New Admissions Policy question - Farnborough Sixth Form College

No personal experience of Farnham but my understanding is it's small and very nurturing.
If there's a chance you would consider Alton (very easy by train and road) it's smaller than Farnborough and has a nice atmosphere.
I think it can depend on the child, one of mine suited the smaller more laid back style of Alton, the other the busier bigger Farnborough.
I would again add, in my experience there's lots of movement over the summer on applications so if your DD has submitted one there's still a good chance she'll get a place.

Highly recommend Yateley 6th. Go and visit with your DD. Brilliant pastoral care as well as high academic standards if that’s what you want. It surpassed my expectations whereas I was underwhelmed by F’boro for one of my older children.

"no late applicants from non-partner schools are considered at all, they are in the ‘late reserve pool’ who have no chance of a place. Farnborough’s website advises that partner school children can continue to apply even now (as well as their local options which have much longer deadlines also)."

They can continue to apply, but not on the same terms as if they'd submitted by the deadline.

You said you feel your DD should have the same access to her local other applicants, and she did - there's no breach of admissions code here. That window has now passed, and anyone applying at this point is at a disadvantage compared to the first round - those at feeder schools would be very foolish to choose not to meet the deadline on the basis that their late application wouldn't be turned away.

With limited places - if any at all - to award to late applications, they have to distinguish between those somehow. And applicants who aren't favoured by the criteria can avoid putting themselves in the position that those criteria apply.

I understand your frustration, but you applied late and also chose to keep her at a school a long way away instead of her moving to a partner school when you moved. You kept her there for valid reasons but then you can't get the benefits of her being in a closer/partner school now. She has all the options of local kids and more, because she can stay at her current sixth form as well as apply to all those colleges. It's not so bleak and the only reason she can't get in your first choice is your own fault, which sucks and feels unfair, but is not the school's issue.

I don't think you are entirely unreasonable since feeder school policies to penalise families that move.

But ultimately, as you admit... you didn't read the admissions policy

How about Yateley Sixth Form?

@AGoingConcern but it’s not an ‘equally fair’ policy, to allow partner school
children to apply for both their local colleges, and give them priority in to Farnborough. I’m not arguing for my DD to have priority or get a place, I’m asking for her to be treated fairly in the late applicant process, when she has no other options

Your daughter could apply to any of those as well. She is in the same boat as all the other students, except she has a sixth form place already and they don’t. If she had moved schools when you moved (your choice) she wouldn’t be in this position.

Also, she could have applied to Alton College, only 20 by train from aldershot In fact it looks like you still can. https://www.hsdc.ac.uk/apply/ so it isn’t Farnbourgh or an 1 hour commute, you have other options.

Your DD had a fair chance - in fact, she would have been prioritized if she had applied by the same deadline that everyone else was subject to.

This college is heavily oversubscribed, correct? Do you have any idea whether significant numbers of students who apply after the deadline from any school or location end up with a place, or is it possible the focus on what order that happens in is ultimately a red-herring?

Military families and families that have to move late or mid-year are often screwed over by the existing school place allocation system in general, struggling to get into decently performing schools because they're oversubscribed.

I’m not arguing for my DD to have priority or get a place, I’m asking for her to be treated fairly in the late applicant process, when she has no other options.

This isn't true, though. She does have another option - she can stay at her current school, and that's an option children from these partner schools don't have. And I'm still dubious that these are the only two schools in an hour's radius that she could have applied for, but that's a bit of a tangent.

I understand your DD is gutted and that's always hard to see as a parent. But this is part of life; we're all going to make mistakes and miss opportunities at some point, and learning to deal with that without either beating ourselves up endlessly or looking for someone else to blame is important. This is (unfortunately) an opportunity to help your DD through that process.

You sound so entitled!

My DS and his friends stayed at his Sixth form, but he could have gone to Farnborough if he wanted to. Most of his year went to Farnborough, some for the same reasons you want your daughter to go there. Why should they stay at sixth form when they don't offer all the courses they want to do.

Basically it's tough, if you just expected to be admitted as you live round the corner.

Other entitled people might say you're taking a place in a school in Guildford but live in Farnborough and you should have moved your daughter's schools when you moved! See how it works.

I understand why you want it to be that way. For on-time applicants, proximity is the priority. And having a policy that pulled from the late-applicant pool by proximity would totally fine, but that's not the only fair way to structure a late-admissions policy and this college chose a different (equally fair) approach.

For late applicants looking for open places, it's perfectly reasonable to give priority to students from designated schools without sixth forms of their own because just staying where they are if a place doesn't open at Farnbrorough isn't an option for them. It's not unfair or unreasonable, it just doesn't suit your DD well in this situation.

I hope your DD ends up at a sixth form or college that she loves and thrives in, wherever that ends up being.

"Children at non-partner schools, but whom live very locally, only have a two-week period to apply, ending at the start of November. Children at partner schools can apply whenever they like."

That's not quite what the admissions policy says though. It says on time applications - both from partner schools and those in a 10 mile radius - are "likely to be offered an interview". Late applications from partner schools "will still be considered for interview" and all other late applications "may be considered".

That's very different to saying children at partner schools can apply whenever they like. The main factor they're distinguishing applications on is timeliness: on time applications from non-partner children have higher priority than late applications from partner children - you could end up with nobody in that second group getting a place if they receive enough on time applications.

They're partnered with schools that have high levels of deprivation - the sort of students who have multiple disadvantages and barriers to remaining in education.

It would make a change for deprived 16 year olds to get to leapfrog anybody, as they're usually hammered right down to the bottom of the list.

My dd went there years back and it was always the case that local schools, including some independent schools, got priority if they didn't have a 6th form. There may be more schools now (I know at least one that has closed its 6th form since dd went) but it isn't a new thing.

There were though students from miles away, as hers was a low birth year, and I believe everyone who applied got a place that year. One of her form came in from a train over an hour away.

But what I'd say from experience is that I was unimpressed. The teaching varied, but some subjects (chemistry, I'm looking at you) seemed to be pretty poor across the board. It was hard to impossible to speak to teachers - there were 3 parents' evenings a year, but they only saw students who were struggling, and refused requests.
Dd was fine socially because a large group went from her school, but I know from others that were one of very few from their school, there is no attempt to get them to mix, or ways to help socially, even when parents request it, including for one dc I know who was very much struggling mentally, they were told "if they won't do it for themselves then there's nothing we can do."

So I'd say you've had a lucky escape.

I understand the emotion around this because 16+ decisions are stressful and important. But the fact that the partner schools don't have sixth forms is key, and it's a very good reason to prioritize those late applicants. They can't stay on at their current school, while your DD. Your proximity would have given your DD priority over them if she had applied on-time, but your family missed the opportunity to take advantage of that priority.

I'm also having a hard time with the idea that this is the only sixth form closer than her current school 2 hours away as well. Is that actually true?

At the end of the day, the deadline was clearly stated and they should follow their written policy. Feel all the feelings with your DD but ultimately this may be a big lesson for a soon-to-be-adult in accepting consequences for our mistakes and making the best of things rather than getting stuck in victim mode.

I don't think this is right. The partner schools people did have a deadline to apply.

If this is the case and none of the partner schools have sixth form provision then in my oponiont is fair for the young people at those schools to be given preference. Unlike the OPs child, they do not even have the option to stay at their current place of education. OP did not make it clear about feeder schools having no sixth form did he/she!