No school places, head told us there were on the date we applied ?

[SkelleyBones]

We looked around a school 16/6 and applied the same day for the two places we were told were available.
I've just had a phone call saying there now aren't any and would I like bogsvile up the road.
Can I make the admissions team prove when the other applications went in because tbh I am gobsmacked this has happened.

[scurryfunge]

Even if there were two places when you applied, others may have have fit the criteria more than you.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Won't hurt to ask.

But I'm guessing as places are normally allocated by the LEA then someone could have applied for those places the day beffore you, or a few days before and the head would have been unaware.

[SkelleyBones]

I find that hard to believe we live next door but two to the school, unless of course they are looked after children in which case fair enough.
Am I able to get an explanation do you think ?
The whole situation is a shambles I have three children with no schools to attend in September unless I accept they will go to a satisfactory school, which they won't.
Am pissed off.

[SkelleyBones]

Would somebody apply without phoning up though or viewing the school ? I can't believe the head wouldn't know.

[wheresthepimms]

I guess now it is all done by the LEA you might apply without informing the school, maybe if you know the school, previously been there moved away and are moving back (we are forces and we have applied for schools before without visiting as it is hard to visit when coming back from another country, we ask friends which school, they tell us we apply)

[VivaLeBeaver]

I've applied last month for a place for DD in Yr6 without ringing hte school or going for a look round. DD used to go to the school so no need to.

[VivaLeBeaver]

What's wrong with a satisfactory school, most schools are satisfactory these days rather than good. Have you been to see the other one?

[Peachy]

Satisfactory is ahrdly pitsville is it?

The pacaes could well have gone to kids with SEN as I know a lot of LEAs are still tying up their statements for the coing year and school allocation is part od that.

[pooka]

Ha! at satisfactory school.

I think half of all schools nationally are satisfactory - i.e. fine.

DCs go to a school that was rated last time as satisfactory. But good in the recent ofsted. Only difference as far as I can see is a different inspection team and slightly better SATS results (a 'good' cohort last year). THe one good thing from the whole things is that local parents less likely to turn their noses up at the school based solely on an ofsted snapshot/arbitrary rating rather than actually looking round the school and seeing beyond the rating.

[Khara]

In ofsted-speak "satisfactory" means "unsatisfactory".

[wheresthepimms]

I took mine out of the outstanding school and put them into a good school further away, it has done them the world of good, they have come on leaps and bounds. Ofsted came to DDs nursery the day after all our DHs got back from a 6 month tour to sandy places, they got slated for their lack of control over the children, the fact that the kids were unsettled, noisy, wild, excitable and went from an outstanding to satisfactory nursery in one day, all because our DCs were in turmoil at having daddy home again, what child wouldn't be. Staff did point this out to Ofsted who said they couldn't come back in a week or so when the children had settled again and their report could only be based on what they saw. It was at this point that I finally (after much suspicion) decided that reports were poppycock and ignore them now

[pooka]

???

Do you mean that when ofsted rate a school satisfactory, it's actually their way of saying it's unsatisfactory but they're being polite? Feel embarrassed to say so?

What do you base that idea on? Am intrigued. So by that measure, the good school is actually satisfactory and the outstanding one "just" good.

[Peachy]

Khara not in my experience, no. Although I know a few good schools I would turn down over a few otehr satisfactory ones any day.

[VivaLeBeaver]

I think an unsatisfactory school gets given notice to improve. IME Ofsted have no problem doing this if they feel it needs doing. Its what happened to one school DD was in.

[SkelleyBones]

They aren't going to a satisfactory school, satisfactory for ofsted I dread to think, outstanding is hardly anything to get excited about from what i've seen.

[wheresthepimms]

skellybones in that case phone them up and ask, put them on the waiting list for the school you want and HE them until the places come up, or go to appeal. Bear in mind though you could be HE a child for a long time, took friends of our 3 months to get their DS into the school their DD was already in

[Peachy]

So are we saying that this school isn;t good enough for your kids Skelly? Becuase not all kids get good or outstanding places, some have to get satisfactory (or worse) and the only other option you have if you got in too late is to HE whilst you sit and wait for a place. Or if you can you pay private.

[SkelleyBones]

It's not good enough for mine, if others are happy fair enough but there's no chance mine are going there.

[Peachy]

Well, tham's your choices then.

HE, private or a combination of either of the above alongside putting name on waiting list.

Plenty of kids get admission above address: SN and kids in care are normally two, siblings sometimes.

[Alibabaandthe80nappies]

They don't get a place just because you've decided they should

Why are you so late applying anyway? The fact that you have no places for any of your children suggests a level of disorganisation on your part maybe?

Can you afford to pay private? If not, then the schools will have to be 'good enough' for your children.

[EldonAve]

Ask questions and get on the waiting list

If I was only 2 doors away I'd be annoyed

[SkelleyBones]

I've got to move area's I've been super organised hence driving 400 miles to look at a school before buying a fucking house in catchment and am therefore not a happy bunny.
Obviously we can go private but you'd think £500k and being told there are places you'd done your homework no ?

[CointreauVersial]

Mine are at a satisfactory school and it is perfectly fine.

The shortcomings, such as they were, were mainly to do with a changing leadership team (now rectified), nothing to do with standard of teaching, behavior, or anything that I was worried about.

There's more to an Ofsted report than just the headline. And there's more to a school than the Ofsted report. Suggest you go visit the school pronto.

[Alibabaandthe80nappies]

Are you being deliberately inflammatory? There is no need for us to know how much you're spending on your house.

If you have such a low opinion of state education 'outstanding is hardly anything to get excited about from what i've seen', then just go private and free up spaces for families who will be very grateful to have their kids in a reasonable school.

[SkelleyBones]

I'm sure it is fine CV i'm just sick of running around like a headless chicken sorting things out and then finding it's got me nowhere, tis frustrating. I'm not walking past the outstanding to school every morning to take them to one ofsted now says is satisfactory, stuff that for a game of soldiers.