Secondary school offer day disaster – independent place but no bursary. Appeal chances?

OP indicated it was more of a problem if she didn't get it refunded than for her to find the money by tomorrow, but I may have read that wrong.

But it sounds as if the OK never contemplated paying full fees. Her OP mentions expectations of a scholarship (which I assume would have come with a substantial fee waiver?). Her thread title mentions no bursary, so we must assume she applied for bursaries as well. Either way, she was presumably prepared to pay a deposit on the basis of achieving a scholarship / bursary place. With reduced or no fees.

Instead she has the place, without the fee reduction.

It’s a crap position to be in.

I would struggle to find £2000 tomorrow but if I needed to pay for a child to go to independent school, I could have a proper plan in place which would involve selling capital, working full time, shifting some things around etc.

Of course I am not claiming this is the case for the OP. It just isn’t as straightforward as ‘well you can’t afford £2500 so you can’t afford £25000.’

@Putneyparent don't do this. Phoning schools is not appropriate. They will have one very busy admissions clerk - they are not a call centre. Email them instead. However, you may get an auto-reply with a date when your waiting list place will be available. (In my borough that date is after the second round of offers).

They even have data on where admissions were at on 31st August in previous years! Sorry, I'm just amazed as I've had zero success getting this information out of my LA.

Totally this. To go to private you have to have a lot of give in your finances, otherwise you will be dreading every new term invoice. That deposit should be like pennies to you, if it’s not then it’s not worth the stress for the next few years.

If you're in Putney there is great admissions data available online. Sorry if you've already seen all of this!

www.wandsworth.gov.uk/schools-and-admissions/admissions/school-admissions-statistics/

Have you looked at 'on time offers' data for previous years for the state schools you would be happy with? How far out were you this year? In my borough the offer letter includes this data - last distance offered/siblings/nearest high school etc. I'm sure you can email the LA for it if they haven't included it. You can also ask admissions for the distance to school calculated for your address. So if, for example, last distance offered was 1.3 miles and you are 1.32 miles you might have a good chance of a place on the waiting list. If you are far out using all criteria you might be looking at an appeals process.

Waiting lists do move - I turned down our state offer as my DS is going to an independent school. I expect there are other parents doing the same this week.

@Putneyparent you need to accept the state place you have been offered. Did you put your closest mainstream school on your CAF form? If you did, you'll be entitled for transport to the allocated school.

Do not take the private school place. You can't afford it. Unmanageable debt and the stress that brings, especially knowing that he is responsible, will do your DS more harm than a less than ideal school.

Get on every waiting list you can reasonably consider.

Have you looked at the allocated school? Even the prospectus/website? Is it ok, despite not being what you want, or is it in some way lacking something you think your DS needs that another school has? That's the starting place of an appeal.

The way you phrase it He sat a few 11+ tests and has been offered a place at an independent school sounds to me as if you really didn’t pay much attention to any bursary applications you made. (Assuming you did apply for them?)

In my experience, for parents applying for a significant bursary, it takes up your whole life for months - the process isn’t a throwaway add on to state school applications. So it looks as if you didn’t move heaven and earth to persuade the bursary assessors their school would be impossible without one.

I’m afraid I agree that if losing the deposit would be financially crushing, you really don’t want to find yourself paying fees.

I suggest you accept the state school place, appeal if realistic and, in the meantime, investigate whether there’s still time to apply and prepare for independent school 13+ exams - where you’ll have another opportunity to try (hard) for a bursary.

(But that’s looking at it from your point of view; it may feel different for your child.)

Unless you are about to come into an inheritance or something, you can’t afford private school if you "absolutely cannot" afford to lose £2700.

Most WL won't be allocated for a couple of weeks so you'll be in limbo for a little bit.

Agree with PP. You can't afford the indie so rule it out now. Waitlists move a lot over the next 6 months so I think you have a good chance at getting a place somewhere you want.

When you selected your preferences, did you put any that your child was sure to get a place at? Did you fulfil the criteria for a place at any, or all of your preferences?

I know that people make sacrifices to send their children to fee paying schools, but if you look at the long term picture, can you realistically budget for at least five years of fees, also taking into account that these may rise, as will the cost of living expenses?

Have you visited the allocated school? Sometimes, you have form a different opinion when you’ve seen it.

Firstly, academic scholarships are generally only up to 20/25% so not sure if that would have made fees affordable. There are exceptions but not many.

I assume you applied for a bursary but didn’t get it? Do you know why?

Accepting the indie place will not affect appeal chances but it sounds like you really can’t afford independent. As pp say the deposit is the tip of a very very large iceberg. So I would be very nervous about going that route.

Do you know your WL position for the 3 schools you applied for?

Do you have any grounds for appeal other than “we prefer these schools”?

Phone round the schools today and find out where you are on the waiting lists

Agree with this. And if you have to hold out on waiting lists beyond the start of next term you would also be liable for a term’s fees if you then withdrew. Was he allocated any state school, were your preferences realistic? Are there others which are more acceptable to you but you did not list.

How would the appeals panel know you have the independent place?

Sadly though, if you can't afford to lose the deposit, you can't afford independent. The inflationary increases alone could come to that.

This

• get on the waitlist for the state schools you want. Waitlists do move quite a bit between now and Sept.

• call the independent school and ask if there is anything that can be done to lower the fees. It’s a long shot but you may be lucky.
• if they say no, then don’t pay the deposit. They’ll come after you for first term’s fees too if he doesn’t end up going there.
• get on the waitlist for the state schools you want. Waitlists do move quite a bit between now and Sept.

What are you planning to put as the basis for your appeal op?

To accept the indie place I have to pay a £2,725 non-refundable holding deposit, which I absolutely cannot afford to lose if he doesn’t end up going there.

This doesnt make ANY sense...
You can find 25k net a year but you absolutely cannot afford 2.7k?

Assuming
A. my own finances ( which mean private is possible but a strain) and
b. that the state option is shit.

I'd 100% take the private place and look to waitlist for state ... thereby either losing the £2.7k or pay the fees and send him private with a view to transfering a 13+ or after gcses...once he's in if hes good you might be able to negotiate some bursary / scholarship.
Some of the state school I've seen make me shudder

Your application form expressed preferences, not "choices", so the fact that you got none of them is immaterial at an appeal hearing. Were they realistic preferences? It is always worth including one school on the list that you know you have a realistic chance of getting a place at, so that you don't end up with a random allocation.

You can now join the waiting list for as many schools as you want, so that may be worth doing.

You won't win an appeal just because you don't like the allocated school.

I agree with others – if the £2k deposit is a stretch it sounds as tho the private school is not an affordable option, so I would take that off the table.

• Accept the offered place (and maybe go and see it and big it up)
• Go on as many WLs as you can – did you apply to your most local school? If not that’s a good WL bet
• Appeal by all means – find things about the appealed-for schools that are not offered elsewhere as others say, such as a sporting offer that your DC is demonstrably able at, ditto music (orchestra and they play flute) or a subject such as MFL that they can show aptitude for or links to (German grandparents etc)

This is perhaps somewhat cavalier as I don’t know your income or the school fees or any finer details but I honestly would sell my body rather than send my children to some of the secondary schools I’ve worked in.

Thats glib, I know, and a good state option is best but if that isn’t happening I would be very tempted to go with the independent school.