Secondary place withdrawn today please help

[Middleoftheroad]

I am still shaking

I have equal ability twins. One got into grammar one did not. We moved closer to be near the grammar and to secure my other twin a place at the local school, which we did at the start of March.

We have been through much heartache as this is a new area and a new school and my boys have been sad. I worked with the LA to secure the place after we moved. because we moved around offers day we were originally offered a failing school in our old LA which we declined once we had the new offer at the local school.

We did also appeal the grammar place for the comp bound twin - we proved his academic ability and the HT (presenting officer) said we gave a very persuasive case, but we were unsuccessful as they never allocate places on appeal. The boys wanted to be together but we were safe in the knowledge that whatever happened we had a comprehensive school place.

The twin who is going to comp has previously been under CAHMs for anxiety. He started to display these signs again so we took him to the doctor and have been working really hard to gee him up.

Tomorrow was meant to be a special transition day at the new school (he watched his twin go off to the grammar one yesterday) and we were looking forward to it.

out of the blue the HT of the comp calls me today to tell me that the LA has made a mistake in allocating its places and have withdrawn the place. The school wanted to let me know before the LA letter arrives so we don't go to the event tomorrow.

I have emailed my contact at the LA (ironically she is in appeals) the last place offered was 1.02 miles we are 1.04. I suspect they are currently allocating appeals places which we have missed the right to appeal. she says she is looking into it but as of right now we have no school place and I have a son on his way home who will be broken if we tell him.

We've had such an ordeal to get here. Aside from being morally bankrupt, is there a legal leg to stand on here? Apparently the LA messed up on quite a few offers made.

I just don't know what to do. I took the call at work and had to leave early. we have bought the uniform and built up to tomorrow. I am in total disbelief and feel sickened that my son is being messed around this way.

I have emailed the school again to ask that they intervene. Please help Tiggytape anybody?

I think you need some more .....

I cannot believe the stress you are going through... So tough... Hang on in there....

All I can do is echo the be systematic - keep records of everything - and my guess that those who say 3 months is not reasonable are accurate..... I really hope you find a strong ally who can help you achieve this for your DS

The LA are making statements designed to put you off taking it further. All 2.12 says is "an admission authority must not withdraw an offer unless it has been offered in error." There is nothing else that is pertinent in the admission code. Whilst this might seem as though this gives the school , as the admission authority, the right to withdraw the place what the admission authority also has to do is be aware of and take due note of relevant legal cases. What the LA and school are doing is relying on the wording in 2.12, as they may not even be fully aware of the legal precedents.
I would go back in writing and insist that the school, as the admission authority, reconsider the decision to remove the place based on previous legal precedent and quote the most quoted case at them, case 99C01876. In that case the LA withdrew the offers 3 days after they were confirmed. The school ombudsman decided that the delay was too long and amounted to maladministration. In your case you have exceeded that time span by a very large amount. Ask the school to confirm that they have considered this and other similar legal precedents around the same subject and that they do not believe that these legal judgements apply to them. That will if nothing else get them to think that they might be on dodgy ground legally and it is easier to admit one extra pupil
I would do this now, not wait for the appeal hearing. By doing it now it forces the school to consider it now before the appeal and assuming they come back in writing and say no still withdrawing the place then you have at least another potential opportunity to argue your case with the panel.

That was what I was clumsily suggesting. But admissions says it so much better. Hope you get some good news quickly.

Good advice from admission.
Sorry you are having to deal with this, it must be super stressful for you all.

Admission's advice looks really good. You must push hard now, on a technicality, a legal point, rather than all the other emotive aspects.

Do you still want your son to go to this school? They haven't handled this very well. And they still haven't had the grace and dignity to back down graciously.

Mind you, where else would ds go?!! You haven't been even offered another place at any school, currently, have you? So ds is currently 'placeless'? Who is addressing that, whilst you sort this mess out? What are all these people suggesting you actually DO, in the meantime?

You have good advice from Admissions. I would also call the Local Government Ombudsman as it seems the admissions process has been maladministered and you already have grounds for complaint without going to appeal.

We had to go to the local government ombudsman after our primary school appeal was incorrectly turned down by the appeals panel. They were the only sensible people in the whole process, overturned the incorrect appeal decision, granted us a place and told the LA to get their appeal panels properly trained.

This is an academy so the LGO isn't able to help. They can give the LA a rap over the knuckles but they can't make the school admit the OP's son.

So if the OP goes to an appeal an loses who does she escalate to?

The EFA (Education Funding Agency) deals with complaints about academy appeals.

Sorry to be a pedant but the EFA and SFA have now merged so it's now the ESFA.

As you were...

So it is. Education and Skills Funding Agency, not to be confused with the English Schools Football Association.

So easily confused

I see the OP has already complained to the ESFA and they are looking into it.

OP - hope you get a favourable response from this and don't have to try to use the appeal panel route.

Dear all
Thanks again for your support and advice. I have been engrossed in preparing for a snap appeal next Thus. I have pushed all avenues daily to no avail. The other two families in my situation are attending appeal so guess this weakens my hand too.

I still have no school place. i'm shocked by tge school's handling of this but it is still the best for DS in terms of distance and local community etc.

I am refining my case to look at the technicality the LGO case re 3 days and the word reasonable which LA is clinging to. In its withdrawal letter LA refers to its 'recent' offer of the place. 15 weeks ago! That as soon as it found out it wrote to me.

The MP has pressured CEO of council re its investigation .

A lawyer said that it could cost up to £20k to take this to judicial review on the grounds that there was an expectation of a place

Re. Legal costs - check your home insurance. Do you have legal cover?

I don't know Nix32 but will find out thanks. would this cover that then?

Hi op, just wanted to let you know that you are doing amazing!

I have been in the unenviable situation as having to appeal- twice to the same school and lost in 2014, EFA contacted after first appeal who agreed with 3/7 counts of breaking the admissions code, had it been 4/7 they would have ordered a fresh appeal.
They were still extremely helpful.

9 months or so on from that we appealed again with new evidence and the best case ever with help from prh47bridge on both appeals, the panel were almost asleep, we had Cahms with us, lots of medical evidence blah blah and still we failed.

It was nothing more than corrupt in my eyes, even when the decision letter came it didn't really give reasons, just echoed my appeal paperwork and i was advised to go back to the EFA and fight it, however I physically and mentally had no fight left.

As you're probably aware, appeals can take over your life, my MH is still suffering 3 years on and it makes me so angry.

The reason I have mentioned all this is because i would never urge anyone to appeal now unless they had compelling reasons as the stress in horrific but your case is unreal, what a catalogue of errors.

I have a feeling that you will not get to the appeal stage especially if you have now involved the academy trust, the headteacher sounds totally incompetent.
His emails should hopefully do the job for you, they're unprofessional and inaccurate and the trust will not want bad publicity or trouble from the EFA.

I totally get how you're feeling right now, despair, anger etc then absolute resolve that you are going to wipe the floor with them! I am willing you along and have a lot of confidence in you, feel free to pm for a chat and very best of luck

Just a quick thought- apologies if I've missed this but what prompted the school to "realise their mistake" and subsequently withdraw the offer?

Just seems a bit of a coincidence that it was the day before transition day that the HT rang you? I wouldn't be surprised if he has known for longer. Surely there is a way of finding out when he actually contacted the LA?

zoflorabore that is heartbreaking. What happened in the end? I'm so sorry.

Having been through one appeal last week I know how stressful it is and am dreading going back for more. I can't see any other route.

We gather we will be the last appeal heard - so not sure if this is a good thing?

Zoflorabore I dod think that too. If we had gone to induction it would have strengthened our case.
They say it came to light Mon during appeals and the school rang Tues.

Dammit checked home insurance and legal not included. Moths fly out of DH wallet. Looking at what it can cover I will include that next time for definite. It's the only household paperwork he has to cover too. I'm normally saddled with admin

Hi again op, thanks for your kind words.

Ds had been off school for 9 weeks in the end, he was severely bullied at first secondary school and I was just helpless.

He begged me to go to the school that several of his primary friends had gone to and to be honest it didn't have the best reputation but he needed a school and I thought that it was better than the other one so had nothing to lose.
He started with 3 weeks left of year 7.

Fast forward to now, he's nearing the end of year 9 and says he wouldn't go to the appeal school now if you paid him

His school changed to academy last year and has gone from the bottom end of the league tables to being the top secondary in our borough. He's doing amazing and has started his GCSE's early and loving it.

Has amazing supportive friends and is even going abroad with school next week ( my nerves are gone as he has AS and anxiety)

It's worked out well for us, I'm still receiving counselling but have no regrets as you do what you have to do for your children don't you?

Going back to your case, it's all well and good the school telling you when the information came to light but how and in what context? I would want to know every tiny detail.
Could it be that they've looked at the cases and said that x amount are strong so we have to get rid of a few existing dc? Disgusting I know but wouldn't put anything past them.
You have such a strong case, I would still be fighting this every day until the appeal, something may come to light that changes everything.

I am.so relieved and pleased it worked out for you but yes the psychological impact is far reaching. CAMHS forms part of our case so worrying that even with advisors there the appeal was unsuccessful.

Admissions - I did make HT and Trust Board aware of that ruling but now that other families affected have said they will be going to this appeal (HT told junior HT) I guess I need to join in..reluctantly.

Good luck, hearing how your son is being treated has really upset me.

I had to go to appeal for school places for both my DS (not twins), at two different schools. The pack sent to me prior to one of the appeals stated that due to an administration error, 7 pupils had been offered places incorrectly at that school so another 7 pupils who had been disadvantaged by that had been offered places as well. (We were not in either of those groups but it was included to explain why the school was already over PAN and formed part of the schools case against our appeal).

This was a massively over-subscribed academy, the most popular in our county, regularly in the top 100 state schools and so on, and known to be super-tough on admission criteria. Yet they kept to their word and honoured the original 7 places when the error was discovered, and it seems offered the 7 disadvantaged pupils a place as well, all before the general appeals process.

Being 7 places over PAN already made it harder for appeals, (we lost) but both sets of children affected by the admin error were protected, which seemed fair. Is there anyway you could find out what recommended or normal practice is for schools in that situation is? Or ask the LA, over the last year (three years better for trend), for all secondary school places as a whole, how many places have been withdrawn as a result of admin errors, vs how many extra places were allocated as a result of an admin error. Either your school or the LA could be seen to be unreasonable compared to others? A long shot and maybe for appeal or an FOI request later if your main (surely very strong) case doesn't succeed.

Good luck, hope you get this sorted soon and hopefully some relaxation and fun days out etc with your twins to relieve the pressure.

I'm just an interested bystander with no experience.

I'm thinking they realised their mistake when someone else submitted their appeal submission saying 'we live x.3 from the school but we know people living in Y road who live x.5 from the school who got in.
So they try to get round it by withdrawing your place (x.5) so as not to have to uphold x.3 place.

Totally wrong. Utter nightmare. Hope you get it sorted.