Upset for my nephew and angry with my sister

I am going to speak to the head on Monday.

Shouldn’t it be her mum who speaks to the head? Accompany her by all means, but by going in her stead you risk making her look (and feel) like she’s not as good as you.

Some schools may also not discuss a child with someone who doesn’t have PR, unless the parent has specifically requested this and even then, only if the parent is unavailable.

Punta- well done you for taking such an active interest in your nephew- and for being supportive of your sister. They are lucky to have you on the case.
Will she reconsider school C? Lots of kids go to school where relatives work. It's not the ideal but secondary schools are huge and it's easy to avoid each other. I even managed secondary school plus sixth form where my mother was the headteacher. (If I'd gone elsewhere, she thought it would send an odd message to other parents that the school wasn't good enough for her own child.)

Looks like your sister has started her own thread about this situation OP

No, I don't think that is the OP's sister. The facts don't match. The poster in that thread used all three choices and got her third choice, which she didn't want. That is very different from the OP's sister putting just one choice.

This awful school D? Do all the kids there have feckless parents?

I can see why your sis doesn't want her dc at the school you work at.

Sorry, I didn't really go out of my way, I posted my gut reaction. OK, it was daft not to put more choices down. Also, most of my sympathy lies with your poor nephew. We put down 6 choices and only got offered our 1st choice, which makes me glad that we swapped first and second choice round. We've accepted, and it's all done and dusted until I order uniform.

There's still time to hopefully put this right. Good luck to your sister and nephew.

My sister has been incredibly foolish and hasn’t yet told me why she has done what she’s done. I will take your advice and help her make the best of the awful situation she has created.

I realise you’ve spoken to your sister since you posted this but please make sure you don’t come over a judgementally to her as you do on here.

It’s a thread started this morning in secondary education stating ‘I have made a terrible mistake’

Looks like your sister has started her own thread about this situation OP! You may want to tell her your on here too as she is likely to spot this thread.

Oh god I made a stupid mistake on my form and now paying the price for it. My brother also annoyed about what I did. Only can move forward now and put my child on waiting lists. This has made me feel a little better that I'm not the only one that effed up.
Smh. Fingers crossed for you and hope you and your sister get it sorted out.

Loads of children go to schools where their parents reach or are even the Head! An aunt really doesn’t matter in a secondary school where there are so many staff.

Having read all of this, I think most LAs explain how the system works on their web sites very well. Mine certainly does. There are also booklets issued in libraries. I think the vast majority of parents do follow the advice and the rules.

The difficulty has really arisen because the allocated school is so poor. If it wasn’t, the allocation wouldn’t be a disaster. If DN goes there let’s hope the school is improving and DN is more robust than portrayed here. Often children are!!! Not every child in a school can be dreadful.

School Run website has loads of useful info on what to do in this situation
( also useful article on how allocating preferences works:
www.theschoolrun.com/equal-preference-system-explained)

Swampytigga I'm delighted you got your first choice, but I still disagree with you - the point is, you never know what will happen, especially in a bulge year like this one. And the main thing is that there is no point in NOT filling up all your preferences, because it will make no difference to whether you get your first preference - so why wouldn't you?? As an example, my IRL friend chose not to include evidence on her SIF that would have put her in a higher category (evidence to which she was fully entitled), because no-one from our area has ever had a problem getting into that school even just on distance, so she thought it was unnecessary. However, bulge year - she didn't get a place.

I’m sorry- I got caught up in my computer sweep thing and went a bit mad. I’ve asked to be deleted. Of course i’m wrong! as I pressed post I realised that! PleSe ignore me.

BERTRAND THAT IS SO SO WRONG and just confuses people who see you as a regular poster about education and would trust you. You really should know better that the position you put school on the form does not influence how your application is assessed against the criteria. All applications are considered equal whether you put them 1st 2nd or 6th. The order matters when the system decides which of the schools you qualify for offers you a place.

@HotpotLawyer thanks, I think that is wise advice. And thinking about it, continuing interest in schools that were listed on application may be treated differently (timing-wise) to people going on a wait list for a school they didn’t initially include.

Plus i think the advice is to accept the place at school D- or she will compound her error and it is very possible he will end up with NO place at all. They won't be more obliged to place him elsewhere if he has turned down and offered place

Some people do this- they only put one or two choices and think 'Oh they'll have to give me one of them'.... They don't have to. And the child just gets allocated wherever there's a place.
Some do it out of arrogance, thinking they're clever and they've found a sneaky way to beat the system.... But mostly it's done from naivety and a hideous application system where parents have to make decisions in the dark- having very little idea of how the system works or what their chances are of getting into a particular school.
If school D is not acceptable, look into whether there are any grounds for appeal ( I doubt it) and get on waiting lists ASAP- tho those who appeal successfully will jump above any waiting list queues. Why did she not want school C, the Catholic feeder school?
Your sister has made a terrible error. Dont say I told you so.... but use your knowledge of the school system to help them out.

Bertrsnd I don’t think it works like that at all!

The computer sweeps everyone up in the order in which they meet the criteria, irrespective of where the school is named in the list.

So yes, a second place applicant will be swept up quicker than a first choice applicant who lives further away.

And this continues at waiting list stage, since wait lists are also held in order of how you meet the criteria.

I only put down one school and I got it. However there is only one secondary school in town. I already have 2 children there. Historically everyone who wants a place gets a place. So I wasn’t actually being stupid by only putting one school nor was I trying to play the system 🙂

niceberg Actually, I couldn’t say for definite what happens in your LA and in that circumstance.

So in your shoes I would check with them on Monday morning, or, if you do decide you want to stick with the allocated space, do as they say.

In all my years of taking part in and observing secondary transfer I have never known waiting list places be allocated before the acceptance deadline, but I’m not a professional in the system or knowledgable about the whole country.