Losing my mind and considering homeschooling

Sorry also to add- I guess it’s too soon for the local authority to publish their admissions stats?

Reading the admissions criteria you’ve posted the only way the child 6 miles away could’ve got in is if they are LAC or previously LAC. I mean I guess you may not know whether they are?

unlike Other posters i think it’s v unusual for a 20 form entry to be filled after allocation to LAC and children <300m away AND there are 24 people ahead of OP on the waitlist who live closer?

according to the posted criteria distance comes before siblings. They haven’t even taken any siblings

I'm local and know this school. It won't take you 40 minutes in the morning once the roadworks are done. It's a perfect storm of roadworks at the moment for the power cables for the new prison.

Are you 0.4m towards the town centre? Could it be that the child 6 miles away is from one of the villages served by the primary school?

@NowGetUp the OP said she is under category b...

That's what it costs the school, not you.

Did you not get offered any of your choices?

Find put what their last distance was for your criteria. Also ask what criteria they offered out to. If they offered to the one below you. Then there was a mistake and they should rectify without an appeal.

If they offered beyond your distance. Again a mistake and they should offer without an appeal.

I would love to know the specialists comment on the charge. Never seen that before.

This is completely untrue. I'm disabled with chronic health problems and perfectly capable of home educating my daughter, who is thriving.

Looks like they only take 20 children and distance from the school is the last criteria. So if all applicants are within the catchment and some also have a sibling at the school or an EHCP or medical condition stipulating the school, or are LAC, they will be ahead of youm

So being in the catchment is a priority, but you don't appear to have any other special needs so this in combination with distance from school will have placed you behind others with higher needs.

I expect the child who lives 6 miles away is either LAC (in which case they trump everyone else and are placed top of the list, rightly so), or they are within the catchment and have some additional need (sibling, EHCP, medical need) that places them ahead of people just applying on distance.

20 places isn't many!

At my son's secondary school, which is 8 form entry (so about 250 kids per year), quite a few children living around half a mile away, did not get in.

Parents don't have to pay for appeals. I think the charging information you found refers to what the school have to pay for appeals.

I'm not sure what year you are applying for year - you should be aware that for R,Yr1 and Yr2 there are Infant Class Size Rules that mean it is harder to win appeals.

If it is not an ICS Appeal then the appeal panel will be weighing up the difficulties the school face in taking an extra pupil against the reasons why you want a child to have a place at this school.

What criteria do they apply if there are not enough places for all those who qualify against any of these criteria?

Usually it's distance?

If you genuinely think someone you know of is out of catchment and got in but you are in catchment and haven't, and there are no other circumstances at play (adoption? Ehcp?) then appeal. Nothing to lose, genuine mistakes are sometimes make. The basis of your appeal will need to be that they have not applied the admissions policy correctly.

I feel your pain. DC1 didn’t get into our catchment primary (0.4 miles away) on offers day. Our LA prioritised siblings in catchments and it was a bulge year, then other kids just happened to be closer. He did get in in the end, but we were top of the waiting list. It was a horrible few months though.

I can’t see anything on what you’re shared about straight line distance playing a role. If distance was a criteria, even for those in catchment, they’d have to state it. It’s worth looking at your school or LA admission page as to what the ‘tie break’ clause is. Sometimes, if there are more children then can be accommodated in the same priority group, it’s done on random allocation, irrespective of distance. You need to find this out.

lived

20 spaces. We are 25 on the priority list. Child 6 miles away has gotten in.

25 considering you are 2nd category is high. The child who loved further could be 1st category.

If someone 6 miles from any school has got in they're not in the catchment criteria so just focus on your own family. They should publish how many people your distance haven't got in and sounds like you already know you're in a queue with them. I'm sorry but I think it's just how it is

You need to find out more information. You may have been the furthest away in catchment so missed out. As someone up thread said, it may be the children who got in out of catchment named the school on an EHCP or were previously looked after. You can request the breakdown of admissions from the LA via an FOI and it’s worth doing before you spend that money and time and emotional effort appealing. If there are no EHCPs or looked after children you will have a strong case as it appears no priority is given to siblings at all, even siblings in catchment, (which is a bit unusual).

A PAN of 20 is very very small though, I suspect you may have been unlucky even being in catchment.

Do you know how many spaces are offered each year. It seems weird you didn't get a space as you must have been in the second category.

Not all kids in any catchment get in and sadly 0.4 isn't a safe zone for a lot of schools. Why would a 2 mile drive take 40 mins? Is it really a terrible school? It's a shame but I know lots of people who waited and got their school in the end so don't panic and try the waiting list