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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

No secondary school offer ?

84 replies

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 09:04

I have posted in secondary education as well but I'm posting here for traffic.

We applied on time, got email confirmation, put catchment school first, then another 2 sensible choices. Our LA only let you put 3 options.

We did not receive an email with school allocation this morning so we had to log into the council portal to find out our DC is on the waiting list for all three schools with no other offer of a place.

I am on hold to the council but I don't even have a reference number to check where we are on the list because it was on the email - which we didn't get.

What can I do?

OP posts:

Mumdiva99 · 01/03/2022 09:08

That sounds odd. I thought they had to offer you a school.....even if it wasn't one you chose. Are they short of school places in your area? What is their plan to resolve it. This must be very stressful for you.

Lovelydovey · 01/03/2022 09:10

Emails often take time to trickle out - so you may not get the email until later today.

And don’t panic just yet - there can be a lot of movement before September.

Were all 3 schools ones that you would expect to realistically meet the entry criteria for, or are they all over subscribed aspirational schools? It is often worth having a safe bet in your list even if not your preference, though only allowing three options does make that harder.

pinkcattydude · 01/03/2022 09:10

Hold off til it calms down a bit right now the number that say you are at will change throughout the day/week as people make their decisions. I know it’s hard but there’s plenty of time and they are on the waiting list.

Crockof · 01/03/2022 09:10

Have they published the over subscribed allocation list yet?

Aprilx · 01/03/2022 09:10

Could they just be a bit late?

Legoisthebest · 01/03/2022 09:11

Have others from your child's school received their emails? With my child we didn't get the email until 5pm because that's when our LA sent them out.

TeenPlusCat · 01/03/2022 09:11

@prh47bridge may be able to add something here.

Spaghag · 01/03/2022 09:18

I don't know where in the country you are, but where we are there are only 3 schools. Looking at the first choice application figures against places given even with my shaky maths I'm not sure everyone has a place at one of the 3. I honestly don't know where pupils would be allocated after that, we're fairly rural really.

They will have to find you a place OP, maybe a school will be given the go ahead to take an extra form full this year (logistics allowing of course).

Fingers crossed it gets sorted soon.

Original poster

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 09:19

Yep, others have received emails. Our choices were:

1 - catchment school, she would have got a place based on last year & the year before

2 - non catchment school but she goes to the feeder primary school and it's traditionally undersubscribed.

3 - school in the next village, again traditionally undersubscribed.

This is why i'm astounded she didn't get into any of them. The only reason i can think of is that they are building so many houses in these villages that they haven't got enough school places. But that doesn't really help me!

OP posts:

Crockof · 01/03/2022 09:21

Are this years results out (ours are put online on offer day) you need to see them to find out what the issue is. A. Catchment oversubscribed or B. Not oversubscribed and there is an issue with your application

WhiteJellycat · 01/03/2022 09:24

Dont panic yet. It sounds like maybe it's a mistake as you should have been offered something by the sounds of it. If it's a mistake you will be allocated to be placed if they had nit made the mistake. But saying that once I didnt get any of my three choices.

Original poster

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 09:39

The council website says "no places available" - this surely can't mean the whole county?! It would help if they answered the phone...

OP posts:

SSDDagain · 01/03/2022 09:39

Have just discovered our area isn't releasing outcomes until this evening.

Started panicking as nothing had come through but when I logged onto the portal it's still showing as submitted and they've posted an update saying results won't be out until the evening of the 1st March.

So now I've got to go the whole day waiting!

Spaghag · 01/03/2022 09:44

@Innatenvi

The council website says "no places available" - this surely can't mean the whole county?! It would help if they answered the phone...

If that is the case they would have to arrange something. I'm not an expert but I'm sure they can't leave children with no place.

SockFluffInTheBath · 01/03/2022 09:47

OP I had something similar with DC1 and rang the first choice school directly. They had him on their list, there’d been a snafu with the council’s email to me.

prh47bridge · 01/03/2022 10:45

As others have said, this may be a mistake and your notification could have got lost somewhere in the ether. However, on the assumption that it is correct...

They are required to find a place for you somewhere. Most LAs do that in time for the offers going out on 1st March, but some have a formal second round of offers when they deal with those who haven't yet got an offer. Keep chasing them. They should offer you the nearest school with places available. If there are no schools with places available, they should be putting pressure on schools to take more pupils.

They should have sent you an email or letter telling you why you've missed out on your preferred schools and how to appeal. You won't lose anything by appealing and might get a place at a school you want, so I would seriously consider doing that.

Original poster

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 10:51

I've managed to at least get her reference number to check waiting list positions. she's 15th on the first choice, 16th on the second choice and 21st on the third. I don't know if this is good or not? I'm still on hold for an admissions officer to confirm if there are any other places.

OP posts:

BertieQueen · 01/03/2022 11:04

I thought they had to offer a child a place at a school even if they were not in the catchment as they couldn’t leave a child without a school at all

A child at our school was no:38 on the waiting list for our secondary school he got offered a place on the 1st day in September. There is hope for you. Good luck.

Crockof · 01/03/2022 11:05

What was the criteria of the last place offered?

Original poster

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 11:08

@Crockof sorry I don't understand - we don't have an offer at all currently

OP posts:

Original poster

Innatenvi · 01/03/2022 11:09

I've not managed to speak to anyone at the council yet, i've been on hold since 8:30 am.

OP posts:

Crockof · 01/03/2022 11:22

I know, but the other students do. Councils (at least all I've ever looked up, I guess some might not) produce an oversubscription information leaflet and publish it online. So for my local secondary it shows those that were allocated places and those that weren't and the last place offered.

prh47bridge · 01/03/2022 11:24

Crockof is suggesting that you find out which category the last child offered a place was in and how far they are from school.

Since you are some way down the waiting list, you need to know which category your child was in, how far from school they think you are and how far away from school the last child offered a place is (assuming they use distance as the tie-breaker).

Oblomov22 · 01/03/2022 11:26

Worth phoning and also emailing the 3 schools aswell?

Crockof · 01/03/2022 11:33

Something like this. If you live within 10 miles and you are in a feeder school you would know that there was a problem with your application, if you like 11 miles away in a feeder school you would at least know why you didn't have a place. The reason behind the lack of place being offered would change how you went about appealing.

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