What are the chances of winning appeal on these ground

[Salpal9]

Secondary school appeal - Single parent, school appealing to is a 5 minute walk away, allocated school almost 4 miles away. Have a child in primary school, impossible to get to allocated school and pick primary child up. Child's cousin lives next door and has a place in appeal school and child's parents would help with child care as still have to pick primary child up.

What are the chances on appeal with the above?

Thanks in advance.

Who gets the child benefit. Who's house is nearer their GP? That's the address you should have used.

Are the children split 50/50?
Who is their primary carer?

But you have already said that they stay at the house nearer to the school you now want them to go to a lot more.

I guess you can change the address with the council and then do an in-year application for the school you want them to go to so they might be put on to a waiting list but I can't see how you would appeal because you have used the wrong address when applying. It's not like it was a mistake.

Appeal chances sound very poor. You can't use the non-resident parent's address to try to get priority at school #1 while also claiming that the child needs a school near the resident parent because that's actually where they live.

The place your child was offered will have been the closest undersubscribed school to the address used on their application.

Honestly it sounds like the best option is to accept the place offered and submit a late application to the appeal school using the correct address, then hope that the proximity will put your child high enough on the waitlist to be offered a place eventually.

But they can only have one primary residence, and that's the one they spend the greatest time at. You say up thread that your address is the one where they spend more time, so that's their primary residence. Council websites/guidance is invariably pretty clear about the definition.

How far is the allocated school from the father’s home? How far is the first preference school from your home and why wouldn’t that have been an issue?

I thought this didn’t matter and that you could use either parent address if it was a 50/50 split but I’ve just looked it up for my LEA and you can’t.

It has to be the one the CB, GP, dentist (for those lucky enough to have a dentist) is registered at.

I’m quite surprised but on reflection it does make sense as I suppose then people would be using their boyfriends address or whatever.

But for the purposes of school admissions they have one primary address. There are clear rules to help you determine this if it's unclear.

Yes, LEAs will have specific rules in cases of shared care.

But OP isn't just wanting to choose between the two, they want to be able to use one address to get priority to their first choice school and a different address to justify their appeal to another school. Even if they could have it either way, they certainly can't have it both ways.

Now you’ve pointed this out OP won’t be back

In my LA it’s who gets child benefit and where they live. Address registered at GP. Legal confirmation of address for child. The pattern of the residence and length of time of patterns. Address registered at primary school. Parents cannot swap and change addresses to suit them. Essentially it’s the address of the resident parent. They will want evidence to show you comply with the above. Cheats don’t prosper.

The address has been changed already. I also think you should be able to use either patents address as they both have parental rights and are both the childs home.

But you can’t 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't want the thread sidetracked by the address. Just the chances of case put forward for appeal, leaving aside the address change as they are now looking at it as the address closest to the school.

@Salpal9 your best and (probably) only option is to tell the LA that your ex put the wrong address on the form and give them proof that your child is with you more than 50% of the time or is registered with a local GP etc. Look at your area's secondary admissions brochure which will include a policy on determining the main address when children are transient across two households.

However, it was very naive of you not to have looked all this up before you applied. Local authorities are not daft - they know parents try to game the system so have clear policies in place.

Your appeal grounds are otherwise weak - there is nothing exceptional about being a single parent.

Is there no bus? What’s the distance if each school from your address and fathers address? Are both kids at parents 50/50? What year is sibling in?

No the address is the most vital part of information here. You stated one address and when you didn't get the school you wanted you want to appeal but using a different address. You can't appeal a decision based on information you gave and then say, actually, I don't like the outcome, please try this address instead. You made an uninformed decision, you now have to either accept the outcome or start from scratch with a new application.

Your appeal (based solely on transport issues) is unlikely to win. Unless there is a particular individual reason (in which case you should evidence and use this) secondary school students are expected to make their own way to and from school. Alternatively, secondary schools normally have provision for students to stay after school at least for an hour or so, so you can avoid the conundrum of needing to be in two different places at the same time by making use of this.

For the appeal, you need to focus on things that the appeal school offers that the offered school doesn't. Does it offer subjects or particular extra curricular activities that would be of particular interest to your child?

If you've changed the address, it sounds like there is a good chance that the child will get a place from the waiting list anyway.

What does your local council say about which address to use? There will almost certainly be something they use - child benefit, address GP has, number of weekday nights, to determine primary address. Which is it?

It does look like you’ve played the system and its backfired. Besides which, at secondary kids take themselves to and from school. She’ll get used to it very quickly. You may have to find a childminder for a few weeks to pick up younger children, but it’s such a short space of time it wouldn’t win an appeal.

lol. I think everyone should have a sports car but, you know…

No, not a new application..They just need to get the address "corrected" on the existing application.
That might be enough to get them a place from the waiting list.

This is going to depend very much on how strict the council is. If your child lives 50/50 with both you and the father, then it is likely that the policy for admissions will either give you the option to choose, or it will say that the address where child benefit is paid will be considered the primary residence.

If your child is living with you more than 50% of the time, then you didn't have the choice and the LA could decide that it was a fraudulent application and make you make a fresh application.

Either way, none of your arguments for appeal will be successful. Transport issues don't win appeals unless there are exceptional issues for the child, and even then it is more likely to be resolved by offering the child transport to the offered school.

If you want to win the appeal, focus on what the school offers that would suit your child better. Don't look at transport.

I don’t understand why your DC can’t either make their own way to school or be dropped off/picked up a bit early/late? My school was 8 miles away, bus pass on a public bus from year 7. My parents wouldn’t have dreamed if dropping me with two younger siblings at primary school.

You tried to play the system, it didn’t work.

Grounds for appeal are weak- you could try to claim address was an error though obviously this is a lie.

But the address is crucial. Which house does the person who gets the child benefit live in? What address does the child’s doctor and dentist have for him?

Any secondary appeal based on you picking the child up for a few months in year 7 has, realistically, zero chance (I sit on appeals panels).

secondary school age children are, in the absence of third party medical evidence, expected to get themselves to and from school.

if you used the fathers address but your childs primary address - as defined by your LA - is actually yours, you run the risk of the existing offer being withdrawn as being from a fraudulent address. Your LA will have its own definition of exactly how they define primary address.

Generally you can only choose between parents addresses if the child's residence is habitually and provably 50/50.

Any logistical issues that arise as a result of using an address that is not the term time habitual address will not be considered relevant.