Made a stupid mistake

You can go on the waiting lists though whilst you are deciding whether to appeal.

There will be lots of shuffling around and accepting/declining of places for months, at least put yourself on the waiting lists where you would prefer for the time being.

Then do your investigations/see the school you have been allocated and it may be the picture becomes clearer.

It may be "awful" but it's close.if you hadn't put it you may have been given it anyway. Or you would have been given an awful school miles and miles away. It would have had no impact on your first 2 choice schools.

Go on the waiting lists for your preferred schools and fingers crossed x

Argh typo in my post! Basically if you can show the school can meet child's needs more effectively and demonstrate the school can manage with admitting extra child you can be successful at appeal!

Alexa secondary school appeals don't just focus on application of the admissions criteria. An appeal can be successful if it demonstrates the prejudice to the child it having a place there is greater than the prejudice to the school admitting the child. So a child who speaks Mandarin could be successful in appealing to a school which provides Mandarin GCSE when their allocated school doesn't. An appeal may not be the route for the OP but it doesn't just focus on processes.

You may even have dodged a bullet!
I applied for non catchment secondary for ds which is same distance as catchment.
Catchment had bad rep and non catchment sold me and others raved about it. Next nearest also has amazing rep and outstanding ofsted.

The school was awful. Damaged my ds beyond what I thought was repair. Other "outstanding" school has also done same to some kids. Pastoral care in both is dire. The catchment secondary has ploughed forward, for better progress 8 this year (1 ds went to gets worse year on year).

Although ds now goes to out of catchment (EHCP) if catchment was as it is now I'd be happy to send him there.

Reputations are often built around hearsay. And those with strongest and loudest voices are often the ones who's kids could have slotted in anywhere.

I wish I had done more research and not listened to the sales pitch from the school that drove him to attempt suicide

You didn't make a mistake as everyone says- you put the schools in the right order and unfortunately your first two didn't have spaces for your criteria. The third did- you got in there. Better there than nowhere!

The advice you have been given is correct- go on the waiting lists for your two preferred schools.

In the meantime, find out what's going on with this school you've been allocated. One of mine goes to a local community school which had a bad rep for years but has had an excellent Ofsted and has improved a lot in the past 5 years. Also, the classes are heavily streamed, so the bright kids are appropriately taught. I'm much happier with it than I thought I would be. They also have very good pastoral care and bullying is stamped on. Try to see beyond the rep to what's actually going on right now with that school- I can't say if will be any good, but it may not be as bad as you fear.

You haven't made any mistakes, there aren't enough places in the desirable schools and this means you don't get allocated first/second choices often.

There's an awful lot to be said for going to your nearest school, as long as it is reasonable.

We had to choose between a much lauded faith school a long commute away and our local comp with historically a dodgy reputation. Our son is really really bright (dropped just 2 points in Y6 sats) so we wanted to give him every opportunity to fulfil his potential.

We went to both open evenings, talked to staff and Heads. Actually we only talked to the Head at comp, the faith school Head obviously felt he was too important to be bothered with us when he has people clamouring to get in. We got a very sharp elbowed vibe.

So after much angst we have decided to send DS locally and he is thriving. Classes are streamed so he has the majority of lessons with his high achieving form and he has made lots of other friends in other forms through sports. And socially it's great because he has loads of local mates to pend time with and spends much less time on a screen.

Its a very small school, and staff are mostly young and very keen and treat all the kids like individuals and with kindness.

Just don't write the other school off.

IncrediblySad school allocations are made following admissions criteria. There is no deep hidden plot going on. If other DC did get into OPs preferred school it would be because they lived closer or had siblings there or came higher up the admissions ranking for another reason. In fact if OP's DC should have got a place ahead of someone that actually did ie a mistake was made, that gives her extremely strong grounds for appeal. Nothing in the OP to suggest this is the case though.

Today is right, most schools prioritise looked after children in the admissions process. Contrary to what you seem to think, OP, they are not necessarily "naughty" and may be "extremely bright", just like your son.

You can appeal the decision about the other two schools, but it doesn't really matter why you want your ds to go there if the schools are oversubscribed. The appeal will consider whether the admissions criteria were applied correctly, rather than considering all of the reasons why you might want your ds to go to a school with a better reputation than the one where he is holding a place, so bear that in mind when you're putting your case together. The harsh reality is that all parents would like their kids to go to the schools with the better reputations, and sadly there just aren't enough places for everyone.

The fact that your ds is intelligent is irrelevant, I'm afraid. He is no more deserving of a "better" school than any other child. Arguably, he probably has more chance of doing well anywhere!

I know I probably sound harsh, but I am not unsympathetic. My dd didn't get into our first choice of school initially, and I remember how devastated we were at the time, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. Luckily for us, dd subsequently got in from the waiting list. Perhaps it's worth asking where you are on that list? There is often a bit more movement than you might expect as some dc relocate, some choose other schools, some go private etc.

Good luck!

No, OP. You did exactly the right thing. You wouldn't have increased your chances of getting schools 1&2 by leaving off school 3. Not at all. If he didn't qualify for the first 2, he didn't and you might potentially have got a worse school further away.
Agree with this. You may well get into your higher preferences on the waiting list. Good luck!

You didn't make a stupid mistake, you did the right thing by putting down your first choices, and keeping a safety option.

We live in an area where every year a number of people do exactly what your brother suggested and only put down their top one or two, and then are shocked when their child gets into a terrible school some distance away. The preferences are looked at in order, even if you'd just put number one you unfortunately wouldn't have got it.

Tell your brother he's wrong and unhelpful and hope you can find the best of school #3 or otherwise good luck with an appeal.

Adizzy, my children go to a high achieving, outstanding school and there are plenty of naughty children there - being successful at secondary school means focusing on your own work and learning to live alongside others from all walks of life. Plus, Looked After Children are top of the admissions list at every school, they deserve every advantage in life, and it is rather a generalisation to assume they are all delinquents. It is not specific to the school you have been offered by any means.

I agree with the others, in fact if your offered school is ‘good’ then in fact you were wise to include it as only putting down two choices would not have changed the outcome for those schools, instead you would’ve been allocated one with spaces which was worse, further away.

You need to appeal for the school you want, rather than against the school you don’t want, but you need to have reasons which are very specific as to why schools 1 or 2 are suitable - appeals are very hard to win. Hopefully you are high up the waiting list and a place will come up before you need to appeal.

They SAY it doesn’t make any difference, that your application is considered ‘in order’ so irrespective of what or nothing you put third, he wouldn’t have got the first two anyway. However, given all the other kids got into the other two I’m very 🙄🤨 about the truth of that tbh. But god knows really.

Good luck for getting a place at one of the other two.

Regardless of whether you listed it or not you clearly didn't qualify for the first 2

So you either would have ended up there anyway or been sent potentially miles away to a school that could be even worse.

Go on the waiting list. Do an appeal of you wish. But you didn't make a mistake here really. It's always best to put a banker school even if you dont want it just so you can at least try and have a not of co trolls over where they go and ensure they can get there

needthisthread - you win 'disingenuous poster of the day' award; well done! OP, you've had some good advice here. Leaving the space blank could have been worse. Are you sure the school you've been allocated is as bad as you think? Did you visit it?

No, OP. You did exactly the right thing. You wouldn't have increased your chances of getting schools 1&2 by leaving off school 3. Not at all. If he didn't qualify for the first 2, he didn't and you might potentially have got a worse school further away. Your brother is categorically wrong.

I think you so misunderstand an aspect of the allocated school, though. ALL schools have looked after children as their first category and that will be a few children in total at every school. The children in this category will be a range of ability and behaviour profile, too, so it won't be full of difficult children (or, at least, not because of the admissions priority).

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