School admission

Ideally parents should decide together which type of school is best suited for their child.Parents who hold Parental Responsibility, have an equal right and say in which school their child attends. Usually both parents have Parental Responsibility for their child. Mothers have Parental Responsibility automatically and Father’s acquire it by either being named on the child’s birth certificate (after 1 December 2003) or being married to the child’s mother.  If you disagree then you can try mediation. Mediation can be flexible and parents can have many sessions to explore various options in a neutral and structured setting with a trained mediator.  If appropriate and the child is old enough and you both agree, the child can attend to have their voice heard. A mediation plan or agreement can be drawn up, but this is not legally binding. It is important to note that Mediation is also requirement for parties to attend in many cases before a parent can make an application to the Court.

A parenting plan could be a useful tool and one can be found on the cafcass website.  You can adjust this as agreed.

If your issues  still cannot be resolved,  then as the last recourse  would be to file an application under s8 of the Children Act 1989. This allows a parent to make an  application to the Family Court  for the following:-

Specific Issue Order –  this will mean  that you can and will be asking the Court to make decisions dealing with something specific,  such as the child schooling and which school they should attend or their upbringing.

Prohibited Steps Order –  is an Order to stop someone from exercising their Parental Responsibility for a child. A Prohibited Steps Order can therefore be useful for parents who think that the other parent is going to move their child from one school to another without their consent. It is possible to ask a court to make an Order to stop this.

Both of the above Orders can be applied for at the same time, or during an application for a Child Arrangements Order. In applications for a Child Arrangements Order you will be asking the Court to define the arrangements of the children.

In any application, to the Court, parents should consider how the school or change in school will affect their child, and whether there will be a positive or negative impact. This will be a key factor for the Court in determining any decision they make.  The court may not necessarily agree with you.

Have you spoken to your child about their wishes?  Do you have regular contact with your child?

Yes, it is a long time and extremely wearing.  Its great that you are focused on having a good relationship with your  son.  It's often the case that what is supposed to happen in theory doesn't go that way in practice and there is little that can be done about it.

Update. My child has been given the school that I had asked my ex to remove from the application, due to the distance away from my home, over one hour away each way, going to be a nightmare. Considering everything in my previous post, School admissions have told me to take the matter to court. Saying that the courts will then decide which school he should go to. In reality does anyone know if the courts would actually do anything about this? Thanks

Hi,

I think its unlikely the courts will do anything, other than advise mother she should have consulted you, and both of you should have made joint decision. I think the risk of going back to court is they may want to reduce your contact with child, given the distance from your home and childs new school. (If child has mid-week overnights with you).