Online application for secondary school failed to submit

[NH78]

Hello

I am unbelievably stressed and any advice would be greatly received.

We completed and submitted our application form for DS secondary school on 28 October - three days before the deadline.

On 14 December I accidentally logged into the e-admissions website instead of DS school to check his dinner money account. Once logged in, to my absolute horror, I saw “application not submitted”. I could not believe it!

I immediately re-submitted the application and emailed the LA e-admission team and explained what had happened - their response was simply that the application is late and will not be looked at until after 1 March (National Offer Day) when all on time applications are processed.

I emailed the Headteacher at DS school, who emailed the head of admission’s and asked that under the circumstances our application could be considered as “late with good reason” but this was refused.

There are three decent schools near us and one bad one, which always has spaces left. As our application will not be looked at until after 1 March, it is inevitable he will be offered a place at the bad school.

I am distraught. I haven’t spoken to DS about this - he is going to be crushed!

We will obviously appeal but not sure on what grounds.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Many thanks,

NH78

We are 0.7 miles from the school and it is our nearest.

Nearest is not really relevant. What is last distance normally offered?

One of our local high schools has a radius of 0.9 normally so that wouldn't be that high up list. Others have 3 mile radius so odds would be higher. In rural areas it could be 5-10 miles

Last year’s cut off distance was 1.4 miles

Fingers crossed that a few have moved / go private and you get a wait list offer.

That suggests you will be at or very near the head of the waiting list, so you have a good chance of getting a place that way. It also helps if the appeal panel accept that the LA's admissions system failed as, unless the cut off distance goes down enormously this year, it shows that you would have got a place if you had been treated as an on time applicant.

The irony is that DH worked at the school for 10 years as the IT Network Manager.

He went to then school today and had an informal meeting with the school’s admission officer. She seems to think we have strong grounds for appeal.

She also said all year 7 applicants that were on the waiting list in September are all now in the school. Obviously she can’t predict numbers for this year but it sounds promising to me.

She also said the LA emissions team are useless!

I don't think either of those emails from the LA indicate you have submitted an application. Sounds like you just didn't do that last stage and the error is yours not with the admission system.

However at least it looks like you qualify on distance easily and I would be willing to bet you get a place on the second allocation date.

Any idea on the date we would find out for second allocation? Their website just says after 1 March, but the admission’s officer at the school thinks we may still get our offer on 1 March.

2 weeks after the allocations is the deadline for accepting or declining offers I believe. The 2nd round is usually soon after that I think. There is also another round after the Easter holidays in April ime.

Many thanks

I'm prepared to be corrected here but I think the second/third round thing is regional and isn't the same across all LAs. Mine just offers whenever a new place becomes available as far as I know, and doesn't do second/third round.

It's the same here. No rounds, just offers whenever a place is free.

Our LA offers as places come up. But loads do get offers and it keeps going into Dec even with popular schools

The deadline for accepting offers varies from council to council. As others have said, the dates for any subsequent rounds also vary from council to council. Many councils don't have subsequent rounds as such.

@NH78 It depends on your council, but there is still time before offer day so there is a good chance you will get something on 1st March even if it isn't the school you want.

They don't confirm it, but the fact that OP didn't get a reminder when she should have on the information the LA have given suggests there was something wrong with the LA's system rather than the OP making a mistake.

Remembering the process myself, you set up your e-Admissions account and then you can go in and make changes anytime up to the deadline, each time pressing submit to update those changes. OP it is likely you just did this rather than finalise your application.

Also, is it possible, given the reminder and what you thought was your submission occurred on the same day, that you did get a reminder, and delete it straight away as you thought to yourself "I've done that"?

I think it would be a long shot to prove they rather than you were negligent here.

However, there is cause to be optimistic, if you were likely to have received your first choice school on first round applications, they you would likely leapfrog the waitlist at second round. It's just a case of being patient, as nerve-wracking as it maybe.

any friend to ask who also submitted and whether they received any text message reminder?

I reckon this.

Browsing history suggestions don’t prove a bloomin thing. Just show the Op was on the website on the day she said she was

I know I definitely submitted the application on 28 October (and started the application in September). I stupidly didn’t check for a confirmation email. I submitted the application in good faith and with the expectation that online submissions would be successful.

However, tonight I went on the e-admissions website and read the FAQs with regard to their text messaging service, which I signed up to on 12 October, and have proof of this. The website states if you sign up to the text messaging service you “will” receive: -

“A reminder to submit any unsubmitted applications or unsubmitted changes around 1 week before AND 24hrs before the closing date. (If you register less than 24hrs before the deadline you will not be able to be sent this message).

I did not receive either of these text messages - had I received the one 24 hours before the deadline, this would have alerted me to the fact that the submission of 28 October was unsuccessful and I wouldn’t be in this mess.

Did anyone else receive reminder text messages from e-admissions? My LA is Waltham Forest.

Does this give me a good case for appeal on the grounds of technical error?

Thanks

It's certainly worth challenging it, have you confirmation that you signed up to the text reminder service?

You say you have proof this.

It might only prove that you didn't receive the reminders, but even if you had received the reminder 24 hours before who is to say that you would have thought that it meant your application hadn't gone through?

The information is usually very clear that the onus is on you to ensure you've successfully submitted, not for the LA to make sure you do. I can't see how any of the supporting context you've provided would change that.

On its own the lack of a text message doesn't give you a case, but it shows that the system wasn't working correctly which helps with your case that you submitted the application but the online system failed to register the fact.

I do, yes