Kingsdale waiting list, random allocation rules?

[TammyWhyNot]

Hi, does anyone know how the Kingsdale waiting list works? My sister has been told her place (in the hundreds) but I just saw this from a schools admissions expert on another thread;

“If a school uses random allocation, they have to redo the allocation every time they award a place off the waiting list. They cannot re-use the previous order. In that case you don't really have a position on the waiting list.”

Is it a lottery for each and every place as they come up at Kingsdale???

Don’t think so - what would be the point of a ranked waiting list if that were the case? Am in same position but not so bothered as have good alternative offer.
But tell your sister to check out East Dulwich forum for details of this and other Southwark admissions.
www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1911996,page=4

The details are on the Kingsdale website but there are pages and pages

The admissions code is very clear on this.

1.35 The random allocation process must be supervised by someone independent of the school, and a fresh round of random allocation must be used each time a child is to be offered a place from a waiting list.

That must means it had the force of law.

So yes, they must re-run the draw each time they have a place to offer.

So if the school has any places to offer due to people declining spaces and they don't re run the draw, but rather rely on the previous order that came out in the first allocation, is this something that can be relied on in an appeal to say that they haven't allocated properly?

A school I am appealing has said that the list will not be re run unless someone else applies late and only then the list has to be redrawn. However, the admissions code is clear as you state, so they should be rerunning the draw.

AveEldon - I know...I have looked and am flummoxed

DSis will have to study the small print.

There is no question about what the wording in the guidance says, they have to run a new random allocation each time they have a place become available. The hint is in the word random - it cannot be random if they use a set waiting list.
However using this at appeal is also fraught with danger because whilst you can say I was on the waiting list and have therefore been disadvantaged, you will only win at appeal if you can prove you should have got a place, which you cannot given it was a random allocation.
All the panel can do is accept that the school are not conforming to the admission guidance. If there were only a couple of appellants on the waiting list I might be tempted as a panel member to give a place but reality says there will be a lot of people on the waiting list and therefore to admit all is just not practical.

Gosh - someone needs to tell them because I'm fairly sure they are not doing this. You get your banded waiting list position for the banded lottery (separate from the scholarships list) and watch and wait. You inch up it as the weeks go by, as far as I can gather.
So what happens to any newcomers to the list?? Good question. My guess is there aren't any, because everyone knows how massively oversubscribed the school is, and people just assume they'd have to go right to the back of the (endless) queue.