Awkward meeting with headteacher

Yes, but the place might not be confirmed yet. For example, there might be a child leaving at the end of half term. The move could be totally confirmed (house sale gone through, notice given in writing), but the school are not allowed to off-roll the pupil until they can confirm they've arrived at their new school on the first day after half term. But it's annoying to only start the process of offering a place at that point - much better to get a new starter within the first day or two after half term, so they don't miss out on topic stuff etc. In this situation (when it's very unlikely the move will fall through, and very likely that a child would stay at the top of the waiting list, eg in the case of a sibling), we would often have the conversation first, to check the family still wanted the space and give them a heads up that the move was very likely to happen, so that we could get everything sorted out in a day or two once the place was actually confirmed.

Sounds like this might be what's happening here, but perhaps not communicated very well!

Irrespective of whether the 'interview style meeting' was questionable,the problem is that it's been a week and OP still hasn't heard.

But my point is that it's only the OP's inference that this was an interview to determine whether the place would be offered. It's entirely possible that it was a 'conversation' as outlined above, and that the reason for not offering immediately (as others have guessed) is that the school cannot legally offer until the child who they think is leaving has actually left and been enrolled elsewhere.

Grammarteacher it's a school run on Michaela lines, the head is on a power trip & has been from the day the school opened, kids get detention for everything from not making eye contact when speaking to a teacher to losing a rubber in their pencil case. School runs from 8.35 - 5.00 Monday to Thursday & 3.45 finish on a Friday. The poor kids march round school like robots, no sitting with a friend at lunchtime, they have set places & a teacher sat on each table who gives a subject that must be discussed, if pupils don't join in they get detention. The less able kids get detentions because their work isn't up to standard, no SEN provision. A lot of pupils have left because they are nervous wrecks from the pressure they are under.

I have a friend here in Ireland who's child started secondary school this year.

My friend applied to a secondary school a few miles away from her home. She had a number of reasons for not wanting to send her child to her nearest secondary school. A child will start secondary school after 8 years in primary school so they will be 12 or 13 by then.
The school she wanted to send her child to is a large popular school with good pastoral care, good results, offers a large number of subjects for exams, has good sen provision and good extra circular activities.
This school could have places for say 120 pupils but end up with 250 applications for places.
So this school generally will only take pupils of 13 years old and wants an application form sent in by X date which is the same date for other secondary schools in the area. Parents could be asked questions by the school staff when they call to get an application form. I know my friend got her child into this school. A few days before the school had a meeting for all the parents where they were shown around the school and also made aware of the school rules ect.
I know also that my friend was asked a lot of questions about her child, what their child is like, their academic record and had to get forms filled in by the primary school also.

I know that certain schools can be very popular because they have good exam results. One lady I went to school with lives in a city in Ireland. She wanted to send her child to X school. Both her and her husband had an interview with the school principal and they were asked a lot of questions about their child and their childs academic results in primary school. The principal also wanted to find out about the family and to get an idea that the family knew about the school, it's ethos and rules. It was a chance for both of them to decide if it was the right school for the child. This school gets very good leaving cert (Irish A level) results each year. Because of this parents want their kids to attend here and their is a lot of completion for places.

I think it a good sign if school staff or school principals talk or interview parents who want to send their child to their school. To me it shows that they are interested in finding out about parents and possible new pupil coming into their school. If you are a parent or parents who will meet a principal, answer and ask questions in regards to your child and the school it shows how interested your in your child's education ect. Along with this you get a better idea of a particular school will suit your child or if another school could be a better fit for them.

What @PatriciaHolm said is right - schools should not interview before allocation and to do so goes against the Admissions Code.

In my experience though some admission authority schools do meet with parents before they advise the Local Authority that they have a vacancy.

However, in this case I would suspect that they know that they have a space but they haven't finished making sure that the leaver is has been off rolled properly. i.e. the child has informed them they were leaving on 30/9 but then have to check with the new school etc on Monday to ensure that the child is on roll before the vacancy truly exists.

The school started their enrolment processes in advance by having the meeting because there is a national census on Thursday this week - school's funding is calculated by bums on seats on Thursday. We find a lot of schools scrabbling around and whisking kids on roll the few days beforehand - I would hazard a guess that this school is preparing to get your DD on roll before Thursday.

@difsa a 'conversation' often happens, but it cannot be used as a reason to give or withhold a place. That has to be very clear in all of the schools actions. Major changes occurred to the admissions code in September 2021.

This does sound odd and open to different interpretations. PatriciaHolm has already outlined what the admissions code says.

Yes, it's perfectly legal as long as you still offer places strictly in line with your admissions criteria. I think some people who criticise schools for their practices don't realise just how fickle some parents can be. One example (of many). We had a parent apply to us because they were pissed off that their school had requested a fine because they'd taken two weeks out of school to go to Florida. They wanted to uproot a perfectly happy and thriving child from school for no other reason. Technically, we should have had no conversation at all when they applied, waited for the place to come up, offer it, and enroll the child. Instead, before the place came up, we invited the family to look round the school (which they'd never bothered to set foot in before applying), and when they started slagging the current school off about the Florida trip, we made it clear that we'd have done exactly the same thing. They promptly withdrew their application. If they hadn't, then we would have offered the place to them when it came up, in line with the admissions code. I'm quite sure that if we'd mutely followed the process, they'd have taken the place and moved the child, and quite possibly moved her again next time they got an unauthorised holiday fine.

This is not an isolated example. Parents often used to apply for places for the most spurious of reasons, on a total whim, when their school had pissed them off for some reason (child hadn't been read to that day, child's jumper had got lost, child had had a falling out with another child). Either that, or they applied because they wrongly thought we could offer much better support for their SEN child (eg a full time one to one when their child had no funding). Perhaps you think it's wrong, but personally I don't think that a conversation prior to offer in that situation is unreasonable. I certainly think it's in the best interests of the child. It absolutely doesn't mean that the school wouldn't follow correct procedure once a place became available - we would then always offer the place in accordance with criteria, however bonkers we might think the parent's reason for moving might be.

Catchments don’t apply for in year transfers. This all seems irregular to me. Schools should operate a waiting list in line with their in year transfer policy. If they have a space they must admit. As for talking to parents because their motives for applying might be awry??? No. Not legal.

Are you not in the catchment area?

The op said sibling status isn't one of the oversubscription criteria. Its unusual but not unheard of.

Are the school their own admissions authority or are they under the local authority?
Did you make an in year admission application? Was it direct to the school or to the local authority?
They aren't allowed to interview for the space, it's a breach of the admissions code.
Contact your local authority admissions department tomorrow morning and explain what you've said here, ask to speak to the admissions manager.
You are either top of the waiting list and are allocated the space or you're not and therefore remain on the waiting list.
Since September last year, there are very limited grounds that a school can refuse to admit a child.

I’m confused. Why does your child not already got o this school if their sibling is there?

OP, the school shouldn't have interviewed you. If you're not offered a place, you can consider appealing on the grounds that you suspect the school may not have followed its admissions policy. If you have described the circumstances in your statement, the school would have to respond in their statement and can be further questioned by you and the panel. They would need to explain why you were interviewed and whether or not there was a place before or since you were interviewed. If there was a place, they would need to justify why the place was given to someone else. If the panel think you were treated unfairly they can direct the school to admit you, even if that means they must go one over their PAN.

I used to work in a state school, and it's not uncommon. It's not best practice, but it also might not be quite as poorly motivated as you think. We were an oversubscribed school and often took pupils from less popular schools nearby - we had to if they applied and we had a place. This often left other schools in a difficult situation - it's very easy to get into a downward spiral of falling rolls and falling budgets. Sometimes parents would already be on their 4th or 5th local school, and kept just bed-hopping whenever a school committed some perceived minor fault. Often parents would have totally unrealistic expectations of what would happen if they moved (we would wave a magic wand and solve all their issues, or produce an EHCP overnight, or whatever). And often it really wasn't in the best interests of the child to move. So if we knew we had a place coming up, we would sometimes invite parents in for a chat if they were high on the waiting list, particularly if they'd never visited the school (which happened a lot) - genuinely not because we were trying to weed out the difficult ones, as it was often the more clever and aspirational ones who wanted to move, but because we were trying to help out our fellow schools and manage parents' expectations. Ultimately, if they still wanted to move and a place materialised, then they'd of course be offered it. In theory, those conversations should happen once a place has been offered - but by then it can be a bit too late.

Wow! That's higher than our requirements for A level study (7 in subjects you're going to study). And as for the fail a test and you're out, that will not go down well with OFSTED.

What are the criteria if they don’t have sibling criteria?

The school my niece goes to all the parents & children have to go for an interview & then the school suggests to parents of children they don't want that the school may not be the right one. It's a state school that wants to think it is better than all the others, only just having Y11 for the first time as it was a brand new school. The sixth form will open next year, only pupils with a minimum of grade 7 in all GCSE may attend with grade 8 in the subjects they choose to do A levels in, all pupils must pass an entrance exam & an interview, no BTEC's all A levels, no common rooms or free periods, fail any test or not do well enough in mocks & their place will be withdrawn.

I too would be very confused in this situation @Lindaelisa
And I'd be cross actually; what exactly was the purpose of this meeting that unsettled your family and upset your daughter?
I'd bear in mind what@PatriciaHolm says about this interview/meeting potentially being in breach of the admissions code 😒
I think you were absolutely right to demand a prompt decision from them.

Sorry @Lindaelisa , wrong end of the stick.

Is this a state school?

Places in state schools must be allocated by the admissions criteria. If this was a state school, an interview cannot form part of the criteria, unless it is for 6th form and even then can only be to used to discuss options and academic requirements.

Any school that does so is breaking the admissions code, which has the force of law, and would open themselves up to successful appeals from children higher up the waiting list if they were jumped. They could also be reported to the office of the schools adjudicator.

It's unclear, though, whether the interview here was just jumping the gun a bit on a known vacancy - if you are top of the waiting list and they are pretty sure there will be a place soon, they may just have got ahead of themselves a bit. It is poor practise though as it could easily appear as if they were interviewing you.