School Offer Withdrawn

[chrisangee]

Please help! On 1st March my daughter was offered a place in a grammar school. We were overjoyed, celebrated and told everybody. On 10th March we received a letter saying it was an error. We are devastated and I cannot tell her.
We are 5th on the waiting list so may get reallocation. I have applied to appeal and have complained to admissions authority.
They have asked the school will they take extra children but the school will not.
Can they be forced to if the admissions authority are at fault?
They were aware on 28th February that there was an error, lots of the 20 people that it has affected got an email or were told on 2nd March. Our admissions authority did not tell us until 10th March despite being told to by the other authority.

Sorry to hear this.
I'm of no help othe to recommend 11+ forum- there are many very knowledgeable people with experience to help you.
All the best x

Thats awful :(

Oh how awful - your poor DD!

You really do need to tell her though. It's not fair to let her carry on thinking she's going to this school when she quite possibly isn't.

Best of luck with your appeal though, mistakes like this just shouldn't happen.

Having read these kind of threads in previous years, if I remember correctly, the LEA have allowed too much time to lapse between the error and telling you for this to be admissible and you would win on appeal.

Keep every single record you have including notes of any conversations and operate via email rather than phone for record purposes.
Do you have written evidence about other people being told of the error on 2nd and you only recently?

I'm sure one of the experts like PRH will come along with their wisdom.

In the meantime, how ghastly for you. So sorry.

Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, I have written evidence of everything.
Fingers crossed somebody knows some detail on here. I have waited so long already since getting her results in October and knew she was close. To have it removed is awful.

Have a look here OP:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2
The admissions code document seems to say at page 23, that they must not withdraw a place once offered (unless you gave false information). Not sure if its worth getting someone legal to write to the appropriate authority, asking them to reinstate the offer, or justify the legal basis for withdrawal...may be worth getting 'proper' advice on this?

Thank you, I think it does also say that they can withdraw an offer due to error but my case hopefully is that they should not have left it so long.

Have you instead been offered a place at your second choice school, or did you also miss out on that due to the error?

Tiggytape has explained it well, as ever.

You need to be clear, in writing, about the timeline and what you were told. Given the complexity - 2 authorities, one of which seems to have messed up majorly in not telling you ASAP, 20 children affected - I suspect the school will push this to appeal and not just take the affected children.

At that point you need to make clear what has happened, how you have been disadvantaged (loss of other places due to delay, did you miss out on other grammars due to this, how has it affected waiting lists, expenditure on kit etc), as well as DDs ability (assuming she didn't miss out by a large score).

Agree with Tiggytape and also with Admission on your other thread.

A lot of LAs and schools seem to take the view that, as the Admissions Code has changed, the precedent set in 99C01876 no longer applies. I don't think this has been tested but, to be honest, I'm not sure I would trust the LGO to uphold its previous decision. They have become a lot less parent-friendly of late so we may need someone to take a case to judicial review to get a definitive answer. However, that doesn't stop you using this precedent on appeal.

As Tiggytape says, any evidence that you have missed out on other schools because of this mistake will be useful. I also agree that an important question is which school would you have been offered if it hadn't been for this mistake. If you are not offered that school you have a strong case for appeal for that school on the grounds that you have been deprived of a case by a clear error.

What's the latest OP?

The late notice - is that because you applied to a different authority than the one you live in?

You must tell her, it's really unfair not to even though it's not your fault. I hope it all gets sorted out ASAP for you both.

Are you any closer to resolving this? I am guessing you are between two authorities and I also think I know which ones. We also had a fairly shambolic two weeks whilst they got their act together.