Twins been allocated separate schools

[GandB]

I am the mother of 10 year old twin daughters due to start secondary school this September. One has been offered her first choice of school and the other one hasnt been offered any of her choices. She is devastated. The over-subscription criteria was randomisation but twins are seriously disadvantaged with randomisation - the chances of them both being allocated places at the same school are very small. I do not know what to do next. I will appeal but the local authority have applied the criteria correctly, so I dont old out much hope. It is the policy of randomisation which discriminates against twins that needs to be amended. Any suggestions?

That does sound like a bit of a nightmare but I don't see that twins are disadvantaged. Each one has the same chance of a place as another child and I don't think they should be given priority at secondary level.

What is the waiting list like? Would the "unlucky" twin get sibling priority for a place?

Blimey! Our LEA actually says in that situation the other twin will automatically go above anyone else on the waiting list. Might be worth aasking the Schools Adjudicator what their view on this is.

If one of the criteria is having a slibling then that makes a mockery of randomisation where twins or multiples are concerned and I think with a School Adjudicator ruling an appeals panel would find it very difficult not to find in your favour.

However if there is no sibling category that would be different - but I thought the admissions code favoured siblings?

This happened to me for primary school entry. I was staggered at the time at how many people had no sympathy with my situation. Anyway - the good news is we appealed and won on the basis that the school were unreasonable in their criteria. Government policy says that if at all possible siblings should be at the same school for all sorts of good reasons. I did masses of research and found that most local authorities will phone you on allocation day offering you 1 place if that's all that is left, giving you the choice to accept the one place and keep fingers crossed that another comes up or have both twins placed in another school Together. My case has changed policy for our whole borough and I am really proud of that. It does not put twins at the top of the list but it does give you the opportunity to have them placed together somewhere. Tamba and my local mp were a great help....if you really want this you should fight for it !

I guess that, technically, there is no sibling at the school though - at least until a place is accepted in which case the other twin would move up the waiting list.

Personally, I don't think that sibling policies should necessarily apply at secondary level as the children should be independent. It is essential at primary level though.

That's really shocking. I hope you win on appeal.

Did both twins have the same preferences or were they different?
Also when you say the over-subscription criteria was random selection was that the only selection criteria or just the final one and was it applied to all the schools that the twins applied to or just the first preference.
Reply by PM if you want to but without a lot more detail it is difficult to know what to advise.

Tamba have loads of advice about this and will help you.

I sympathise. I think it is an awful situation to be in. I also recommend TAMBA who were very supportive when I had a similar issue with my primary age twins. You don't have to be a member to access advice from them although I did rejoin.