I’m absolutely devastated about our school placement

I assume the third choice one was your catchment area school and one & two were out of catchment? The likelihood is that if you appeal you would be unsuccessful, applications for F2 places are ranked on strict criteria through your Local Authority. I manage admissions for our school and I have to rank all applications for F2 against our admissions policy and then send this to the LA.

If no.1 choice school has an intake of 30 and there are 50 first choice applications then, they'll allocate as per the rankings and then the remaining children will be allocated their 2nd choice if places are available and down the list it goes. If you are out of catchment then you would have been very low down the rankings especially if it is oversubscribed.

Having said that if you desperately want to go to your 1st choice then speak with admissions and ask to stay on the waiting list, you may well be no. 1 or 2 on the wait list and there is always movement.

Also to add, our reception class always looks like a bomb has hit it but the children are always smiling, do lots of learning through play and clearly are enjoying their time at school which is so important.

I work in a physically run down school with no playing fields and no library because we’re squished into a site that is far too small. It’s a magical place. Multi cultural, with pupils making fantastic progress and an excellent well being team. It’s such a happy place, despite its sad appearance. I hope your school turns out to be similar.

I totally get your disappointment but I think you may be pleasantly surprised by the school. Those pros are great pros! in fact your pros and cons sound just like my daughters school and it’s great! The lack of green space on school premises doesn’t bother her, they have a private field right near to the school and a forest school. We are also not religious but it hasn’t been an issue. What they do have to offer far outweighs any cons and my daughter has thrived there (year 5 now). Good results and walking distance are massive pros which you will be thankful for trust me 😂

We visited 6 schools. Three had huge playgrounds with loads of grass and trees. I assumed that would be important to me in my choice. In the end my first choice was a school with a much smaller playground that is mostly concrete with a section of artificial grass. BUT it has fantastic playground play equipment, a road network marked out etc - I see now that the lack of grass has big advantages as it's all usable all year round and the kids are so active in the space they have. Five of the schools had fantastic libraries - our first choice was the one that didn't. Instead they prioritise books in the classroom and reading is one of the schools main focuses and strengths.

Most important to me was after school care provision, the ethos of the school, the head teacher, the school community in terms of feeling like we as a family would fit in, and absence rates. Two of the schools ultimately rose above the others for us and we chose the closest one. There is a lot to be said for being close to home if possible.

Should say.... Results wouldn't really be a big factor for me, and messy classrooms/a bit soulless fine. But I'd be asking questions about how much active time the kids get.

Tbh I would not send my primary age child to a school with no green space. They should be active and running about as much as possible at this age and I'm not sure visiting a local park once a day would cut it for me. I'd go on the waiting list for other options personally, unless the school is very good at making the most of whatever outdoor tarmacked space they have. One of the important things for choosing a school for my DC for me was knowing that my child would have almost an hour a day of access to space to run, climb and be active.

Good teachers get great results in mud huts

Yep. He's a pharmacist now working for Doctors of the World charity.

Walking distance is a huge plus and will save you and your DC so much time and stress over the years.

My DC got into our 4th choice primary school. I tried to appeal the decision but I didn’t really have any grounds. In the end we were really pleased they went there. Obviously I can’t know what would have happened had they got into a different school but I think sometimes things happen for a reason.

We got into our first choice primary school and it turned out to be a bit of a shambles! I didn't realise how poor it was until we moved house and we moved our children to a new school. I never would have picked the new school out as being anything special, and it turned out to be amazing! My children started to thrive immediately. My eldest DS is now in a grammer school and my DD will hopefully be joining him in September. Looks and reputations can be deceiving!

Your pros outweigh the cons. I always think people are lucky if they can walk to school (I used to have a long bus journey). Being above national average in English and maths is good, also other factors. You have no need to be devastated.

^Pros-
It does some nice charity work.
It’s above the national average for maths, English & writing.
Its probably the only multicultural school in the area.
It’s walking distance.^

Sounds fantastic in my world!

Solo mum. working for an NGO, biracial and very intelligent son. And within walking distance...

Couldn't get much better than that.

Sometimes OP, the universe has other plans than we do.

I hope you will come to terms with the decision.

I was gutted at my son getting my third choice. It was a school on a difficult estate that had only just been dragged out of special measures. Also old buildings and just looked careworn. I appealed and lost. I can’t tell you how glad I am now. My son (who is AuDHD) had the best education there. He was so happy. It was so nurturing and he was so well supported. I was so glad that the appeal failed and I think I was just panic stricken as he had settled so well at the nursery and I couldn’t see beyond that at the time. It was also within walking distance. My son is in year 10 now but still talks regularly about how happy he was there and will pop in and visit sometimes. I actually work there now! So give it a chance. If it’s really terrible you can do an in year application but just give it a chance.

Obviously I don’t know this school and I’m not an expert . But , I am a teacher ( well, was ) and did supply for a while and I went into a LOT of schools and every school i went into that was a religious school - CofE / Catholic - was a lovey school . They topped other schools by far . The best school I ever went in ( did a long term placement ) was a Catholic school , in what I would class as a deprived area , multicultural and had no green space . But it had such a lovely community feel , the head knew all the children, there was a massive focus on wellbeing .

The absolute worst school I ever worked in - an “outstanding” school, that had a waiting list and had so many bells and whistles - swimming pool , lots of sports areas , huge library , computer suites , music studio etc .

My kids ended up as what was described to me as a ‘very catholic’ school. Due to my parents being lapsed catholics and their horror stories I was worried my children would be given a homophobic, small minded eduction. Couldn’t have been more wrong. They were friendly, open minded, relaxed and wonderful people. My children had the best time there.

Sorry you’re upset op- I think you need to visit it again.
The nearest two schools to us, one has huge grounds, looks like a stately private school- my child goes to the other, wedged in a run down area, but it is outstanding, the teaching is superb, their sen provision is great, they pay for speech therapists to visit and help children (for which my youngest has speech issues). Look past the superficial it may just surprise you.

My youngest went to a primary school with only a yard, they used the local park all the time. It was fine, no problem at all.

Walking to school makes life so much easier and so much easier to see friends out of school. That is a massive plus.

It doesn’t sound too bad but you may get your other choices on second round allocation. My eldest was allocated our third choice, by the time he was due to start school he had been offered a place in both our 1st and second choice, but we decided to stick with the one we had been given as we had had another visit spoken to his actual teacher etc and felt that it was actually going to be a pretty good fit.

My friend who is a reception teacher has a bit of a messy classroom. The classroom across looks much more impressively tidy and presentable, but that's achieved by the kids having loads of screen time on the carpet and far fewer opportunities to get stuck into crafts and activities. She doesn't want that for her kids so makes a big effort to make sure they do and make loads, and that shows in the classroom. If it's anything like that I'd take it as a positive.

We didn't get any of our choices. The school has an ethos very different from what I wanted for my children. But our DC is happy, making nice friends, and doing well at their school - and that's all so important.