Twins got places in different secondary schools

[Jojokay]

Hi, wonder if anyone has any advice/experience of this? We've been offered places at two different schools for our twins. One is a preferred school and the other one is our third choice. While both of the schools have a sibling admissions policy, they don't have a multiple births one. So they understand its easier if your kids go to the same secondary school, but only if they're not the same age?

Wondering if anyone had any experience of successfully appealing on these grounds? or would it be a case of hoping for the best with the waiting list?

Would be grateful for any advice!

I agree that this might be an error, or the first twin might have got the last available place, but it could turn out to be a result of the twins being in different bands with different admission distances.

The English school system totally baffles me Thank fuck I live in Scotland and we’re terribly sensible and ( mostly) send our kids to their local schools.
As you were

Did you contact the council Make sure you ask about twin 2 being put on the waitlist for the school you want as soon as possible.

This seems to have happened with twins in DD year too - she thinks they put the same choices but we offered different places

Wow I've never known this.

Every school admission I've read have said that where the last admitted person within the pan is a multiple then the multiples will be included. But if pupils leave they then won't admit more until they are under pan for that year group.

Was that for primary schools, though, youarenotkiddingme? Such an arrangement is pretty common for primary schools but much less so for secondary schools - I’m not aware of it for any near me.

My sons secondary have this policy. PAn doesn't change though.

All local secondaries to me (7 within 5 miles) have the multiple births rule

This happened to us. Appealed but lost. Twin started at second choice school but the first week of starting was offered preferred school from the waiting list. Because her twin had started at preferred school she was top of the waiting list because of the sibling policy! Cost a fortune having to buy in effect three sets of uniform.

Forgot to say the school operated a banding entry system where they were tested and placed into the relevant band. Sibling policy was then applied to each band and then a lottery following this.

Crazy system. This is def worth an appeal OP and one that will probably win, unlike most!

My twins (also croydon!) were on a waiting list for their preferred school and one got s place a few weeks before the other so I thought I was facing this. Luckily another place came up before the start of term.

Good luck.

Little update on this one - just found out we won the appeal, which we're really pleased about. Twins are happy so its its good all round. Thanks for all the suggestions on this feed!

Also found out today that the appeals board generally let twins in anyway and the school were expecting her to get a place. Glad it all worked out in the end, but does seem like an unnecessarily stressful system. And now the school has exceeded its pan again, so maybe nothing that a little rethinking of the admissions policy wouldn't fix.

All being well secondary admission isn't something we have to think about again, and I am relieved!

I have twins and was looking into the same issue at one point. It may be different from your high schools - but the sibling policy in our high schools is so far down the list that it made it irrelevant. ie kids in catchment and teachers kids all got in before siblings.
I think others must be right though - your 2nd twin should in theory be first on the waiting list and if they are not you would need to ask them why. At this stage I think you will find there is movement before school starts and fingers crossed you will get lucky. We have 120 year 7s in our local high school and I did not expect there to be movement before September but there was.

Sorry missed your post - congratulations!