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Original poster

Got 1st choice secondary - now changed our mind!

55 replies

stickygotstuck · 04/03/2020 14:02

As the title says, DC has just got admitted to our 1st choice school. I should be over the moon but I'm just not!

We have been very lucky as are just out of catchment and it's massively oversuscribed. I am very aware there are people out there would give their right arm to be in our position. However, I can't shake the feeling that we should go for our 2nd choice instead (not oversuscribed and in our catchment so should be easily done).

The reasons why it's oversuscribed are because it's an Ofsted 'good' school and gets decent results. But mostly because (1) it has a good reputation going back years which it lives off and (2) snobbery, frankly. Middle-class parents go to great lengths to avoid their children going to 2nd choice school (which is also Ofsted good, smaller but in a more working-class area), 1st choice school has a more middle-class catchment.

We personally chose 1st choice school because:

  • offers 2 languages, which is important for us (except now we have Brexit and no Erasmus program, but that's a different story)
  • larger school and more diverse catchment, so larger pool of friends for slightly quirky DC

The downsides are:

  • requires bus (2nd choice is walkable), which means longer days for DC and having to pay for it as it's technically just out of catchment
  • new friends are unlikely to live locally
  • a lot of DC's school mates are going there. There haven't been massive issues but DC was looking forward to secondary school as new start after their very small primary

Would the downsides be enough to make you go for 2nd choice school instead?

2nd choice downsides are:

  • does not offer two MFL
  • it's smaller and less diverse

I know people are allowed to change their minds and things change. It just feels mad to reject a school so many are clamoring to get into (roughly twice as many applicants as places).

OP posts:
Sleepthief · 04/03/2020 14:28

A friend of mine in SE London changed her mind like you, but couldn't join the waiting list for her second choice until after school had started in September because she had been offered her first choice. She then had to go through the whole application process to change schools. It might not be as simple as saying you've changed your mind - that place at your second choice will have been offered to someone else and there will probably be people on the waiting list who had it higher up their choices than the school they were offered.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 04/03/2020 14:22

Firstly, how does your dc feel about it? If they are still keen on the first choice school, then I would go with it, and see how things pan out.

If they would prefer to go to the second choice school, then I would first contact that school and see if they have vacancies in that year - if they have, it should be relatively easy to arrange a move, and they will be able to tell you what you need to do.

If they don't have spaces, you will need to go on the waiting list, whilst keeping the place at the first school, and hope that a place comes up before term starts, or soon after.

I suspect that there will be some movement, as people decide which places to accept, and you may find that, if there aren't vacancies now, some will open up.

I wouldn't reject the place at the first choice school until you are certain you have a place at the second choice. Worst case, your dc can go to the first choice school until a place opens up at the other - but if you reject the place, worst case would be your dc having no school place, or an even more unacceptable one.

Lougle · 04/03/2020 14:19

I'd go for school 2, but not because of the language.

Theowbh · 04/03/2020 14:11

Yeah you should definitely go for school two because what with Brexit happening, it is now completely redundant for DC to learn MFL as there is absolutely no way that they will ever be able to work or travel in Europe.

SoCrimeaRiver · 04/03/2020 14:07

As a parent with a "slightly quirky DC" I'd go with the 2nd choice school if they have places. Accept the school you've been given, then go on the waiting list for school 2.

Your DC can always do a 2nd language at 6th form college if they particularly want to. Is your DC a linguist? Mine isn't, so is going to a secondary that does one foreign language. It pains me, as I can speak several languages, but DC isn't me and the subjects they like are better represented at the secondary we've chosen.