School Misleading the panel during an appeal meeting?
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If the appeal failed at the non-qualification hurdle, then sadly I don't think the sibling connection would help.
A fresh appeal would be a decision for the admission authority, but there is also the issue of whether there is a sibling criterion and how it is defined - for example, my LA states "We will only consider a pupil in a secondary school as a 'sibling' if he or she is at the school in years 7 to 10 at the time of allocating [February 2008] a place to the sibling." For an oversubscription appeal, a sibling that meets the criterion would probably count as significant new evidence leading to a fresh hearing.
It might be worth seeing what the ombudsman thinks of the misleading information from the deputy head. Try the ombudsman's advice service (0845 602 1983 or 024 7682 1960). It's a new service, and the advantage is you can find out what they think before submitting a formal complaint.
A fresh appeal would be a decision for the admission authority, but there is also the issue of whether there is a sibling criterion and how it is defined - for example, my LA states "We will only consider a pupil in a secondary school as a 'sibling' if he or she is at the school in years 7 to 10 at the time of allocating [February 2008] a place to the sibling." For an oversubscription appeal, a sibling that meets the criterion would probably count as significant new evidence leading to a fresh hearing.
It might be worth seeing what the ombudsman thinks of the misleading information from the deputy head. Try the ombudsman's advice service (0845 602 1983 or 024 7682 1960). It's a new service, and the advantage is you can find out what they think before submitting a formal complaint.
Etienne
