We didn’t get any of our choices - appeals & what next

I'd get him on all the waiting lists, make sure they have key missing info and hang on. First week of term there will be some shuffle with kids who are hanging on or dithering about private school choices. If you're near the top of the waiting list he might get in then. I'd also have a look at the place you've been allocated - what is it doing with it's requires status? Get a good idea of what it's like & try to be positive about it in front of your son.

his dad, my husband, is acting as a carer for his father who lives 300m from the school (inside catchment)... (my husband is registered with his gp as a carer, and is on the electoral role of address within catchment

Does school 1 have a formal catchment area? The combined implication of this part of your OP is that while your husband's father lives within catchment, your child doesn't.

It's very confusing but is this a school with drama aptitude places, and in addition 5 different bandings, and a fixed catchment area which you are outside? And how do they allocate places within the different categories?

But if they take top 5% then top 15% isn't enough.

But you put your nearest selective school. Why didn't you put a non-selective?

Oh, and make absolutely no mention of the allocated school being unsuitable or not good enough. All schools are deemed suitable if they are open to pupils. No pupil is too good for any school. You have to use the things you don't like about the offered school and find the opposite in your preferred school. But again, that's only going to be relevant if the things you like can be evidenced as being helpful for your child specifically. For example, it's not enough to say "school A has excellent pastoral support". It has to be "school A has excellent pastoral support and my child has needed pastoral support over and above that offered to offer children at primary school." "School A has a football club and my child plays football regularly/was on the primary school football team." "School A has a music stream and my child plays music to grade 3". "School A has several small lunch halls rather than one big hall and my child is noise sensitive and doesn't cope with large groups".

Obviously you can't change it now the the final choice really needs to be somewhere which is realistic to get a place in. Otherwise its like applying to Cambridge and putting Oxford as your back up.

State school bounce around in reviews all the time. Local the school that required improvement 5 years ago is now outstanding, and visa versa.

Just bite the bullet and go private, or move into the catchment for one of better ones.

I used to sit on appeals panels.

"we have been allocated a school, we never discussed or even considered as it is required improvement and 7 miles in opposite direction to where we work/ nearest town."

Go and visit. RI schools get massive injections of support and money. You don't know why they are RI. It could be something irrelevant to what's important to you (e.g. my DDs' lovely old primary school got RI because they had a high turnover of staff due to teachers seeking promotion and so they didn't have a stable SLT - the teaching was still good, it was no different to the day before the judgement, it was fine).

You say that they take an even mix of bands, then say "They take the top 5%" which is it? If he's only in the top 15% then the top 5% is a stretch, unless they don't further break it down.

What aptitude for drama has he shown, and how has it been recognised? Has he attended a drama club, been in plays, local amateur dramatics group? You need something solid rather than 'he likes drama'. Have you investigated what drama opportunities the other school has?

"his dad, my husband, is acting as a carer for his father who lives 300m from the school (inside catchment). This means our son frequently needs to stay at his grandparents, and only this school would allow this with minimal impact on his schooling (my husband is registered with his gp as a carer, and is on the electoral role of address within catchment)"

For this to fly you'd have to say why you can't be home for him, why he can't be home alone in the morning if you need to, say, go to work. How often your DH stays at his father's house, and why your DS couldn't travel from that house/why your DH couldn't take him to school.

The faith element is sketchy. You didn't apply correctly, so no error was made. If it was really important to you, you would have applied correctly. It won't matter for appeals purposes, because each appeal is independent, but if it is so important to you, it should have been school 1, no? This strikes me as grasping at straws. But the panel won't know that.

Your big mistake is not putting your nearest school on your list. Because of that, the LA isn't obliged to offer transport to your allocated school. Some LAs will offer transport for the distance that is beyond that which the nearest school would be.

This really is a pickle. Without seeing the particulars of your case and the school's case, it's impossible to tell, but I'd say that on the face of it your grounds aren't very convincing.

Fortunately for the OP, because one appeals for a specific school, individually, then one can big up the 'need to be educated in an environment where everyone follows a religion, even if it's not the same one that we follow' for the faith school, whilst at another appeal hearing stress how much one's DC needs to be in a school whete some pupils got in on the strength of an entrance test, etc. In some places, the independent appeal panel will have a copy of the appellant's CAF in front of them (which really helps in assessing whether an error may have been made in processing the application), in others, not. If the OP finds a copy of their CAF turns up in their appeal paperwork for any or all of the schools appealed for, my advice would be to emphasise the aspects of the school that are 'very important', not what they 'must have', if it's obvious that e.g. faith isn't really the most important thing if two higher preferences have no faith criteria.

Re the number of preferences one can list on one's CAF, the minimum which an LA must allow to comply with the Admissions Code is three. Just because my LA allows five, or every London borough six, doesn't mean that the OP lives in an LA which allows more than three.

Plus, like another pp, I am also confused re the test - if it's just a banding test, then the oversubscription criteria within a band cannot include score order. So if the 'top 15%' means 'in top band', then there have to be other criteria for allocating within that band - LAC / PLAC must come first, then e.g. sibling, distance.

And your dh becoming a carer will not have any influence. Your ds can travel independently.

Why are you only now willing to provide supplementary information like his illness and faith? Should that not have formed part of your original application in October? The illness information would need some substantiating evidence that his normal level of working was compromised and his result not reflective of his aptitude, will his primary head support this? Even the top performing 15% may not all get automatic places each time, depending on number of applicants to places and and any tie-breaking criteria applied.

It was a risky strategy as others have said and being honest, I don’t think your grounds for appeal are very strong.
Where I live, there is a lot of shift with secondary places when the independent school places come out. Best advice is to get on the wait list for anything you’d be happy with particularly any schools that might be regarded a ‘back up’ for anyone applying to independent schools.

Play silly games.... Get silly prizes.

Yikes, agree that was a risky top 3 to pick, esp with the application screw up for 3. Are 1&2 religious schools? If not, it’s a bit bogus to say he must have religious education. But anyway, get on all the waiting lists of closet schools whether you originally applied for them, that should be possible. Also accept the offered place and look into the positives more. Required improvement schools can and do improve and students’ experiences don’t always reflect ofsted. Hope it all works out.

You don’t actually say how close the offered school is to your home, only that it’s 7miles from your work and nearest town. Is it in fact your closest school?

I don’t think any of what you outline is grounds for a successful appeal tbh. Stay on the waiting lists and be prepared to stay on them until early autumn.

It varies according to area as to how many schools you can put down. Ours is six, the area next to us is four.

Yes, ours used to be 3 but is now 5, a friends is still 3.

Just to flag, some areas do only offer three slots on the preference form (note - preference not choice). We only got three.

All the more reason then to put your actual local school as an option, especially if the ones you are listing otherwise are popular.

@Switchy111 you can surely go on the WL for your most local school, even if you did not apply. I am not an appeals expert (tho plenty on this board are) but I would say the strongest aspect is the drama one if you can evidence an interest (eg external drama groups he attends).

I don't really understand the banding argument – for schools that do a banding test (we have one locally) the school takes x number from each band so it doesn't matter how well you do really; but is the school also selective so takes y number from the top band? And the second choice school – it may not have a catchment as such but there must be a tie-breaker. Did you not get in based on distance? How far from the allocated distance were you?

I’m sorry but IME the fact that your ds can easily get to his GPs is not the kind of thing that is considered.

You can appeal tho for sure – and go on WLs of any schools that are preferable to the one allocated. Yes and accept that one.

Your application was so risky!! You should always list catchment non-selective one as back-up! Since school 1 and 2 choose 20% from each ability group, I'm not sure arguing his score should have been higher will help. And school 3 application errors are unfortunate. Good luck, but your strategy has been too high risk here.

You found out the hard way that if you are unplaced you’ll just get allocated wherever has a place left and that is always going to be an undesirable school that is undersubscribed.

It catches people out year after year. I was surprised to read you had 3 choices, isn't it 5 usually? Who advised you not to add your local catchment school?

Your appeal reasons sound like 'dog ate my home-work explanations' but you may get lucky.

I am convinced your son will get a place at a nearer school via the waiting list and hope he doesn't have to attend the school further away.

You needed to choose one school, that you would definitely get into and met the entry criteria for, as a backup. That's why he's been given whatever was left over with spaces.

Good luck with the appeals, but I wouldn't hold my breath tbh. I would get him on the waiting list for your local school.

None of the schools will know your place on the waiting list until all the offers have been accepted or declined. In the area I work, that is on 16th of March so there really isn’t any point contacting the schools to ask which position you are.

I’m also of the opinion it was very naive to not put a very local School on the form, even if it was last choice. You found out the hard way that if you are unplaced you’ll just get allocated wherever has a place left and that is always going to be an undesirable school that is undersubscribed.

I can’t really comment on your grounds for appeal because I don’t work in that area, but I I do know there is a lot of movement in the waitlist when offers start to be declined or accepted so hopefully you’ll get one of your top three at some point between now and September.

Oh, and accept the place from the undesirable school otherwise your child will not have anywhere to start in September worst-case scenario.

For applications to UK secondary schools it is strongly recommended to list between 3 and 6 schools depending on your local authority rules. We had 3 schools then we applied to list as I recall.
You can't expect to get a place if you only list the schools everyone wants. It can be a dangerous game.