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Original poster

Perfect school no chance of getting in

32 replies

kn1ghty · 07/10/2010 16:29

We are looking at propective schools for our daughter to move up to in September 2011. unfortunatly for us we live right on the edge of Tameside therfore only one secondary school in our cathcment area which is ok - but there are two better schools on ein particular we would love to get her into - it is always oversubcribed, it is 6.6 miles aways from us (last year the furthest public lived 2.19 miles away), she has no siblings that go there, it is not her primary schools feeder school. i am at my wits end trying to think how to explain and the reason i wnat my daughter to go to his school, becuase it seems obvious reasons are not good enough, great grades, girls only, good facilities, great teachers. I just don't know what I can say to make them consider us? I am willing to do anything join to PTA, do all the school trips when they need parents, do everything but i feel like we just don't stand a chance - please help

OP posts:
cory · 07/10/2010 21:23

Yes, mummytime, but you need to have some kind of grounds for an appeal. When we appealed for dd's secondary, I think there were about 45 families appealing to get into that particular school. The vast majority of them had no better reason than that they wanted their child to go to the best school. They lost their appeals. We won ours because we were able to show that dd's needs were so serious and important that the damage done to her if she was not admitted would be greater than the prejudice done to the children already admitted by going over capacity.

mummytime · 07/10/2010 20:28

But you might win an appeal. The girls only could be a factor, as would any special status. But it is risky. However people have won appeals into my DCs oversubscribed school from longish distances.

prh47bridge · 07/10/2010 17:39

Admission is based entirely on the admission criteria. All that matters is which admission category your daughter falls into for this school and, since they use distance as a tie breaker, how far you live from the school. Unless your daughter has special medical or social needs which mean she needs to go to your preferred school, I'm afraid there is nothing you can put on the application form that will make any difference. Sorry.

cory · 07/10/2010 16:50

You need to see this from the pov of the admissions officer/LEA setting the admissions criteria

"it seems obvious reasons are not good enough, great grades, girls only, good facilities, great teachers"

These are obvious reasons for you, as your dd's mother, to want this school. But they are not obvious reasons for the LEA to think that your dd deserves to enjoy them more than some other child. Which is why they stick to strict admissions criteria.

The only way you could hope of getting in despite proximity/catchment criteria would be if you could show that your dd had particular needs which set her apart from other children and which could only be met by one particular school.

seeker · 07/10/2010 16:33

Move.

Or give up and apply all your energy and enthusiasm to the school your dd is going to go to.

pooka · 07/10/2010 16:31

If admission is based on proximity first, going on the previous "catchment" and how far away you are, then I'd think the only solution would be to move house.

Ladymuck · 07/10/2010 16:30

What are the admission criteria?

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