Can a place be taken away? Application 100% correct

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

My brother has been given a place for his dd at a school. They didn't think they'd get in (1st choice) but alas they did.

A friend of his has a child already at the school, and their younger dc did not get in. The school operates an oversubscription policy which would, if followed correctly, place his friends dc at a higher rank than my niece.

The friend will appeal of course, as it appears on the surface of things that the oversubscription policy has not been followed.

However my brother is now concerned that if this child was accidentally not given a place, maybe his dd was accidentally given the place instead. Can the rescind the offer? Or if they agree they absoloutley need to admit friends dc, they have to simply make space for an extra student?

I'm not 100% but I don't think they can rescind an offer unless the original application was fraudulent in any way.

Nope. 100% accurate (including making it clear on follow up documents that dc did not meet certain criteria that would bump them up the list).

Generally it can only be withdrawn withing a very short window, something like 3 days. If your friend appeals and wins, the school will be forced to accept the child and go over PAN. I don’t think your brother has anything to worry about.

That's a relief. It may well be that my nice isn't the one who got a place instead, but if what appears to have happened has happened it could have meant someone being bumped - and she would class as high risk for that.

Seems silly to me that they wouldn't follow their own policy as it leaves them open to appeal. Especially something as simple as a sibling link.

Errors which come to light which means offers have to be rescinded have to be done very quickly - a few days. It's unlikely they'll investigate on the basis of one appeal pack received in a couple of days so he shouldn't worry.

Maybe your db's friend isn't giving the full story though - they could have forgotten to apply on time for example and are bluffing (I do know of one person that did this to hide the fact they they fucked up from their child's other parent...)

True, there could very well be something awry with the application they put in. I'll mention that to him.

I think the offer will stand.

Whether they have messed up will depend on the admissions policy. At our secondary, feeder schools are allocated about 6 places each. These go to siblings then on distance. So if there are 7 siblings wanting to go, the one furthest away would not get a place. In another primary with 3 siblings, the other three would be allocated to the nearest 3 children. So every year there are a fair few siblings that don't get in. And plenty without siblings who do. Are niece and other child at the same primary?

If the criteria have not been applied correctly then that's grounds for appeal.

Oh I didn't think feeders would be capped like that? I figured all applications are considered and listed by oversubscription criteria - the school doesn't mention in its policy capping by feeder school.

Are the applicants in the same LA as the school? There have been reports on another site of either information not being passed from the maintaining LAs of some schools (in the Midlands in the instances identified) to the -different - home LA of some applicants, or the school's LA having passed on the information, but the home LA not allocations the place, even though that school was the applicant's effective first preference.

if it doesn't mention capping then it won't cap.

In that case, numbers are not capped. If it doesn't say in the Admissions policy that that is what they do, they can't do it.

Ooh I don't know!

I also had a friend who forgot to put application in for child 3, because child 3 was already in school nursery and children 1&2 already in the school, and she just forgot that she actually had to do a formal application. Didn’t get a place and not on appeal either, although got in on WL

He said the policy just says "siblings of student at the school" doesn't mention catchments.

(My point was more that something else may have happened, like a late application)

What year is the older sibling in?

It could well be something like this, but at least his mind is at rest that nieces spot is pretty much secure.

Y8 so not even a y11/sixth form continuation thing.

Also note, siblings often don't count if in y11 or above.

Regardless, they shouldn't take a place away from your niece just because they screwed up on someone else's application. and why would it be your neice that was picked to lose her place rather than anyone else.

If there has clearly been an error which has cost a child their place, the LEA should put it right without the parent having to take it to appeal. Many LEAs, though, will remit the matter to the appeal panel (I suspect because then they can say the panel, not the LEA, is to blame for the school having an extra pupil).

Places offered in error can be withdrawn. The case law on this relates to the previous version of the admissions code, but it’s generally agreed that the window for withdrawing an offer is 3 days.

Well quite, it may not be her. I think everyone was just so shocked she got in (excellent school but a massive long shot in terms of applications). There is the worry that she would be the one at the bottom.of the list.

Its possible that friend could have messed their application up somehow, such as missing the deadline or forgetting to tick the sibling box.

We had someone locally that Kicked off big time that their dc didn’t get into the school. Even though they lived next door. Press involved, lots of sad faces and everything. Turned out that they had only recently moved to that house so the application was for their old house 30 minutes away. I now take anything anyone says with a pinch of salt

I would suspect that the most likely root cause is the other family made an error in their application so were bracketed wrong.

I think you are probably right. Imagine getting it wrong and ending up not getting where you want (and would get) based on a mistake you made on the application - I'd be gutted!