TOPIC: School Choices

Hi all,

My son is coming up for secondary school. With some difficulty, I came to an agreement on school choices with his mother who I communicate with mainly via email as I find her hostility even more difficult to deal with in person. My son prefers to go to the local school, which is also my preference. It is also where her older son (my son's half-brother) goes. I was informed by her a few days before the deadline last week that she'd submitted the form reflecting our agreement, though 2 days later - on the actual date of the deadline, she informed me she was still able to change the application , and then went into a long pitch for another school outside our area. I currently do not know which school she has put down as the 1st option. Though she won't admit it - I 100% believe her objection to the school my son would prefer to go to is because it's on the same road as my house, and the other school is in another town.

I sent an email to the relevant School Admissions Board explaining who I was, giving my son's details, letting them know I had PR and that I was estranged from the mother. I asked them if they could confirm the 1st choice of school. When they eventually replied 2 days later (after I had to chase them up), it was to tell me they couldn't share that information with me, and I would have to ask the mother, who is showing no interest in answering my question.

I thought having PR meant that I was equally able to access information relating to my son. Are School Admissions allowed to fob me off in such a manner, and what course of action can I take? It's important I know so I have time to make a challenge if she really has tried to pull a fast one.

Have a look through the PR section of the Custody Minefield website, there's info there on dealing with education issues.

You can ultimately make a court application for a Specific Issue Order if you cannot agree school choices.

Thanks for the advice Yoda.
With some dogged persistence and jumping through hoops (which I'm far from happy about), I was finally able to get an adequate response from School Admissions.
While on the one hand I'm aware that there should always be caution when sharing information, at no point did School Admissions offer up what they would need from me in order to feel assured in sharing this information - I had to get advice from a friend with a legal and educational background - all Admissions said was 'contact the mother' which was far from helpful as I'd already tried that.