Sandwell academy waiting list/appeals

[Nzw20]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to mumsnet and anything of its kind, so please bear with me!

My son is 11 and due to start secondary school this year Sept. In March we found out that non of the schools on our preferred list (applied for 4 in total) we were offered. The school he was offered was almost 6 miles from our our house and would take him over an hour each way to get there! We were devastated and decided to go through the appeal process for 3 of the schools. Despite his elder sibling attending one and them using this as a criteria. Unfortunately, We never won any of the appeals. This was a double blow. I lived and breathed the appeal since March and put in so much hard work and research so it was really hard to take in. Despite me and my hubby working full time we have made the decision to home school him until we can find a more appropriate school for him.
Anyway our first choice was Sandwell academy. We have opted for him to go on the waiting list and we have been advised that he is number 6 on the list.
My question is does anyone know the likelihood of getting an offer based on his position currently. We are looking at other local schools too and will be looking at mid year admissions but our heart is really set on SA.
I'm not really sure what the success rate is for Mid year admissions for oversubscribed school also? Anyone had experience of this.
I'm sorry about the long post. It's just this has taken over my whole life and its so incredibly upsetting when you just want the best for your kids! Would be happy for any advice or tips.
TIA 😊

Despite his elder sibling attending one and them using this as a criteria

Did they put him in the wrong category? If so, why did you lose your appeal?

why did you lose your appeal

As in what reason were you given. That question isn't meant as a criticism of you. Just trying to understand if you have a case for referring the matter to the ESFA.

Hi prh47bridge. My daughter is currently in year 11. She is not going in the 6th form so technically won't be in the school when he starts. However my point around sibling link and I have a load of legislation to back it up is that his elder sibling has LD. Therefore was unable to access the 6th form provision. There is a ton of legislation around associative discrimination and when making decisions about admissions processes have to be fair. My point was every other child would have got into the school based on their sibling still being in the 6th form however that choice was not given to our son as his sister has LD defined under the equality act. There was other bits to my appeal as well but they seemed to dismiss this. I thought about taking it further but in all honesty.. Sometimes I think what is the point!

Also SA was his first choice so thinking do i just try and hold out giving that he is 6th on the list!

The amount of movement is always a guessing game. Some schools sixth would be almost a dead cert, others very unlikely.

From what I know of Sandwell it’s an area that might traditionally have a reasonable amount of mobility in the population, but this isn’t a normal year so is anyone’s guess really (sorry).

In that case I am not surprised at the outcome. Contrary to your assertion, there isn't a ton of legislation about associative discrimination. It is covered in the Equality Act 2010 (but only because it talks about someone being discriminated "because of" a protected characteristic whereas previous legislation specified that the person being discriminated against must possess the protected characteristic) and is very much a developing area of law. It applies, for example, if someone is refused a promotion because the employer is concerned that the employee wouldn't be able to focus on the role due to having to care for a disabled child.

If your older child could not access the sixth form due to disability that may give that child may be able to argue that the school has not made reasonable adjustments and therefore there has been discrimination. However, as the law stands, it seems a bit of a stretch to argue that your younger child should be given sibling priority in these circumstances. I am not surprised that an appeal panel was unwilling to make this leap.

It is possible you could persuade a judge of this argument if you took it to judicial review but I think it would be a long shot so I wouldn't recommend it.