Aibu to think parents need to be more sensible when applying for school places

[WorkingBling]

Obviously, applying is stressful ans there are lots of reasons to be genuinely concerned. But today i have been biting my tongue all day.

1. The whatsapp group of existing families at a school terrified their second child wont get in (we have a siblings policy and on average, 50-60% of new children are siblings).

2 the woman i got chatting to whose first, second ans third choice schools are ALL way outside of the all previous years' catchment zones. She is very very upset she got her 4th choice. But what did she think would happen?!

Dont get me wrong, i am sympathetic to the overall issue of worrying about school places. When applying for ds we were on edge of the catchment zone from previous years so i knew a few extra applications could easily mean we would not get a place at preferred school. But at least our choice was within accepted catchment area (around here primary school zones vary from about 0.4 miles to 1 mile). I just dont understand why people dont read the guidelines correctly, giving themselves so much unnecessary stress.

Working there are two hundred new houses being built in the village and 900 new houses being built one village away. There is going to be huge pressure put in all the local schools and we are out of catchment for the school my son goes to. My fear is my 2020 all those houses will be built and there’s suddenly going to be lots of extra children within catchment who will come above my youngest. So I might have two children at different schools which will be a nightmare.

Why is it like this?

Not enough school places.
People being told they have a choice and not understanding the difference between preference and choice.
People not reading the information they are given.

I live near an LEA that said in their projection that based on birth rates they knew they didn't have enough school places for 3 or 4 years time but that they hoped central government or private finance would come in and fund new school places. Great planning there.

My son's school has expanded to meet local need, however more houses are being build here. Developers are required to give money to local schools however its up to the LEA where the money goes. Last time houses went up, the developer money went to a different school that children in the new houses had no chance of getting into.

We had a 'baby boom' in my local area of London a few years ago and many children living locally didn't get any schools at all, even if parents applied to all their (4 or 5) closest schools. It was an absolute nightmare and the stress was immense on some families. since then, even if more school places have been created, many families are in a state of panic about school places.

However, I do agree that some parents don't understand the system or don't think the rules apply to them. We have two primary schools that are faith schools and many people put down only the faith schools - and have not read the criteria about church attendance. When they are not offered a place they cry 'well that's very Christian, not giving US a place!' (when the criteria clearly states that the family has to attend church regularly).

Don’t forget - people who expected to and then got their first choice won’t be discussing it so much so you won’t hear about them.

The city I live in - over 94% got their first choice this year. But the city Facebook “mums page” is still full of people who have somehow managed to end up with no school or a school they really didn’t want.

—Because they didn’t read the instructions properly.—

People need to understand that there is no such thing as a 'choice' when it comes to state schools sadly.

It's should be 'pick a school that you have a good chance of getting into '

Is there a shortage of places just in the desirable areas, & a corresponding surplus elsewhere, or have the LEAs all fucked up & failed to provide for an increase in the birthrate so there's a shortage everywhere?

Someone I know is disappointed because they got into their first choice school because she didn’t like it?! I don’t think she understands how this works?!

I only put the one choice down but that was purely because I’d knew we’d get it as have a friend at the council who is in change of school admission and told me my house was 100% full proof of getting a place due to it being deadcentre of the catchment and that was what it was based on. I know it’s changed now but that was 6 years ago. Dd got in no hassle either.

I agree. A friend has been all over fb today lamenting the fact that she got her last choice school which is her catchment school. The other schools she applied to are all hugely out of catchment and heavily oversubscribed EVERY single year. My DS got our first choice (which was also her first choice) but no child out of catchment has been offered a place there in years and it has a heavy sibling allocation too most years. DS also has a place at a prep school in the next town which she knows and she was messaging me first thing this morning before i'd even got out of bed asking if we were going to be declining our place! We're not sure at the moment as DP is currently at risk of redundancy so we need to see how the next few weeks pan out before making a final decision. This evening she has put a very pointed post on our local fb page about how people with private school places should give up their places so that other people who are desperate for them can have them...

Plus the people who write a stays about where their child is going and others comment “well done”. I don’t get it. Well done for what? It’s not a game of skill, endurance or cunning!!??

YANBU. Somepeople really don't seem to think that the very clearly set out rules apply to their PFB.

I've been biting my tongue OK fingertips over the congratulations posts too. It's not an achievement.

Retro. What an idiot. Even if you did turn down a place she could be miles down the list anyway. Ta not like you can ring and say 'oh my mate said I can have the place'

I know another mum who only put one choice down and now is stuck with the dregs.

Why???????

I've been biting my tongue OK fingertips over the congratulations posts too. It's not an achievement.

Well, that's technically true but people say "congratulations" for matters of good luck or happy news too. If your friend had a lottery win or gave birth or got engaged you'd probably say "Congratulations", even though those aren't technically achievements either.

retrofair - I can see why your friend is pissed off with you holding on to a covetted School place ‘just in case’

Not that her child would get your place, but you can see her point.

In our area in a few years there will be not enough yr7 places and will even worse as they are building homes on all spare land too.

Is catchment only for faith and religiois schools?? Thays what the head of my daughter's knew nursery told me he said I was near enough guaranteed a place at the school when she done her first year of nursery.

It's the best school in our town as well but the one of about three that arnt of faith??

I only put one choice down, but that’s due to the distance I live from that school, And the fact that my dd got a place there last year on the same grounds.
Last year’s intake was only those on the estate the school is on or siblings, this year’s seems to be less in demand and several have got in from quite out of catchment.

Need not have bothered as everyone has been allocated the one that was nearest. Why bother pretending there's a choice?

sorry, but that makes no sense, as that wouldn't follow any admissions policy

I onlymour one choice down for my son as i knew he would get in. Sibling, baptism, church attendance...

bbcessex she's not aware of what's going on with DP and his work and the reality is that we are far more likely to take the state school place. I am not holding on to the place 'just in case' purely for the fun of it and I doubt I am the only one who has other things going on in the background. I do think it's a bit much though to be messaging me at 6am about it...

One reason there are so few new school places is a little publicised policy.

Local authorities are not allowed to build new schools.

New schools have to be free schools or academies. So the LEA cannot say we have 200 new houses going up and need a new school. They have to persuade someone else to build the school.
Which leads to ridiculous situations like in Islington, where one end of the borough is in desperate need of more school places, but no-one would come and build one there, but a new free school decided to open at the OTHER END of the borough, where there were too many school places.

I get annoyed only when people use a faith I've never known them to even mention, let alone practice, when it comes to getting the school with the best reputation.

I recall when I was at school, the catchment school was rubbish so the local authority offered free transport for pupils. There was another (much better) school slightly further away but no free transport. Poor and disadvantaged families who didn't have cars and couldn't afford bus fares were therefore forced to send their kids to the catchment school, while wealthier families forked out to transport their kids to the better school. Resulted in all the rough kids in one school which was hell on earth if you were a decent kid who only had to attend due to poverty.

My favourite post of the local paper Facebook was the woman moaning she had made a late application because nobody had told her how to apply or the deadlines. She is the same council as me and information was all available on the website.
Even though we had been attending church to get into one of the two church primaries near us I still put alll six choices of schools we had a chance of getting into. We got our first choice but now my child informs me she wants to go to the school I put second (she didn't tell me this before the applications closed).
The Scottish systems seems far less stressful.
I guess everyone wants to send their kids to the best school so that is why they take a punt at a school they may not get into.