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Secondary education

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National Offer Day - 1st March. Anybody else anxious?

286 replies

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 15:22

I feel like a woman on the edge. Am unbelievably anxious about 1st March. Made my peace a long time ago with the fact DD won't get a place at our nearest secondary (within easy walking distance) because it's so oversubscribed. All her friends and most other children from her school will go there. We live a tiny bit further away and just won't get in, particularly as I understand it's a big birth year.

Would be happy with either our 2nd or 3rd choice schools. They're further away and not as popular but we'd have got a place at them in previous years as we're in catchment and just within the distance they usually offer.

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed. I'm worried that we now won't get a place at the schools that would previously have been 'bankers'. Our other preferences are too far away. We won't get a place at them. Just put them down because there was nowhere else.

There are a couple of hugely undersubscribed and really poorly performing schools in neighbouring towns within the borough. From everything I've read and from looking at Y6 leavers destination info from previous years, I'm absolutely convinced we'll be allocated one of them. They're the schools people get allocated when they only put one choice down and don't get it.

I'm so anxious about it. Can't think about anything else and am driving DH mad. Am managing to hide it from DD but know she'll fall apart on Tuesday. She's prepared to go to school without her friends but not to a completely unknown school in another area.

It's going to be a long few days...

OP posts:
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 19:01

@Comedycook No, don't worry. Nowhere near London. We're NW.

OP posts:
Comedycook · 23/02/2022 18:57

Please don't say you're in SE London op? I'm panicking!

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 18:51

Unfortunately, according to what I've read online, all our secondary schools (apart from the the really poor one in the next town to us) are outside of LA control. The report said that there's only really one school with space to take on more pupils but the governing body said no. The report was from September, so hopefully there might have been further discussion behind the scenes since then.

OP posts:
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 23/02/2022 18:45

We should get a place at our nearest school. We are one of the nearest families... but the admissions criteria didn't really specify how they chose between the children if they are more children within the catchment area than spaces. The criteria is LAC, Catchment, siblings, staff children, feeder school, other. We live in Catchment, at a feeder school, but she's only been there since Easter and you need to be there a year...

I think I'm being paranoid. Its just there are currently more spaces in Yr6 at the feeder Primarys than spaces in Yr7...

PatriciaHolm · 23/02/2022 18:37

Children going to secondary in Sept this year would have been born between 1 Sept 2010 - end Aug 2011, and 2010/11/12 were boom years for births in the UK, with rates on the decline since. So unfortunately that would suggest pressure on places - on the upside, it's a known problem, so hopefully LAs have been planning for it for a while (asking schools to add bulge years, for example).

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 18:30

No insider information at all - I wish I did!

It was in the local papers last September and we all got something from the Council saying the same thing when we got the secondary application info through the post. DH thinks I'm catastophising. I hope he's right!

OP posts:
Comedycook · 23/02/2022 18:21

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed

Oh god, I hope we don't live in the same area! I might have a meltdown. How do you know this op?

Boombastic22 · 23/02/2022 18:15

Yes OP where do you live? I also worried that you have insider info about the LEA saying there’s unprecedented pressure. We are also on the edge and anxiously awaiting.

Comedycook · 23/02/2022 17:07

I'm a mess!

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 17:04

It's awful isn't it. We debated moving a couple of years ago. Lots of people do in order to get closer to school 1.
However we took the view that DD would be happy and do well at school 2 or 3 so stayed put. Absolutely never dreamt that we would be in the position where we might not get an offer from either of them.

Am really regretting the decision not to move now. Feel so awful about how our choices might impact upon DD.

OP posts:
WEMum · 23/02/2022 16:44

I'm also biting my nails for a few days now. We are very luck to get offers from independent schools but very worried about the high fees that we could just afford. Our local comp is good but we are in the very similar situation like you, not sure if we can get a place. And DD is not very keen on this one, though most of her friends will go. The top two schools on our list are grammar schools and the chances are slim for us because we live very far away. We will have to relocate if we get the offer and decide to accept. Big decision!