Urgent appeal: Faith criteria incorrectly applied

[aquarimum]

Hi,
A school we are on the waitlist for has incorrectly applied the faith criteria- it changed this year to prioritise baptism over siblings, but siblings have gotten in ahead of baptised eldest children. How do we challenge this?
Can provide links if necessary
thanks!

Submit an appeal. But do check when the change applied from, it may not be immediately effective. Wait for the letter stating why you were refused and details of the appeals process.

Our school incorrectly treated DD2 as out of parishes that counted for priority, but they had already realised this by the time I spoke with then 2 days later.

they immediately offered her a place without forcing us to appeal

Are you sure the siblings aren’t also baptised? If their older brother/sister was, why wouldn’t the siblings be?

But agree with @LIZS to wait for the letter

None of the siblings are baptised - the elder (unbaptised) siblings got in before the rules were changed. Rules definitely in force this year. Parent of unbaptised siblings and minister have both confirmed that the unbaptised children are unbaptised!

They may also get in under other criteria such as Adopted. Some families choose to keep adoption secret, so unless you have known them from birth you may not know.

How do you know this? Why is a minister telling someone whether children have been baptised or not???

Because we were all in the same conversation! No cloak and daggers. Definitely not adopted because we all knew each other when families were pregnant with elder children!

Also - it turns out there are several families in this situation - they aren't all adopted/LAC/EHCP!

The minister should not be discussing other children! That’s appalling.

Read my other post - we were all in the conversation together!

Appeal. If they have failed to apply the criteria correctly and your child should have got a place, you have a very strong case. If the panel accept that the school got it wrong, the only reason you should lose is if there are more children affected by this mistake and appealing than the school can handle. In that situation, the appeal panel has to decide which appellants have the strongest case. You therefore need to look for other reasons your child needs this school.

You should also complain to the school. If they accept they have got it wrong they should admit without needing an appeal. They have the chance today and tomorrow to withdraw offers from those pupils that should not have got in and offer places to those that should. After that, it gets a bit harder as they would not be able to withdraw offers.

If you do believe a mistake has been made, contact the admissions authority (LA if it is them) as soon as possible, and also lodge an appeal. In theory they should correct a mistake without making you appeal, but many won’t.

Thanks all. They will have to re-do the entire allocation process if they've got this wrong, as they'll have to re-check everyone's eligibility!

You definitely need to go back to the admissions authority. They have a very limited time to get this right before the places of the wrongly admitted children are secured.

Is there any statutory guidance as to how long they have to fix this? We’ve only got the rest of today and then we are into a weekend

I believe it is a grey area, but there is some precedence that school offers can’t be rescinded after about 3 days or so (hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong).

Don’t get swept up in how big an issue this may (or may not) be - focus on your application and your DC, and make sure you contact them as soon as possible.

To add - that’s only for withdrawing offers of wrongly admitted children (if there are any). They could (should?) go over PAN to admit any children who were missed due to an error, unless it is a number so big as to truly be unmanageable.

I believe it is a grey area, but there is some precedence that school offers can’t be rescinded after about 3 days or so (hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong).

There was an LGO ruling on this 10+ years ago which said 3 days, but that was under a previous admissions code and AFAIK it hasn't been tested under this one, so many LAs will disregard it, though the new code doesn't suggest it should be in any way different.

Thanks all. We’ve sent mail to both the school and LA.

Also - can we ask the school to prove they have applied their criteria fairly? Who checks?

The school is responsible for making sure they do things correctly and, if necessary, for proving to the appeal panel that they got it right. No-one else checks. For the moment, you have information that suggests they have applied the wrong criteria. It is up to the school to check and see if they have indeed got it wrong.

Hi OP, are you absolutely sure the new admissions policy applies for 24/25? Timings are such that schools have just been consulting on policies for 25/26.

And in fact, should now have made their determined admissions policy fir 2025/26 public.

Were you required to submit a supplementary information form as part of the application? It sounds like the minister knows the family and the children attend Church as you mention you were all discussing the matter. Possibly there is more to this than you are aware.

Absolutely sure arrangements apply to this year. It’s very clear on both the school and LA website what year the admissions arrangements apply to - and the school is changing them again for 2025.

Yes we had to do a SIF. Several families are freely stating that they have been admitted when they are lower in the criteria than other families who haven’t been admitted.