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 know a couple of people caught out by this. I think some people do not appreciate how strict school admission rules are. If you mess up the form or end up making a late application you run the risk of siblings being in different schools. Of course you can appeal or go on the waiting list but if the school remains full the child will still not receive a place.

Last year DD2 did not get a place at our chosen school, DD1 was there and siblings within listed parishes get priority. I knew that 2 children with siblings but out of parishes got places despite being in lower categories. When I contacted school admissions, they advised me that they had already identified an error in processing DD2’s admission and they immediately offered us a place without needing to go to appeal.

Firstly they should contact admissions to check. I did this asking to check “the information had flowed through correctly so she was at the right place on the waiting list” rather than telling them they had made an error, although I also told them which category I thought she fell in (correctly) and that I was aware lower categories had received places,

I would ask your friend to double check the admissions criteria because sometimes (not usually) not all schools go by the sibling priority over catchment area. Also what year is the sibling in? Because if they're in the juniors it's not always classed at sibling priority, some schools only could the infant school for sibling priority- I know our school do because my friend had to appeal because they moved house out of catchment and their older child was in the juniors so they didn't class their younger child as having sibling priority.