To think this amounts to a monumental reception place fuck up?

[DelphineCormier]

Parent only wants DC to go to the nearest outstanding school. School is a religious school, prioritiss kids of same denomination and is in an area with a place shortage. It is oversubscribed by kids who meet the religious criteria every year. In area as a whole there have been cases the last few years of kids getting no place at all. Lots go private. Family is not religious at all, let alone this denomination. Parent therefore puts down this school in every option box on application form, adds in additional comments box that they work full time and can't home educate because DC would be at home alone all day. Needs this school because is most convenient for drop offs and child is exceptionally bright. Parent isn't worried about allocation day, thinks they have it sorted. Aibu to think no council is that stupid?

No that's not playing the system Turkey as there's no guarantee you will win. If something unexpected happens this year like your first choice school has a massive take up of sibs places & you don't get in, then you also don't get in to your 2nd choice as it wasn't attainable or a reasonable 2nd choice. So you are put in a C group, everyone else is allocated their first and second places then anyone who didn't get their first or second place comes into your C group as well. The C group are then allocated a school according to which school has places, i.e. the schools that weren't chosen by many parents for various reasons. Once you have been allocated a place the LA has fulfilled its duty & they have no further duty to offer you a school that's acceptable to you.

turkey No, it's not playing the system but your post suggests you think that you will automatically get your first prefermce (not choice!) because you definitely won't get your second. It doesn't work like that.

Anyone who has put down your first preference will be listed according to the admittance criteria (LAC, distance, sibling etc etc). If there are 30 places and you are 45th on the list then you won't get a place. The same process will happen for your second preference school.

Your preference only comes into play if you could be offered two places. So let's say for arguments sake you are eligible for a place at both, they will then look at which was your higher preference and give you that (even though you could in theory be much higher up the ranking of a lower preference).

Your place would then be taken out of the ranking list for the second preference school and everyone on that list would bump up a place.

In your scenario, if you are not lucky enough to get your first or second preference then, after everyone else's preferences have been allocated, you'll be given the nearest available school with places.

That's why you are always advised to list a "banker". As much as you desperately might not want your child to go to a "bad" school within walking distance, it'll be far better than a "bad" school 10 miles away.

And if schools that were originally set up by a racist organisation, would we be happy with whites only admissions policies?

Religious segregation in schools is abhorrent. It's a historical anomaly that should be abolished.

tiggy is a quicker typer than me though!

The woman on the checkout's child could have been a looked after child or have SEN
I thought that too

Turkey - the way it works here, is all the children who've applied for a school place at school A, be it as 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice, are ordered from 1-X however many apply based on the criteria. (sibling, distance, faith etc) If there's 2 class entry so 60 places, children placed 1-60 on the list would get a place, however if they have put it as their 2nd choice and also get in the 1-60 (or whatever it is!) for their 1st choice (school B), they drop off the list for A and everyone below moves up one. If you put it as your 2nd choice and don't get choice 1, your position in the list for choice 2 is not effected.

There is a village school near us with 1 form entry (so 30 places), but the year that DC1 went to school, there were 26 siblings, which all took priority over 'distance', so there were children on the same road who didn't get in and everyone was very shocked. That was very unusual, they'd never had more than 10 siblings before. If there was something like that going on with your local school, I'd assume you'd have heard about it !!!

oh X post with everyone explaining to Turkey!

BTW - if you don't get yoru first choice, worth thinking living that close, it's likely you'd be be top of the waiting list (which will also be ordered on the same criteria) so if anyone doesn't take their place (eg. a sibling place but the family have moved house since applying and now sending all DCs to the school in the new area), then you'd be most likely to get a place.

I know C of E families who were totally pissed off when the Greek Orthodox state secondary opened a few years ago in London. They failed to see the irony

The sad thing about this sort of thing is that it still goes on at secondary level. A friend of mine only put down one choice (I so wish that would be changed in general language to preference) As "Then they have to give it to you" I tried explaining to her that this was not how it worked but she was adamant and did as she wanted. Come allocation day her DS didn't get this school. DD1 she managed fine no issue Come DD2 she wanted the same school as DD1 and DS however the rules on free bus passes had changed and they no longer were given out for this school She appealed on the basis of "it wasnt fair that DD2 didnt get it when DD1 and DS had" Was genuinely surprised this was not taken as a reason for an appeal.

I guess you can look forward to a "shocked friend" op when your friends dd doesn't get into this school. Then cries of how unfair it all was and how they don't understand why their special lil one NEEDS this school and are ruining her life..

With regards to church schools. DD3 goes to one and when she got in (2ndary) I had 5 parents slide up next to me in the playgroup to find out " how I had managed to get her in" Errrr same way as everyone else I attend church.... "Oh I didn't know you were like that" was the response.

Still wondering what " like that is" As I sure as heck had not changed who or how I was. I just happen to go to a different church than most of the local parents did and I was not involved in a lot of the church activities nor do I speak much of my church going. Apparently that makes me "like that".. Who knew.

Someone I know did something similar. They got allocated a piss-poor school instead.

I have a friend who's done the same with secondary places.

Applied for school on the other side of town which only reached criteria 2 last year. Looked after kids, then kids in catchment.

She's not worried at all as they told her she would have more chance if she only put one school down

You will have to let us know if she got the place :)

The annoying thing is though, once every few years a parent will try to play the system by only putting one school down & something illogical will happen like no siblings, then they get in & they spend the next 10 years triumphantly telling everyone that it worked for them & other people will try it in good faith as the original person will be utterly convinced it was down to their cleverness!

My DS started secondary last Sep & I had a thread at the time as Admissions fucked up the allocating & 20 people were allocated their first school, everyone else got theirs then it turned out a mistake was made & the 20 people had their offer withdrawn. Not too sure what happened, whether they got their 2nd place or not as all the offers had been made by that time...

I also hear every year of some people not realising you have to apply for a reception place & missing the deadline. Some are told by their child's nursery so manage to get an application in but some whose kids don't attend a nursery think that places are allocated automatically, not realising they have to apply. I think that it might be an idea if councils sent out letters or info packs to the parents of 3 year olds to let them know the procedure.

I remember a few years ago there was a woman on here who had a daughter at a grammar. Her second daughter hadn't scored high enough for a grammar place but she was accidentally offered one. They then tried to retract the place a couple of days later. The mother, who was a lawyer i think was trying to fight it. Anyone remember it or know whether she kept the place?

I would be wary about assuming you'll get a place just because you live on the same road though

My school has the name of the road it's on Bash Street and the end of the road is not catchment.

I might be wrong for the rest of the country, but where I live siblings is no longer taken into account.

A friend of mine, was very nervous about applying for the school for her DS because she now lives outside the catchment area, but her DD is in the school. Otherwise she was going to have a hell of a time trying to get them both to school on time

I might be wrong for the rest of the country, but where I live siblings is no longer taken into account.

I think that in England at least the criteria are set by the county.
I know that sibling are the first criteria in my county.

I work as a SBM in an academy primary so we have to carry out our own rankings according to our admissions policy.

The LA send me a file of all the applicants (whether they have put down our school as first second or third choice) and then I rank them all. Some parents put down all sorts of information about how clever their children are, how they need to come to this school because grandparents/ childminder is close by etc.
Unfortunately I have to ignore all of that info and work strictly to the criteria

I think in our area she wouldn't even get the nearest school - she'd be allocated after all preferences had been taken into account. So she wouldn't even get the best option she could have had, she'd get the least popular school in the LEA. But maybe I'm confusing secondary with primary.

Last year there was a number of kids left with no school place at all in this area. Eventually I think some went private/bulge class was created. So it's not even a guarantee of a school place somewhere.

I think nationally it's a shockingly high number left with no place at all.

I didn't put down more than one option for my youngest's reception place, but that's because his brother is at the achool and it's under subscribed.

When his sister went to seniors we followed the best advice at that time though, and put three sensible choices. She was lucky enough to get her first choice.

I can't believe people still think they can outwit the system though.

A couple of years ago a TV programme was on about Birmingham and how they allocate places.

I think (not entirely sure) the forms went in before 11+ exams, they were certainly in before the results. Birmingham has some grammars but a) is not fully selective and b) the grammars can and do take children out of catchment if they pass the 11+.

Someone at the council spent a lot of time phoning parents who had only selected grammar schools and the form and suggesting they select at least 1 comp they would be happy for their child to attend.

Twas very interesting.