If an admission authority tells you...

[itsveryyou]

...'Don't worry about the waiting list as all places are now taken for September.' What should my next question be?

We are in the process of appealing for a high school place, and we asked for DS's name to be placed on the school's waiting list. We thought the point of a waiting list was that people turn down places for different reasons between now and September, so spaces become available, and are filled according to priority.

What should we do next with regards to the waiting list situation?

Surely they have to add your name to the waiting list if you ask? Have you requested it in writing? I would do so and ask for confirmation.

tippy yes, we thought so too...I just wondered if we'd missed/misinterpreted something.

That is so wrong. You have a legal right to go on the waiting list and you must insist that you do so and get it in writing that you are on the list.

My suspicion is that somebody is trying to be nice to you and suggesting that you have absolutely no chance of getting a place of the waiting list at this school, because so few turn down places. But that is not the point, you have a right to be put on the waiting list and they do not know what will happen about places becoming available.

Thanks tippy, tiggy and admission we will ask them for written confirmation.

admission I absolutely think you're correct that the school is thinking 'so few turn down places here' - and they're probably correct. There is background to our situation and I think this may be clouding things (we were given permission by the admission authority, an academy, to apply from overseas, but then they wouldn't accept the application; now we've have been told by LA that we can appeal). We just want to make sure we're doing everything correctly to give DS the best chance of getting a school place.

If you are still out of the country they may have decided not to put you on the waiting list until you've returned to the UK. That would be consistent with their initial refusal to accept your application.

prh47bridge You are probably right; I thought that because we're being allowed to appeal, we are 'in the system' as it were, therefore the usual rules regarding waiting lists would apply. Perhaps I'm hoping for too much!

Until you're in the country, they're not obliged to offer anything - at least that's how it is here.

OP, I am worried that you do not seem to know where you stand over your application for a school place and the waiting lists.
To be on a waiting list you need to have been turned down for a place at the school, but reading your posts I am not sure you have been turned down. You appear to have been told by the school, who as an Academy, are the admission authority that you could apply from abroad and then had your application refused but then getting a different story from the LA, who administer the places allocation.
If you are still abroad I think you need to get from the LA, who administer the admission process, a written statement as to whether you were considered for a school place based on your current address or from any address in the UK. If you were not then you are currently in no-mans land until you have a UK address and will not have any school place.
If you are now resident in the UK, then you need to establish whether you do have an application for a school place in with the LA, not the school and get written confirmation that you have been turned down.
As for the school appeal, my suspicion is that the LA is allowing an appeal on the basis that you were originally told by the school, as the admission authority, that you could apply whilst still abroad. My reading of the regulations is that is not usually allowed other than if you are in the armed forces or a crown employee and that you need a UK address, where you were resident at the time of application. As such the appeal is not going to go anywhere other than the panel agreeing that you could only be considered for a school place, if you had a UK address. The validity of any UK address is what will have to be decided, as you were not resident there and not even currently resident there from what you have said.
It might be better to reply as a PM with the information as you see it.

Thanks admission, I've pmd you.