Can you be offered a school placement outside of your LA NOT on your list?

[lanalana]

Has anyone been offered a school placement NOT one of your choices and NOT in your local authority? Is it possible?

ALSO, are there instances where you wouldn't be offered a placement AT ALL?

[fleurdelacourt]

there are definitely instances of people being offered nothing at all in the first round - usually when there's a bulge year, or when people have only chosen one or two schools.

I don't think that the first round would see you offered a place outside your LA that wasn't on your list - but I may be wrong?

[Beewhisperer]

Yes it's possible. I work in a school in one city but quite close to the border. Last year three of our year six pupils were allocated places at a school in the next city but also close to the border.

[Beewhisperer]

Different LAs obviously

[prh47bridge]

It is possible but it is unusual since your LA loses some funding if it places children elsewhere.

You may not get offered a place on offer day if there is a shortage of places but the LA is under an obligation to come up with a place somewhere.

[lanalana]

Thanks for all your helpful comments. There are a couple of "needs improvement" schools in the nearby boroughs next to us (in London). And ALL of the schools in our borough are oversubscribed so it's kinda stressful trying to figure out this system that's unfamiliar to a newcomer.

[prh47bridge]

All schools being oversubscribed does not necessarily mean there aren't enough places.

Imagine there are only six secondary schools in the borough, each taking 250 pupils into Y7 giving a total of 1,500 places available. Imagine also that there are 1,500 pupils wanting places and that all the parents list all six schools as preferences. In that situation each school would have 1,500 applicants for 250 places so would be heavily oversubscribed. However, every single pupil would get a place at one of their preferences.

This year London had about 4,000 spare places overall. Most of the 33 boroughs had more places than applicants but 10 had more applicants than places (although two of these were short by less than 10 places). If you would like to say which borough you live in I can tell you what the position looked like this year. PM me if you don't want to post your location publicly.

[Needmoresleep]

Happened to us at a point when secondary school aged population was rising fast. Our South London borough had traditionally exported kids to other boroughs where education authorities had better reputations. However they then had fewer places and so our own borough had a lot of kids without schools. We were offered a place in North London in June. Luckily DS was already in the private system, in part because we for saw problems, much the same had happened at Primary, so it did not matter, but I understand kids in the local state primary had similar problems.

The number of places has grown and schools have generally improved, but it is still a bun fight. DD was offered a challenged school in borough but some distance and an unsafe journey away. Strange that Government and Cameron both managed to get their daughters into our nearest state school - as had Harriet Harman a few years before.

DD finished school this summer. It's such a relief it is all over.

[SixthSenseless]

Don't forget that you can go on as many waiting lists as you like, in any borough. Don't just leave it to the LA.

Good luck!

[prh47bridge]

Don't forget that you can go on as many waiting lists as you like, in any borough

That is not necessarily true. You apply through your home LA even if the school you want is in another borough. Some LAs have a limit to the number of waiting lists you can be on, usually the same as the number of schools you can name as preferences.

[rollonthesummer]

Yes, this happened to one of the children I taught years ago. His mum had put down both grammars (this was in the days where you did your form before you knew if you'd passed the 11+), a RC school (they were not religious), a very over subscribed spotty school that wasn't in their catchment and another over subscribed school that was out of catchment. She didn't put down the very local catchment schools as it was in SM and she didn't want him to go there.

He was actually allocated another school in SM in the next LEA (20+ minutes on the bus) in the end and she was spitting feathers about it because it was miles away.

Do you have a catchment school?

[lanalana]

SixthSenseless + prh47bridge
I was wondering how many wait lists one can be on because most moms have told me that you're only AUTOMATICALLY on the wait list for #1, and that you wouldn't be considered for any of the others should you not get an offer in the first round.

[prh47bridge]

Practice varies from LA to LA but most will automatically put you on the waiting list of all your preferences that were higher than the school offered. So, for example, if you are offered your 3rd preference you would automatically be on the waiting list of your 1st and 2nd preferences. If weren't offered any of your preferences you would automatically be on the waiting list for all of them. I don't know of any that would only automatically put you on the waiting list of your 1st preference but it is possible that is what your LA does. Those LAs that limit the number of waiting lists you can be on usually allow you to be on as many waiting lists as you can have preferences. So if you are allowed to specify 6 preferences you can go on 6 waiting lists.

Some LAs don't automatically put you on any waiting lists and even those that are supposed to occasionally get it wrong. It is therefore worth contacting the LA if you aren't offered your 1st preference to make sure you are on the right waiting lists.

Your LA should have information on its website about the way they deal with waiting lists. It may be in the combined prospectus for parents (often called something like Starting Secondary School) or it may be in their Admission Arrangements. If you can't find the information you should ask your LA.

[lanalana]

rollonthesummer

We have a catchment school, and it's "good" but it wasn't my favourite that we saw because it has no band and the art dept felt like an after-thought. Those subjects happen to be things that my DS is interested in, so I applied to 2 other schools that don't have catchments.

I live not far from the bordering boroughs that have schools that "need improvement" so that's why I was concerned. They are actually closer to us than many of the other schools in borough.

[lanalana]

THANKS prh47bridge
You seem to be so knowledgable! I have tried to read the LA info, but I get confused by the verbiage. Cheers.

[lanalana]

tiggytape
We got 6 choices and I used all of them. I put the local school as #6. As I mentioned, it isn't a bad school but music and art depts aren't as strong as I found elsewhere.

Choice #1 is a state school with lottery admission, and my son applied for a music scholarship there, which hopefully will improve his chances of getting in, but the school letter said that about "50% of students accepted a place last year", which I'm assuming equates to his chances of getting in.

Choice #2 is a grammar school. My son made it through the 1st test, but it's so competitive, so I wouldn't expect my son to get in on the first round, but perhaps on the waitlist, he could...

Choice #3 is a CoE school, which I put down because his brother goes there, but we're not members of the church, so only about 30 places are allocated for non members or students that aren't from their "feeder" schools. Since we don't live in catchment, it doesn't help his chances of getting in.

Choice #4-5 weren't catchment schools, so it's not likely that he'll get in either of them.

I only put down' the local school because most people told me that if I didn't put down a "realistic choice", I might not get anything...which is confusing, because as most people have said, they also have to offer you a place somewhere.

[SixthSenseless]

"I only put down' the local school because most people told me that if I didn't put down a "realistic choice", I might not get anything...which is confusing, because as most people have said, they also have to offer you a place somewhere."

You did the right thing.

First they look at the schools on your list that can offer you a place, and offer you the one that is highest up your list of preferences. That may well be your nearest local school. If you don't list your nearest school, you won't initially be in the offers made by that school.

If none of your listed schools can offer you a place, they do have to find you somewhere. By the end of the allocation period, places in your local school may have been allocated to all the other people who listed it. So you could be offered a school which you aren't keen on AND it is the other side of the borough.

[SixthSenseless]

You can also appeal to any schools higher up your list that you don't get offered.

If your son takes music lessons and plays in a band, the fact that your local school does not offer extra curricular music would be a factor in your favour. Do they offer Music GCSE? If not, and you feel pretty sure your son would do music, then that would be a factor. But you need to demonstrate that he has commitment to music and participates. (but that wouldn't work for the grammar, unless he has met the selective standard needed for admission).