An adjudicator has upheld a complaint against a school accused of manipulating its admissions policy and ordered it to give top priority to children in care.

Education Bradford and Bradford Council had lodged a complaint with the Office of the Schools Adjudicator about Laisterdyke High School's admissions policy for 2005 after it failed to follow suit with secondary schools across the district.

The school, in Thornbury Road, Laisterdyke, had scrapped priority places for children with siblings at the school and there was no mention of children with special needs statements.

Adjudicator Richard Lindley has upheld the complaint.

He said the policy would cause confusion for parents, there was insufficient provision for children in care and no priority was given to siblings.

"The governors' failure to give siblings priority within the PAAs (priority admission areas) will disrupt family ties and cause younger siblings to be allocated at Carlton Bolling School (with whom the school failed to carry out the consultation that was required)," said Mr Lindley in his report.

"There is no reference to children with statements of special needs."

The 2004 admissions policy gives places to pupils whose parents choose it as their first preference.

First priority among these is for those who have brothers or sisters at the school, are at primary schools within the catchment and all live at the same address.

Second priority is for other children at primary schools in the catchment area, with priority given to those who live near school.

But, because the school is oversubscribed, new geographical priority areas were drawn up for 2005 criteria.

It offered limited places for children in care, but the school said this was because the care home was in the first priority area.

The school argued that it scrapped the brothers and sisters rule because of alleged abuse of the definition of "sibling" and governors told Mr Lindley there was no requirement to mention pupils with special needs.

A spokesman for both Bradford Council and Education Bradford said that they consulted all schools in 2003 and 2004 about admission changes.

"The outcome was universal agreement to adopt a consistent approach across the district in terms of priority areas and over-subscription criteria," she said.

She said that, during the Spring term, governors at Laisterdyke said they were amending their policy and an objection was raised because the school was not conforming to the overall policy.

"It was felt this would cause confusion for parents because of the inconsistency with the arrangements applying to other schools," she said.