Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priority

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d2001
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:19 pm

Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priority

Post by d2001 »

hi all,

any advice appreciated....

my son had accepted a confirmed second place offer. But we got a letter saying that it is now replaced by our first priority offer. And our second place has been withdrawn, but we were not given any notice or even asked. We live in redbridge borough, and they told me that I should have written in to explain we didnt want the first preference....

is there anything I can do as my boy was happy with his second preference? I don't want to be i a postition where we dont get any school either.....

rgds
d2001
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by Yamin151 »

I'm sure someone will be in I both more technical help, but my understanding, not very helpfully, is that it is assumed that you always wanted your first choice,that's why it was your first choice,a nd as such you would always want to accept a place if one was freed up,which they frequently are. The difficulty will be that your second choice may be someone else's first, by freeing up your second choice place, thinking you wanted your first choice,that place can now be offered,and probably has been offered, to someone who had put THAT school first, if you see what I mean, so short of going back on the waiting list, now for your second choice, I don't see how they will be able to help you.
I'm sorry not to be more positive, and certainly worth making some calls.
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by scary mum »

You cannot hold two places, so the first is automatically withdrawn. Presumably you elected to stay on the waiting list? Otherwise you may be able to argue the case? I would call your local authority.
scary mum
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by Alex »

The preferences you submit and the order in which you put them will stand for the whole of the admissions round (until school starts in September) unless you submit a fresh application changing the schools or the order in which you put them. The LA continues to co-ordinate offers all through so what has happened to you is what one would expect to happen.

Your best recourse now is to contact your LA immediately to see if your second preference and accepted place has already been offered to someone else or not and to ask to submit a revised preference form immediately. On your revised form you need to put your old offer school first and the new offer school second. You will probably need to accept your current offer in order not to lose that place but so long as you do that you won't be left without any place. Your LA should guide you through the procedures to make sure nothing goes wrong.
loopylou
Posts: 403
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:08 am

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by loopylou »

Most LAs do not do this although people in the affected LAs often believe it is a universal policy.
Most LAs allow parents to briefly hold 2 places when a waiting list place becomes available on the understanding that one place must then be released within days.


If you look at other sections on the 11+ forum, you will find parents weighing up decisions resulting from a late waiting list offer: a place suddenly available in June from their initial first choice school versus the school they were offered in March that they have now attended induction for. Some decide to reject the offer from the school that was originally their first choice.
In the waiting list threads, you will find parents who say that they may not accept an offer even if it comes now because they feel happy with their second choice. They don’t need to tell the LA in advance. They can simply reject the waiting list offer if and when it comes.

Most LAs do this to comply with their interpretation of the Admissions Code which gives acceptable reasons for withdrawing a place: a new waiting list offer is not listed as an acceptable reason so they do not automatically withdraw any places even if a better offer can be made.


It seems that in the areas which continue to automatically withdraw and replace offers, everyone is happy with this and knows the score in advance.
If you did not know this could happen, it is worth appealing (which might fail if this is the norm in the area) or complaining that the council's actions are against the Admissions Code which would be for the Local Government Ombudsman to decide and therefore look at the national view not just one LA’s decision on how things should run.
This is a policy that the LAs using it fiercely defend on the grounds of speeding up the process for everyone else but equally other LAs believe it is completely unacceptable under current Admissions laws to withdraw a place in this way. If you wanted to pursue it therefore, you would certainly have grounds as you aren’t alone in thinking that this should not happen.
d2001
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:19 pm

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by d2001 »

thanks for your advice.... appreciated! I will call the LA to check if my second place has been offered already.
pinkrabbit38
Posts: 568
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by pinkrabbit38 »

d2001 wrote:thanks for your advice.... appreciated! I will call the LA to check if my second place has been offered already.
This week we received a letter from our LEA saying they were now able to offer us our 2nd preference having previously only offered our 4th school. We had a week to return the letter saying which school we wanted to accept. We have accepted our 2nd preference as that is a Grammar school.
ToadMum
Posts: 11945
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Accept offer ( second pref) replaced with higher priorit

Post by ToadMum »

Just out of curiosity, D2001, which schools did you place at number 1 and number 2 on your CAF? If I remember correctly, you were previously asking about the 'feel' of KEGS but at least one other school quite a long way from Chelmsford?
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