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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Friend said this was pfb

400 replies

holidayroad · 24/02/2015 14:17

I was talking to my friend the other day, she asked what schools I put down for my DD's primary school admission (she starts reception in September).

The schools near me are all oversubscribed and we have visited 5 of them. I explained that we had struggled to narrow down our choice after visiting the first 5, so arranged to visit them all again just before the closing date.

One school refused to allow us a 2nd visit - now I appreciate that it is a big school and a lot of parents want their DC to go there, but I used their refusal to allow us a 2nd visit as a basis to rule that school out as I feel if they are not prepared to go above and beyond for us on the selection basis then they cannot possibly be the best school for my DC.

My friend has DC at this school and said I was being ridiculously pfb to expect them to arrange a 2nd visit.

I think this is too important a decision to be taken lightly.

So over to you, who is BU?

OP posts:
sanfairyanne · 25/02/2015 13:44

if they are all oversubscribed but you will not qualify on distance from school, why are you confident of a place? do you match other criteria such as sibling link or religion? just curious really.

WayfaringStranger · 25/02/2015 13:44

The vast majority want what's best for their children, no one deserves special treatment. It sounds like you don't understand the school admissions process at all. I hope, for your sake, that you've been sensible.

MrsHathaway · 25/02/2015 13:50

Hope you get good news in April, OP.

var123 · 25/02/2015 13:51

I've just seen the latest posts. I take it back: I don't feel sorry for the OP any more. I feel sorry for whoever gets the dubious honour of being her DD's first teacher though.

Vijac · 25/02/2015 14:00

Yanbu unreasonable to want to visit a school but yabu to rule one out purely because you couldn't. They are obviously focusing their limited resource on teaching not recruitment. Which given they're oversubscribed must be the right decision! Totally get your friends view, though not the pfb bit just that the school must be busy.

DustyGold · 25/02/2015 14:11

I do think some people are being rather harsh.
When you do something the first time, it is the first time and mistakes can be made.
Holiday, it probably would have been best to have put this school as your 3rd choice.
However, fingers crossed you do get one of the other schools if you have not done this.
If you don't get a school of choice you will need to take things from there and seek advice from LA etc.
I wish you well.

cartoonsaveme · 25/02/2015 14:32

Holiday I think people are interested how you can be so confident when you have put down 3 oversubscribed schools but not your catchment one? You must live almost in the playground or something???

arethereanyleftatall · 25/02/2015 14:33

Op, you are implying by your posts that you think the councils will bypass their criteria to 'accommodate' you and your dc.
They really, really won't.
You are either closest to the school, or you are not. ( or whatever their criteria is).
And if your dc doesn't get in, and you go and kick up a fuss, that also has no affect.
We really couldn't be any clearer. Given that you have had hundreds of responses trying to explain the rules to you, and you have failed to grasp them, I'm beginning to see how you missed it in the first place.

MagratsHair · 25/02/2015 14:36

OP I hope you get the school you want, if you don't & need advice on appeals in April then come & post again :)

I hope you will update this thread in a couple of months & let us know what happened. Best of luck :)

var123 · 25/02/2015 14:53

if there are only 3 preferences then maybe the area's schools are not oversubscribed to the extent we are all imagining?

Parents in my area had the nbr of preferences increased when the schools became genuinely oversubscribed.

tiggytape · 25/02/2015 14:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

reni1 · 25/02/2015 15:00

I also hope you get in, OP, good luck. Maybe you are right next door to the schools, really oversubscribed one can have tiny catchment areas, ours is 0.3 miles and I know smaller ones.

I have seen this happen to friends, appeals are almost never won. The parents often feel really hard done by and indignant, even though they had only madly ambitious school choices.

arethereanyleftatall · 25/02/2015 15:02

In thinking that too var. there's no way op would be being so smug if they were genuinely oversubscribed, or she doesn't live on their doorstep.
Round our way, my friend missed out on her school and her distance away from school was 104m. Last allocated spot was 102m.

var123 · 25/02/2015 15:04

reni - especially in infant classes that have the 30 pupil ceiling.

BeCool · 25/02/2015 16:01

Our catchment area is also .3 miles.
If you live on the wrong floor of a nearby block of flats you can miss out on a place.

Alibabsandthe40Musketeers · 25/02/2015 16:09

I have to say I am finding the use of the word 'accommodated' very amusing.

It is as if the OP knows she is going to be a pain in the ass parent that wants the rules bent hither and yon, before her daughter even starts Grin

PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 25/02/2015 16:10

Where I used to live between 0.2 - 0.4 miles was common for schools.

0.5 is common where we live now. It is only recent and people haven't quite got used to that. Those with their eldest child in year 2 or above are baffled that choice has all but disappeared.

ilovesooty · 25/02/2015 16:18

If the OP really thinks she'll get a place in any school other than an undersubscribed school miles away she's seriously deluded and incredibly arrogant.

Miltonmaid · 25/02/2015 16:21

Are all three schools oversubscribed? If so then the op has been very foolish not putting down the catchment school. Did you not take the time to read the admissions criteria? They won't have to accommodate you in one of those schools, they'll find you a place in a school with free places.

cartoonsaveme · 25/02/2015 16:22

0.2-0.4 near us is typical but they flux and change. There were 5 sets of twins in DC1 year. I am not joking. And 2/3 siblings

Original poster
holidayroad · 25/02/2015 16:44

The schools are oversubscribed, but not you the point that you obviously all think.

Our catchment school had 137 applications for 60 places last year, for instance, and the last child to get in was a sibling who was out of catchment by half a mile.

So hardly coming down to what floor of tower block you are on Hmm no tower blocks around here anyway

OP posts:
Alibabsandthe40Musketeers · 25/02/2015 16:47

And what about the schools that you have applied for?

If your child is an eldest, so no sibling link, and meets no other criteria that pushes her up the list, then she is going to have a tough time getting in. Do you live within the furthest distances where places were allocated last year at the schools you have listed?

Floggingmolly · 25/02/2015 16:49

But you haven't applied to the catchment school, have you? If not; they won't reserve a place for you, you know?

cartoonsaveme · 25/02/2015 16:51

How relevant that is depends of course on the priority order. I guess 1&2 LAC and SEN 3 catchment siblings, 4 catchment non sibling, 5 none catchment sibling, 6 none catchment other on distance. In that case you would be a cat 6 for the schools you have applied for?

PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 25/02/2015 16:52

"Our catchment school had 137 applications for 60 places last year, for instance, and the last child to get in was a sibling who was out of catchment by half a mile."

I'm not sure that this proves what you think it does about how oversubscribed the schools are.

If was the most common admission criteria (for non-church schools) it went:

  • Looked after children, children with statements naming the school, etc;
  • Siblings in catchment;
  • Non-siblings in catchment;
  • Siblings out of catchment;
  • Non-siblings out of catchment.

So, based on your scenario, they probably didn't get as far as admitting any non-siblings who didn't live in the catchment. The only people who got in were either in catchment, or out of catchment siblings.

If that is the admission criteria, then anyone not living in catchment and applying for an eldest/only child wouldn't have got in.

Are the schools you did apply for similar?