Secondary School Admissions Appeal - Rule Bending by School in Question

[user1499343677]

A bit of a odd one really but I am furious as my child has been offered a place at an academy school to start this September which I don't want. I have argued that the offer of the place breaches the published admissions criteria as I don't live in the catchment area and my child lives with me 50% of the time. Furthermore the additional proof the school stated it needed regarding the recipient of child benefit payments, which is paid to me, has been completely disregarded. My ex applied for and accepted the place In his own name and the school and Local Authority has subsequently refused to deal with me or address my complaint. My child already has a place at another school but the academy school will not rescind the offer. There seems to be a wealth of guidance for parents who quite naturally want to appeal if they haven't been given a place but there is no process for parents who don't want the place. It seems that if you are a white middle class child your parents are allowed to bend the rules and deny a place to a better deserving child. Has anyone else had a similar issue and if so how did they resolve it?

What's the problem if they have a place you want at a school near you?

Can they just not turn up?

Do you have two actual accepted places? Are they in different boroughs?

My friend went through this last year. They were told if it was 50/50 split (it was in theory but in practice not quite) they could use either address to apply from and who ever put in the application first would be the one that was processed. It there was a dispute between the parents after that then would have to take it to the family court to get it resolved.

One parent got the form in first and that was the school allocated. Other parent disagreed and went to court. A year later and its not resolved legally...

If you dont reach agreement what will happen if both parents decide to take them to a different school on the day they have them. Will it be a fight to see who has DC on the first day of school? Sounds more like a genuine parental dispute for the courts than the Local Authority.

I am not overly surprised that the academy and the LA don't want to rescind the offer. They won't want to get involved in a dispute between parents. They could easily end up in the wrong legally. And, under the Admissions Code, the only reason they can withdraw the offer is if it was made in error (which does not appear to be the case and, in any case, it is almost certainly too late to withdraw the offer for this reason) or if the application by your ex was fraudulent or deliberately misleading.

If your ex has PR he is entitled to a say in where your child is educated. Even if he has made an incorrect application (which is not clear from your original post) you cannot legally simply impose your will, which appears to be what you are trying to do. If you and your ex cannot agree which school your child should attend you will need to apply to the courts for a specific issue order.

If you dont reach agreement what will happen if both parents decide to take them to a different school on the day they have them

If the parents cannot reach agreement it is up to the courts to decide. This is not something the schools or LA can resolve.

Can you get this in court next week?

What does your child want

Which school does your child want to attend? The school that you have obtained a place at - is it not a state school or is it in a different borough?