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School admissions Maladministration causing injustice
06 April 2006
‘Mr Barrett’ (not his real name for legal reasons) complained about the way that the Council handled a request that his daughter transfer from her current school to ‘Queen Elizabeth School’. Mr Barrett’s daughter was in Year 5 at the time the request was made, in April 2005.
The Ombudsman upheld complaints that the Council missed opportunities to invite Mr Barrett to apply for his daughter to transfer to Year 6 of the school. He found that the Council failed to advise Mr Barrett that it was keeping a “reserve list” of parents who were interested in securing a place for their children in Year 6 of the school in the event that the school should expand in that year group. Because Mr Barrett was not included on that list he received no decision refusing his daughter a place in that year group and no right of appeal.
The Ombudsman considered that, if Mr Barrett had not suffered this lost opportunity, he would have gone on to appeal alongside three parents on the “reserve list” whose circumstances were similar to his own and whose appeals were successful. While the Ombudsman could not say that all four appeals would have succeeded, on the balance of probabilities he could not say that Mr Barrett’s would have failed.
The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends that the Council should transfer Mr Barrett’s daughter to be educated at Queen Elizabeth School at the earliest opportunity.
Date Published: 30/01/09
are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download