In Year Application – Appeal /

[bakerjones]

Hi. My sister is a Dutch National, moving to the UK.

She received an email from our local catchment secondary school to say the LEA admissions section had confirmed that both her son and daughter would be admitted to the same school.

Four days later she then recevied an email from the local authority school admissions to say than an email had been sent in error to the school regarding her children and actually only her daughter has a place.

They apologised and told her she could appeal or apply for both children to go to a different school where there was a place for the two of them.

Does anyone have knowledge of a similar situation and should she be using the "administrative error" as part of her appeal?

Previous rulings by the LGO and the courts suggest that the authorities only have 3 days to withdraw an offer made in error. The Admissions Code has changed since then so it isn't clear that the same deadlines apply. The EFA (which deals with academies and free schools) certainly does not seem willing to enforce this deadline. Nonetheless I would argue that the LA took too long to withdraw the offer.

She should also put together as strong a case as she can as to why her son needs a place at this school. What are the things this school offers that the allocated school doesn't and that are particularly relevant to her son. If the LA hasn't offered a place at another school she should also argue that the LA has failed to meet its responsibility to find a place for her son.