Waiting list - twins

[Callmesausage]

Hi

I have just found out my twins are at 8 and 9th place on the waiting list for our preferred school. Does anybody know, can twin 1 be offered a place without twin 2 or is there a ruling that both would be offered a place?

I believe that there has been recent case law that means that if one twin is offered a place in a school, the LEA have to offer the other a place, even if it takes the class size over their upper limit. Check with TAMBA, as I believe they supported the family who took an LEA to court to get this ruling.

Thanks, I thought I had seen somethin along those lines.

Actually, ignore this. I have checked the admissions policy again and if one child is offered a place, they have to offer the second a place even if they go above admission numbers.

Have you double checked if that's the case for secondary as well as primary? I had a feeling it only applied to primary schools (as they assume kids will make their own way to secondary).

Thanks Bramshott. I checked the admissions policy for the particular school. I thought we would be somewhere in the 70s, so to find we are 8/9 is great, though I have got my hopes up now!

Fingers crossed!

Just for clarity...

I'm afraid Heritagewarrior is wrong. There is no recent case law. LAs in England do not have to offer both twins a place at the same school. However, during infants (Reception, Y1 and Y2) if one is admitted normally the other will be an excepted child (i.e. they won't count towards the infant class size limit). That doesn't mean the admission authority has to admit both but if they don't an appeal for the second twin would have a very strong chance of success.

For Y3 and beyond it is entirely up to the admission authority. Some will go over PAN to admit a twin, others won't.

Agree with PRH. The only advantage is that panels are usually quite supportive if one twin has been admitted and the other not any school year above year 2 and even more supportive in infant class cases, given the excepted pupil clarification. But is does depend on the specific circumstances of our case and the other cases for admission at the appeal hearing.

Twins were offered places today at our preferred school. I am so pleased!

How could an admissions authority decide which twin has more priority, though? Unless there is a lottery tie breaker, I don't think they could.

laughing some admission authorities draw lots, other prioritise elder twin.