been made, assuming it has, and that if you should have had been offered a place, make you an offer of a place. However frequently schools don't want to admit the mistake and like the independant appeal panel to actually make the decision for them. If what you say is correct then the panel will give you a place unless the school has made such a monumental mess of it that there are so many in the same position that they cannot possibly admit all of them without compromising the school's ability to teach.

Thanks for the advice. I know in minute detial what this school's admission policy is as I have been obsessed by the whole process since my older daughter applied four years ago. This particular school admits purely on the basis of proximity ( after siblings and children in care )we do not have a lottery in our area. The distance measured from home to school is the same as given for my older daughter 4 years ago and matches our own calculations. The issue is in the furthest distance of place offered, which is FURTHER from us by 11 metres. I think that other categories such as SN and siblings would have been excluded from our category. It is obviously some kind of mistake on their part.

Sorry admissions. Have read your post more carefully now. Good advice and will follow up on Monday !

Forsythia,
If the admission criteria is as you state solely on distance then the school as the admission authority do have a case to answer.
Unless the school give you a place, I would be tempted to go to appeal, because you will never be sure what the answer really is no matter what the school say. Only by going to appeal will you force the school to prove their case not to admit.