Why bother give deadlines and cut offs if you don’t stick to them

[hoxtonbabe]

So my son was named a school by my LA which he/I do not want.

On the 15th (the further preference last day to submit ) we named some additional preferences and the top of that preference is an out of borough school which has their own internal test. My sons took his test and the set he would be in has space, the school have confirmed he is likely to get a place if his information is sent for this batch of preferences/offers... they understandably can’t guarantee it at this stage but from the amount of spaces she has at this precise moment he would likely get in although I didn’t ask how many spaces she has as it could only be 2 and I didn’t want to pester her.

Anyhoo, I messaged her asking if my LA have at least sent his details over and she said no, so thought maybe the schools LA just haven’t got round to sending the school the info so I called up the schools LA admissions to which they said they haven’t even got my sons details to pass on to the school.

Now my LA admissions have stated on their letters that the outcome of the further preferences will be given by letter on the 29th March ( like most London schools) . I called my LA asking if they had sent the out of borough school information over to which the man on the end of the phone starts waffling on about we wait later down the line to contact out of borough schools as deal with in borough schools first and that’s what the deadlines apply to?!?! I point out that’s not what it says on the letter (or anywhere on their website at thst), a school preference is a school preference and why give cut offs/dates if you aren’t actually following them plus I don’t want my son Missing out on a space because other boroughs have sent the information, and got a place and you then send it in god knows when later and then he’s stuck on a waiting list.

So I’m wondering if anyone else has been through this ( or is it just my not so together LA) because I will be fuming if the space he could have been allocated goes to someone else purely because my LA didn’t send the information.

The issue is all about the potential for you to miss out on a place at a school you prefer. You have to accept this time of year is manic for every LA admission office, however to be saying we do not bother with out of LA requests, preferring to do in-area applications is wrong.
I would go back to the LA admission office and state that you understand that your preferences request for a school are not currently being processed which is unacceptable. You should say that you are aware that currently there are places at the school and that you need the admission office within the next 3 working days to pass the preference request to the other LA and to the school involved. If you do not do this within the 3 days you will refer the matter to the school ombudsman as the LA appear to be deliberately disadvantaging your child by not processing preferences for out of area schools. This seems to run contrary to the Greenwich judgement of 1989 and Section 86(8) of the SSFA 1998 which places an equal duty on local authorities to comply with parental preferences in respect of parents living within and outside their boundary.