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?

An important point from *FrazzledMum" 's post is that

if you think you have exceptional circumstances you need to mention them in the application

You can only win an ICS appeal on very limited grounds, and the council will not have acted wrongly for not taking into account (when making the allocations) information which they did not have at the time.

Not much use for those waiting for news tomorrow (hasn't 1March come around quickly all of a sudden) but perhaps worth mentioning for those who are reading ahead.

Lalalyra you're not guaranteed a place at your catchment school except at p1/s1 entry, at least in Edinburgh. If you move in at a later point it's a case of trying to find somewhere with a space.

Edinburgh is creaking in places but it is primarily due to a series of short term ill thought out stupid decisions by the council where they closed a bunch of schools at the start of a birth rate boom and then failed to allow expansion capacity in various places. So as an example there are two city centre high schools which have both been rebuilt, one not even open yet, which are already expected to breach their capacity by 2018. So they're already looking at a shared annexe to accommodate. That's just bad planning- they've sold one of the old buildings for housing....

Another place they closed one school entirely about 10 years ago. The neighbouring school absorbed the catchment. It's now had 2 extensions, next school in both directions also been extended and one of those is now looking at an entire rebuild on a new site - to allow for new builds which are going up and so that they can shrink the catchment of the twice expanded school which absorbed the closure. Between them the expansion of these schools roughly equals the capacity of the closed one.

The basic concept works fine, but it does require a bit of forward thinking to ensure there's enough spaces. Ime the reason Edinburgh creaks in places is just bad management.

Meditrina - I said the same to everyone I spoke to that was applying the next year. I did find an old legal case that said that they do have to accept information given later in some instances which they agreed with at the appeal but we were told that mental issues (not sure if that is the correct term) do not count because they can grow out of them!! Don't even get me started on how ridiculous it is to not consider mental health as a real special need grr
Still bitter about it all even though it actually worked out very well for us in the end lol

I'm in Scotland too and there are waiting lists in several of the year groups at our school; if you apply after the P1 applications you won't necessarily get in. However schools do have problems fitting in increasing numbers of P1 classes. Libraries and other spaces get sacrificed to be turned into classrooms.

There is also the issue of people buying into catchments of good schools pushing the house prices up. (People do still consider good/bad schools but have less choice about accepting it). Having said that, the results of our well-performing secondary are probably due in no small part to the fact the practically every child is privately tutored in several subjects.

Haven't read the whole thread, but some people can be extraordinarily dim when it comes to admissions. I remember when we were applying for a school place many years ago we went to a talk by the local authority's admissions officer, and she said that every year a number of parents did exactly what the OP describes, ie put the same school as their first, second and third choice. If the school is oversubscribed and the child doesn't meet the criteria, then the child will be merely allocated a place at the nearest available school with places left over - which will usually be a school that is either a) a long way from home b) really crap c) both.

It amazes me that these people manage to hold down jobs or indeed to function in daily life. Who is so cavalier about their children's education that they can't be bothered to find out how the admissions system works?

Anyone know if they take into consideration siblings at an adjacent school, so not in the actual school applied for?

bigearsthethird - I wouldn't think so. For a start, they wouldn't know that the applicant had siblings in an adjacent school if it wasn't mentioned on the application. They will simply apply the rules, so if you don't meet the criteria for the choices you've given, you will be allocated the nearest available school with places.

By adjacent school do you mean the linked Junior school, or just a nearby school?

"Anyone know if they take into consideration siblings at an adjacent school, so not in the actual school applied for?"

Only if it explicitly says so in the entrance criteria.

This isn't terribly likely, unless they are twin (IYSWIM) single sex schools. Infants and juniors may also be linked, but that would be by nominating the infants as a priority feeder school to the junior, and they do not need to be adjacent (and that!0's not an uncommon arrangement)

I know someone who thinks they are playing the system by putting down a school they have no chance of getting into as a third choice to 'force' the LA to give them their 1st or 2nd choice. I've explained that this isn't how it works but misinformation such as 'my cousin's milkman's friend did this and got in' is rampant.

If she does get her first or second choice (through due process!) then she'll tell others how she successfully played the system and the misinformation goes on.

OP I think I live in your area

I can only presume that the person you are talking about intends to go private unless she gets this particular RC school. Which she won't.

I did write on the application in the comments box the reason for my first choice was siblings at the school right next door, but they are not linked schools, they are seperate academies but do share common facilities. Sibling at the current school moves to the next door school next year when my other one starts so I was hoping that would be taken into consideration. Just clutching at straws here!

"Anyone know if they take into consideration siblings at an adjacent school, so not in the actual school applied for?"

Only if it says so explicitly in the admissions criteria. You do see this very occasionally for single-sex schools close to each other, perhaps in the same academy chain. For example, Watford Grammar School for Girls and Watford Grammar School for Boys have a cross sibling policies. It's rare though, and if not referred to explicitly, then won't be taken into consideration.

Why do the application forms have a space for "extra information ", given if you are applying under the starement/special needs category you need to provide extra paperwork anyway?

I think that large blank box just encourages people to think that an essay about how Granny will be collecting the child is relevant and will be taken into account. What's the point of it?

The extra info is just for things which are already in the form. Like "NB " Jenny Jones is a triplet and must be in the same school as Judy and Jessy Jones."

blaeberry - I can't imagine it's popular with parents of children who are already in the school to suddenly find the library and other spaces have been turned into additional classrooms for younger children!

I think I know where the idea that faith schools have to hold places for none-faith children comes from - did it used to be (before prescribed class sizes) that faith schools could just take the number of children that fit their requirements, so if there were 20 children from church families one year, they took 20, if there were 36 the following,they took 36 etc. once the set class sizes came in, if there were spare spaces after all the faith ones had been allocated, then they 'had' to take from other applications based on distance. And if in one town they'd only ever had less church families than spaces available, then it would look like they had X number for the church and Y number for non-faith applications. (before middle class parents learned to 'play' the faith school system!)

We are awaiting secondary school places next week. There are only three choices near us anyway, one is a boys school, so out for dd.The majority of girls in DD's year have put the local girls school as first choice. DD wants the mixed comp as her first preference-hopefully she will get in as everyone else it seems wants the girls/boys school.
But there will be a lot of disappointed girls in her year next week as the girls school is oversubscribed.
I'm sure in their admissions policy is said that if you live in an outlying village to the town where the school is you get extra weighting to your application-so in that case even someone living nearer to it might miss out given that it is oversubscribed.
It all seems super complicated-Scottish system seems much clearer!!

Yes we used the extra info box to ask sure they knew we were applying for twins.

My LA says in large letters that doing this doesn't put you further up the list and doesn't guarantee a place - your mate is an idiot and going to end up with a wholly unsuitable school because it probably won't even be the closest.

Nigel - if you are in England or Wales, Secondary decisions are due tomorrow.

A primary near us has that sort of defined catchment - priority on distance within it is applied in reverse, because those on the edge of it have a long journey to other schools whilst if you live near the school there are several others within walking distance. It catches people out every year.

If our school only took children that actually live in the village it would have a role call of about 14.

My dd starts in September, I've also applied for three schools but not my very closest.

I filled the extra information box for dd because, even though she does have an autism diagnosis and sn, she doesn't have a statement.

After visiting all of our local schools we chose the three we felt would be able to provide the extra help dd needs.

When we enquirer about the statement we weee advised it would only be needed if dd had trouble at school.

I'm wondering if we should have pushed for one now...nearest school has substandard sn provision.

Patricia-I don't know why I put next week! Brain freeze!

"filled the extra information box for dd because, even though she does have an autism diagnosis and sn, she doesn't have a statement."

This will only make a difference if the school has an exceptional medical/social need admissions category.

Althought ai think all schools should have such a category, it's not compulsory.