Is a FOI possible for school admissions

[Mcsh1977]

Hi, I'm wondering whether I can request a FOI request to find out where / why the last child offered a place at our preferred secondary school was issued the place?
My son is on the waitlist for his preferred school, he is a sibling but out of catchment. We are appealing and are currently awaiting an appeal date. However, I have been told by a reliable friend that another out of catchment sibling has been offered a place that lives much further away than us.
I have tried to speak to an admissions officer, but can never get past the admin team.
I am not one of those parents who push and push, I wish I was. Maybe he'd be in the school if I had the balls to pester the admissions team!
I'm going to call admissions again on Monday and put my big girl pants on and push a bit harder. I just wonder whether a FOI would help my argument? Thanks so much.

Yes you can do an FOI to get the furthest distance offered, most schools in our borough have that info on their websites though (prob not published yet). But yes, you can FOI the distance, not sure about any reasons that might be sensitive/confidential.

Thanks so much. Following the first big round of offers in March the council did publish distance info on where pupils offered a place. However I don't believe that is then updated every time a new pupil is offered a place.

Just to add, according to that list, my son was 1 of 7 in the next in line. The school takes 180 children. When I spoke to admissions last week he was number 4. I can't believe they've only has 3 children turn down a place. And with the news today of the other family I fear that somethings gone wrong!

You can ask, they may give it to you or they may refuse as it’s information intended for future publication.

An FOI request shouldn’t be necessary. Under the terms of the appeal code, the admissions authority (school or LEA) must give you any information you reasonably need for your appeal.

@PanelChair thanks so much. So if they refuse to give it to me over the phone I can request it at the appeal?

@PanelChair sorry so to clarify, I can request to know the distance and also the criteria that the last child offered a place falls in to?

You should get it before the appeal.

What you won’t know is what category the child in question was admitted under though, so it may not help you.

@RafaistheKingofClay but if they publish the qty of pupils offered a place in each criteria on the website, on offer day. Why are they not able to tell me which criteria the most recent child offered a place falls in to?

The appeal code says they must provide any information you reasonably need for your appeal (find the code online and look it up). It’s more useful to you to have the information now, so that you can check there hasn’t been an error.

Obviously, you can’t ask for information about any particular child, but you can (say) ask for confirmation of the home/school distance as they have measured it, how many out of catchment siblings have been offered places and the home/school distances for each of those. Remember that an out of catchment sibling might have been admitted under a higher admissions category if (say) they have an ECHP.

Because the number (1) means the detail can't be annonomised. They might not want to share that he's in care or has a disability, or ss involvement, or whatever, but it's okay to say x in that year are because you can't tell which ones.

Because the fact of knowing a particular criteria has been applied is enough to count as information randoms should not have, such as adoption, having been in care, have a serious medical diagnosis, particular social reasons - can you imagine how you would feel if anybody could demand to know whether your child or you were actually seriously unwell? Or if you were, then taking it upon themselves to stalk you to see whether you were actually ill enough in their eyes? Or sharing 'well, they only got in because it turns out that he's been in care at some point in his life'?

And no, if you pester (your word) the admissions team, you would not be able to get a place sooner. You'd piss them off, waste their time and probably end with them terminating any calls if you start on 'well, I heard from somebody I think is really trustworthy that she heard that x kid has been offered a place and what's the reason you've offered them and not me - have they been in care?' type of comments. But there's still a high chance that you'll get offered a place in the normal churn, never mind the appeal.

They cannot provide information under a FOI which could identify an actual individual.

Because that is not your data to have. Particularly if it is so specific you could identify an individual child.

You can ask for your distance, you can ask for the furthest distance in the category you are in (or any other categories but I doubt that would help you unless you thought you’d been put in the wrong category) or you can ask for how many children are admitted under each category but you can’t ask for data that would identify a specific child.

The most likely explanation is that either the other child is in a higher category due to SEN / being a previously looked after child / medical need or they may have been living closer to the school or in catchment on the relevant date for school applications last October.

As an ex admissions officer I will say that those officers apply criteria correctly and wouldn’t offer to another child because a parent pestered them. It’s frustrating when you don’t get offered your place and the appeal process is there as you are rightly proceeding with. However getting information from a so called reliable friend is when officers get abuse and accused of not doing their job properly based on misinformation. As others have stated this child could fall in another higher category such as adopted, in care, parent who is staff member at the school.

Distances are measured on a straight line basis from the address point of the child’s home to the address point of the school, using a geographical information system. So this maybe different to how you have measured it. If 2 addresses have the same distance, a random allocation is made to determine who gets the place.

In my experience the only time I have seen some “selective” choosing of pupils was from 1 very popular school who handle their own waiting list. This has nothing to do with Admissions officers and when the school was challenged we received severe abuse from the school who then reported us to our managers for questioning them.

Let the appeal process do it’s thing, don’t assume you have it right based on the gossip of a friend. The admission team can advise if any offers were made from the waiting list after offer day and which category they fall under, though not tell you any personal information. This should be easy to get without a FOI request. This will also be shared for the appeal. Please consider as well this is an extremely busy time for admissions officers completing rounds of reconsiderations for secondary and primary for 100’s of schools in addition to handling in year applications.

Really? If you r child was a looked after child or had a disability, you'd want some random other parent to know?

It's very personal information about a child!

Because it classifies as personal information. Since it concerns only one child, it is clearly about an identifiable living individual. Telling you which category they were in or the home to school distance for that pupil would be a breach of GDPR. They can tell you the aggregate figures, but not the information for this particular child.

If the information from your friend is true, the child will almost certainly have been admitted due to being in a higher category - EHCP naming the school, looked after/previously looked after child or whatever.

Thanks everyone, now I get it, totally see that that would enable me to identify an individual pupil. Also what I hadn't considered is that my friend may not have the whole picture with regards to the child's personal and rightly private personal circumstances. Apologies for not getting there sooner, I am one very stressed Mum trying to work this all out. Thanks again.

@Jadey1986 I hope your managers supported you and got the school to comply with the Admissions Code.

I understand it's really difficult and stressful, especially when you think a mistake has been made.

I believe you can ask for the last distance offered in each category- although it may be redacted if it is identifying. This would let you know the last distance offered in the siblings category, so you could work out if a mistake has been made.

Is it ECHP, LAC then Siblings? Or are there any other admissions categories?

I would ask how many places have been offered from the waiting list and which over subscription criteria the applicants were in. If there is one in your child's criteria then ask for the distance. That allows you and the panel to check if the places have been allocated correctly.

I would expect a panel to do that anyway as one element is to check for any errors in the allocation.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Thanks for your advise. Due to feeder schools. the categories are quite long. EHCP, LA, Disabled, Staff (only 3 places). Sibling at a feeder schl in catchment, sibling in catchment, pupil at feeder in catchment, pupil in catchment, sibling in feeder out of catchment, sibling not at feeder out of catchment, then out of catchment.

Nope! That school does what it likes. Only want a certain type of student (sporty kinds who are in the system at the local cricket or rugby clubs. They also do their own appeals so really unfair as they amend the data to ensure they are always successful. 😡