Odd letter from school admissions board

the_rottweiler

I would think it is a standard letter to y7 to be parents.
A lot of the time secondary schools dont make the connection between siblings, especially if you have a reasonably common surname. this happens constantly at ds1 and ds2 school, no one realises till they see me at parents evening that they are brothers

bonty44

I would also be paranoid but that's just in my nature! I don't think you have reason to be paranoid, I am fairly certain this is routine and, when I have dealt with County on any issues they have always been 'cagey' too (don't want to be accountable to anyone for anything, I suppose)

I would go and speak to the Schools Admissions Officer and make sure you have a copy of their admissions criteria.

HTH

Floss

sidefx wrote: »

Yes OP I think you are being a bit paranoid:rolleyes:

I am sure it really is just routine and not worth getting :mad: about

Actually, a woman was in court last month for applying from a "false" address, see here so I would presume that all schools have been told by the Department of Education to check the validity of applications.

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's reassuring to get some views from other people, so thanks guys. I will ask around other parents (when I can catch some, not many year 6 parents go to the school any more). But it may well be that all parents got a similar letter.

Janepig

When DD started school 3 years ago the school themselves did all the admissions stuff, but last year was the first year the LEA had taken it over. Anyway, the form they sent out for prospective parents last year asked for the parents' address, but apparently if an incorrect address had been put down for the purposes of getting a child into the school (it was oversubscribed) then the LEA wouldn't have been able to do anything about it legally as they hadn't put the relevant small print on the form. This year when I had to apply for DS to go there, they'd tweaked the form to contain all that, plus I had to send in a Council Tax bill and other utility bill.

But I'm curious as to why your LEA (assuming they are dealing with the admissions and not the school itself) are doing this now, and not at the point of when you applied.

Jxx

HairyHandofDartmoor

The LEA have dealt with school admissions here all the time I've had children at that age.

I also wonder why they are asking now. Had they asked at the time of application I would have thought nothing of it, but to ask for proof 2 months after offering the school place seems odd to me.

However, until I can find out from other parents if they have had similar letters I won't know if it is just me they are singling out for this 'special attention!' Time for a few phone calls to other parents tomorrow, I think.

But now to bed! Good night everyone.

peachyprice

the_rottweiler wrote: »

I would think it is a standard letter to y7 to be parents.
A lot of the time secondary schools dont make the connection between siblings, especially if you have a reasonably common surname. this happens constantly at ds1 and ds2 school, no one realises till they see me at parents evening that they are brothers

Too true, I have twins with a VERY unsual surname, the only ones in the school, there are still teachers who teach both of them that haven't realised they're twins, they're in Y9 now!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well, I've had my proof of address documents returned with a compliments slip saying 'Address verified, no further action, returned with thanks'.

I would have preferred a slightly fuller expanation! But I will presume from that that all is well.

I'm still not sure why the query was raised in the first place, but I guess I will never know.