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Original poster

Year 7 refusal – St Marylebone CE – any hope on appeal?

41 replies

LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 18:25

Hi everyone,
Looking for some honest advice.
My daughter was refused a Year 7 place at St Marylebone CE. It was our first choice and we’re quite surprised by the outcome.
We applied under the Church of England criteria and submitted a completed clergy form. We attend a CE church regularly (not St Marylebone parish specifically), and we provided confirmation of 32 services/mass attendances.
We live within around 6 miles (Tottenham Hale area).I’m prepared to go through the appeal process but would really appreciate honest experiences before getting my hopes too high.

OP posts:
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SheilaFentiman · 05/03/2026 17:20

Millianire · 04/03/2026 23:03

They took a child that lived in Uxbridge under the Church of England criteria!
They are not honest about their admissions. My niece is muslim, doesn't live close to the school and still got offered a place, and other children that are CoE faith, attend church and live closer, did not get a place. They take the children who get the highest results in the test first, then CoE faith.
Not much movement with waiting list, but if you even get offered a place on the waiting list then your very lucky, most kids won't even be placed on the waiting list after they get rejected.

Your niece was offered a place under the Open category. Each band has 40% of its places allocated to the Open category.

A C of E child is in the C of E category for whichever band applies and they may well live closer than someone in the Open category, but if enough children in their band both live closer than them and fall into the C of E category, then they won’t get a place.

Hope that clears it up.

SheilaFentiman · 05/03/2026 17:09

How complicated banding is :-(

OP, did you get your second choice and how do you feel about it?

Lougle · 05/03/2026 11:18

bookworm14 · 05/03/2026 10:02

Yes, you are - they didn’t have enough people under 2.1.2 in that band so had to go down to the lower church criteria to fill the places. So OP would have been fine. It’s very bad luck that her daughter is in the one band that seemingly had more church applicants under 2.1.2.

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Well, at least that had more church applicants in a close proximity to the school.

Lougle · 05/03/2026 11:16

HeraOliver267 · 05/03/2026 09:58

No band A went to 2.1.4 critera meaning everyone in 2.1.2 would have been offered (if i'm reading it right).

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Yes, sorry!

IAxolotlQuestions · 05/03/2026 10:35

LiliaCuciuc · 05/03/2026 09:38

Just an update the school confirmed she was placed in Band C .She applied under criterion 2.1.2 with the clergy form (26+ services). Our distance is 6.197 miles.
In Band C, the last place offered in that category went to 3.478 miles
She is currently number 6 on the Band C Church waiting list. Does anyone know if position 6 on the waiting list realistically has any chance of moving?

At position 6 there is a chance. Stay on the waiting list.

bookworm14 · 05/03/2026 10:02

HeraOliver267 · 05/03/2026 09:58

No band A went to 2.1.4 critera meaning everyone in 2.1.2 would have been offered (if i'm reading it right).

Show quote history

Yes, you are - they didn’t have enough people under 2.1.2 in that band so had to go down to the lower church criteria to fill the places. So OP would have been fine. It’s very bad luck that her daughter is in the one band that seemingly had more church applicants under 2.1.2.

HeraOliver267 · 05/03/2026 09:58

Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:54

Yes, if she had been in band B or D, she would have a place. If she was in band A, you'd be even further down the waiting list.

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No band A went to 2.1.4 critera meaning everyone in 2.1.2 would have been offered (if i'm reading it right).

HeraOliver267 · 05/03/2026 09:57

Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:54

Yes, if she had been in band B or D, she would have a place. If she was in band A, you'd be even further down the waiting list.

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I hope she gets a waiting list offer, very frustrating that she'd have got in if she was in any other band, i guess we can never predict that in some years more people live closer and end up in certain bands.

Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:54

LiliaCuciuc · 05/03/2026 09:47

In hindsight I probably underestimated how much the banding test could affect the outcome. Still hoping there may be some movement as she’s currently number 6 on the Band C Church waiting list.

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Yes, if she had been in band B or D, she would have a place. If she was in band A, you'd be even further down the waiting list.

Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 05/03/2026 09:47

Lougle · 05/03/2026 07:47

You need to stop saying this. You just don't understand how fair banding works. The whole point is that they don't take the people who scored highest in the test first.

There will be situations where a child doesn't get a place would have done if they had scored just one point higher or lower on the test, because they would have slipped into a different band, but that's just unfortunate.

Edited
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In hindsight I probably underestimated how much the banding test could affect the outcome. Still hoping there may be some movement as she’s currently number 6 on the Band C Church waiting list.

OP posts:
Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:47

I guess you could hope that 6 band C offer holders have got private schools lined up, or that they are on waiting lists for other schools.

Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 05/03/2026 09:38

Just an update the school confirmed she was placed in Band C .She applied under criterion 2.1.2 with the clergy form (26+ services). Our distance is 6.197 miles.
In Band C, the last place offered in that category went to 3.478 miles
She is currently number 6 on the Band C Church waiting list. Does anyone know if position 6 on the waiting list realistically has any chance of moving?

OP posts:
Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 05/03/2026 09:38

Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:22

Ah, I missed that. So band B would be fine but it's likely that @LiliaCuciuc was in band C - got it!

Show quote history

Just an update the school confirmed she was placed in Band C .She applied under criterion 2.1.2 with the clergy form (26+ services). Our distance is 6.197 miles.
In Band C, the last place offered in that category went to 3.478 miles
She is currently number 6 on the Band C Church waiting list. Does anyone know if position 6 on the waiting list realistically has any chance of moving?

OP posts:
Lougle · 05/03/2026 09:22

clary · 05/03/2026 09:04

@Lougle OP says about six miles away

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Ah, I missed that. So band B would be fine but it's likely that @LiliaCuciuc was in band C - got it!

clary · 05/03/2026 09:04

Lougle · 05/03/2026 07:52

How far away from the school are you? That might give you a clue as to which band she's in. If you're closer than 3.478 miles, then something has definitely gone wrong. If you're further away, then you need to know the band to know if something went wrong.

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@Lougle OP says about six miles away

Lougle · 05/03/2026 07:52

LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 20:04

So essentially it now depends on which academic band she was placed in following the test.
I haven’t yet confirmed her academic band, so that seems to be the key missing piece before I can properly understand what happened.Thanks again

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How far away from the school are you? That might give you a clue as to which band she's in. If you're closer than 3.478 miles, then something has definitely gone wrong. If you're further away, then you need to know the band to know if something went wrong.

Lougle · 05/03/2026 07:47

Millianire · 04/03/2026 23:03

They took a child that lived in Uxbridge under the Church of England criteria!
They are not honest about their admissions. My niece is muslim, doesn't live close to the school and still got offered a place, and other children that are CoE faith, attend church and live closer, did not get a place. They take the children who get the highest results in the test first, then CoE faith.
Not much movement with waiting list, but if you even get offered a place on the waiting list then your very lucky, most kids won't even be placed on the waiting list after they get rejected.

You need to stop saying this. You just don't understand how fair banding works. The whole point is that they don't take the people who scored highest in the test first.

There will be situations where a child doesn't get a place would have done if they had scored just one point higher or lower on the test, because they would have slipped into a different band, but that's just unfortunate.

Lougle · 05/03/2026 07:46

HeraOliver267 · 02/03/2026 20:21

From the data, on Band C the offers was only 3.478 miles in criterion 2.1.2

So anyone further than that wont have got an offer - there must have been more people in band C than others.

Band B it was over 8 miles.

Edited
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It won't be that there were more people in band C than others - that's the whole point of banding. It just means that the people in band C who qualified lived closer to the school. For band B, once they got to 3.478 miles (the max distance for band C), they still had places, so they went to 4 miles, then 5 miles, etc., until finally at 8.647 miles they had their last applicant to fill the place before moving on to open applicants.

Millianire · 04/03/2026 23:03

They took a child that lived in Uxbridge under the Church of England criteria!
They are not honest about their admissions. My niece is muslim, doesn't live close to the school and still got offered a place, and other children that are CoE faith, attend church and live closer, did not get a place. They take the children who get the highest results in the test first, then CoE faith.
Not much movement with waiting list, but if you even get offered a place on the waiting list then your very lucky, most kids won't even be placed on the waiting list after they get rejected.

HeraOliver267 · 02/03/2026 20:21

LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 19:22

Thank you, I appreciate the response.
She was placed under clause 2.1.2 (26+ services per year for three years at a Church of England church, but not St Marylebone Parish). So I don’t believe there was an error in how her category was applied.
My understanding is that places are allocated across all bands, and then prioritised within each band according to the faith criteria. Does that effectively mean that many (or most) applicants in 2.1.2 would also have had a clergy form confirming 26+ attendances?
If that’s the case, I assume it then came down to oversubscription within that clause and distance as a tie-break.

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From the data, on Band C the offers was only 3.478 miles in criterion 2.1.2

So anyone further than that wont have got an offer - there must have been more people in band C than others.

Band B it was over 8 miles.

Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 20:04

BananaDaiquiri · 02/03/2026 19:29

All applicants in 2.1.2 should have 26 plus attendances yes. 2.1.1 is same attendances but at St Marylebone church. 2.1.3 is 13+ attendances per year I believe.
So places in each band go to 2.1.1, then to 2.1.2 (prioritised in order of distance to school), if still space to 2.1.3 etc within in band, just as you described. This means that people in 2.1.3 have been admitted in other bands to you.

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So essentially it now depends on which academic band she was placed in following the test.
I haven’t yet confirmed her academic band, so that seems to be the key missing piece before I can properly understand what happened.Thanks again

OP posts:
BananaDaiquiri · 02/03/2026 19:48

The school has the banding. They will tell you when you ask for the waiting list position.

Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 19:46

BananaDaiquiri · 02/03/2026 19:18

Following on from my previous message, have just looked at the data. 3 out of the four bands have gone further than you OP, or to less church attendance. So the first thing is check what band you are in, in case there's been an error and they didn't get your clergy form or something. Otherwise, if your daughter is in the band which hasn't gone out as far as you, find out where you are on the waiting list. There will be at least some movement.

that is really useful.Thank you!I’m slightly confused about the banding system and hoping someone can clarify.
I know my daughter was placed under faith criterion 2.1.2 (26+ services at a CoE church), but I’ve never been told which academic band (A, B, C or D) she was allocated to after the banding test.
Is the band normally shared with parents, or do you have to request it from the school?
I’ve seen the allocation table showing how far each band went, but without knowing her band I can’t interpret it properly.

OP posts:
Original poster
LiliaCuciuc · 02/03/2026 19:45

FlockofSquirrels · 02/03/2026 19:28

The offers breakdown is here:
https://www.westminster.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/documents/how-places-were-offered-at-bi-borough-secondary-schools-2-march-2026.pdf

OP, did your daughter test in band C?

That is really useful.I’m slightly confused about the banding system and hoping someone can clarify.
I know my daughter was placed under faith criterion 2.1.2 (26+ services at a CoE church), but I’ve never been told which academic band (A, B, C or D) she was allocated to after the banding test.
Is the band normally shared with parents, or do you have to request it from the school?
I’ve seen the allocation table showing how far each band went, but without knowing her band I can’t interpret it properly. Thanks so much

OP posts:
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