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Secondary school appeal advise.

54 replies

PonderingButterfly · 01/03/2017 23:58

Can I swear , its almost midnight and I want to shout " Fckng d*ckwads" to school admissions and vent and wake my kids and neighbors up. And it'll be totally worth it. I want to act like a juvenile right now.WHY?

For those of you who have children off to Secondary/high school in September, this week you'll receive confirmation of an offer. I happened to receive mine at 11:30 (who the fck does that), yes I'm a super sour lemon right now. I almost had a heart attack before bed.

Here I am ranting, I applied to 6 schools of course the first preference is the school I highly want my daughter to get into. Guess what, I get the very bottom of the pile . I wished now I didn't fill in all 6 preferences. That was my huge mistake, humungousaurus mistake. At least if I had 3 they will have to offer me one of the 3.I'm blubbering like a petulant child right now. I read google reviews on the school and almost jumped out the window. It is appealing..stabbings..lack of safety..the list goes on. Being a party pooper I had to break the news to my OH who is now fuming at work.

We had high hopes that my daughter will get into one of the top 3 not because we fall within the schools radar but we ticked all the boxes and are high in the can I say guaranteed place. Yes a priority, we tick all the boxes. I gave in the form on the day application began and also giving the following SIF to the relevant schools.

At least they were nice enough to say my daughter will be put on the waiting list. Not!

Now I don't know what to tell my daughter in the morning. We have been waiting anxiously for the results. What a great birthday gift this will be for her.

Mumnetters, what would you guys do and how do you think I should appeal. Shall I accept it, well obviously will have to otherwise she won't have a place. But then, hopefully even if its full , God willing not all applicants will accept.But if its our first preference ticking all the boxes and been shot down and given the bottom pile as an offer.Do we even have a chance?

I need a vice right now.But a hangover mum on a weekday is probably frowned upon. Maybe I should go for a run or just drop to the floor and throw a tantrum.

OP posts:
shouldwestayorshouldwego · 02/03/2017 00:13

Firstly you did the right thing in putting down all 6. If you had only put 3 then not only would you still not have met the criteria but you might not have been offered school 6 but a worse school further away.

Find out how the waiting lists operate. Get her on all the lists. Find out which category/ distance the last place offered was and your category/ distance. You might as well appeal to all five schools. Once you appeal to one you've only got sleep to lose in appealing to more!

It is a long and stressful few months but there is a lot of movement of places, each time a child goes private the place cascades down. Try to be upbeat for your dd about where she is going. Our dd knew we were appealing but didn't know when. Got a place end of May.

Good luck. Get some sleep.

gabster33 · 02/03/2017 00:05

They don't have to give you one of the 3 if you only put 3 - they can put you anywhere. Get on the waiting lists for all three schools- hopefully a place will come up. You can only appeal on why that school is better for your daughter not why the other is bad.

innkeeper · 02/03/2017 00:05

If you had only put down three you would have just been randomly allocated a school

thunderbuddy · 02/03/2017 00:02

Hi there,

There are two brilliant admission experts on Mumsnet who I have no doubt will be on shortly but I did not want to read and run.

Can I ask on what grounds you tick all the boxes and are priority, is it a faith school?