Why do people torment themselves over school places

[Schoolplacechoicemyth]

Im in a local toddler/child social media group.

Every single year there are people on the group who apply wildly optimistically for 2 or 3 oversubscribed schools several miles away from their home, are given the unpopular school they live near and desperately ask how to appeal because they "really love oversubcribed school and absolutely want DC to go there".

They seem completely unprepared for how unlikely it was they'd get a place, baffled that their preference doesn't actually get them the place at the oversubscribed chool, spend weeks/months appealing for schools they have next to no chance of a space at, & complain repeatedly on the group about it. Often the school they live near is fine, its just not the fashionable choice this week.

The local council publish all the info. You can see, easily, how close you need to live to stand a decent chance at a place. All the admission criteria are available.

Why do people do this to themselves!? Do they really think their preference is a factor when applying to a routinely oversubscribed school living miles away? Its like there's some sense of entitlement to a place at the trendy/popular school. I just couldn't torture myself like this. One lady has spent weeks telling her DC they are going to popular school X with their nursery friends. She lives over 5 miles from it & it hasn't taken a non sibling from more than a mile away in over a decade and yet she's bewildered her DC didn't get a space.

In Scotland there’s also no ofsted ratings for schools or real perception that parents have a choice beyond choosing where to buy a house. Out of catchment requests do happen but they are v much the exception

We live in an area with fixed catchments. You are told to list the catchment school, even just in third place.

People still don't and are surprised they don't get the catchment school if they didn't get their preferred school but are allocated a school miles away.

I'm not aware of it being such a big issue in Wales either. In our area there are one or two seconds schools that are oversubscribed but I don't know of any oversubscribed primaries. To be fair they're all equally shit in my area for the most part..!

i found it hard that there was no notification that you needed to apply for school places - a few people of non-British background were caught out by this at my DC’s school.
Catchment area also seems to move Year on year (depending on how many siblings etc are in class).
but I do find it baffling how naive some parents are - some parents from my son’s nursery were really shocked when I told them that the catchment area for the school next to the (private) nursery was 200 m. This is available on the council’s website…but they thought everyone locally would get in…

@00100001

Oversubscribed isn't a thing

Not sure about equal distance?

Dint think that's a thing either. You'd be 1 catchment or the other regardless

But you could put in a placement request

@GoodChat

Yeah.

That doesn't make a difference. You either get that school or need to put in a placement request.

I'm not sure on success rates for those

No, it’s lazy if you put no effort into looking at admissions criteria, catchment areas and the available data on likelihood, and just assume that you will get what you want.

Aside from anything else, some places have really oddly-shaped catchment areas, so you could be missing out on a great school that you do have a chance of getting into, just because you didn’t bother looking.

@Isyesterdaytomorrowtoday

Yeah, pre parenting forums and the knowledge of what English parents do, I had no idea parents were obseswith school ratings.

It's just not a thing here.

And it may just be my area but our schools are fairly diverse, socioeconomically

Oversubscribed is a thing. If you have 32 eligible children in catchment, and perhaps 3 eligible out of catchment (looked after etc) you have 35 kids asking for 30 places... Then it's over subscribed.

Some people are equal distance from schools. So how would you put them in the nearest school?

Years ago in our London borough there was a parent who was determined her son was going to the most popular and over subscribed secondary school in the area even tho she lived outside the catchment. She bought him the uniform and told him he was going. Can’t recall how the saga ended but I remember thinking what a stunt to pull and fancy doing that to the kid

I left England pre-children. Was looking to move back with the family a couple of years ago. When I fully understood the batshit school allocation system it was a major part of our reason not to move back after all.

Maybe it's because the whole school system isn't well understood.

I think once you've got a child in school then you start to learn the ropes and understand the system a bit better.

But give first time parents a bit of wriggle room. They likely just think they live close enough, they fill in an application form and put 1st choice. Then they're told they can appeal etc etc.

By the time parents get round to second year they're a bit more savvy about it all. But Reception....it's all a bit brand new world at first.

Why even bother with an application process - just allocate a parent their slot. It's basically how the system works anyway....I think it's the fact parents have to 'apply' and rate choices that makes them understandably think they have more choice then they do. 2nd and 3rd kid they get it. But 1st time round, it's just being a bit naive to the process.

What's batshit about it?

It usually goes;

Looked after kids
Siblings in catchment
In catchment
Out of catchment...

@00100001

I meant in Scotland

The school has to take the amount of kids there are

And every house is in 1 catchment.

The house next door or across the road may be in a different catchment depending on where the line is.

Distance is irrelevant

So you could have classes of 35 for example?

We would have moved.

Glad you can afford to move whenever you fancy to over priced schools.

I honestly don't know why people get given a choice.

They don't actually have one!

I often think if the LA just allocated a school to pupils we'd see much better social mobility and less and less "we want that school" and people torturing themselves how to get a school 5 miles away.

I think if parents knew they'd get nearest allocated they'd start expecting all schools to be equal.

@00100001

No I don't think so, theyd split the class

I think there's an upper limit

@00100001 the create composite classes to manage overspill

Yes, real shock horror that parents want their kids to go to the best school in the area - why ever would they do that? 🙄

My understanding of the Scottish system is they add on extra classes if there's more kids in catchment. But they might be mixed age classes.
Same sort of thing happened at my DDs Forces school... 36 kids in age group, so taught in 2 groups of 18. Other year groups had one class.

I find it all quite eye-opening on here every year. In Scotland children go to the nearest local school, and that's pretty much it, unless you specifically apply to a different school, such as a religious one maybe.

It has the net effect of making all schools much of a muchness I think.

It's insecurity, i was so terrified i'd do parenting wrong i over estimated the impact a school would have on the children and put a ridiculous amount of store by the right schooling.

YANBU. We live in the catchment for a very popular secondary so house prices are 30-50% more than surrounding areas. Every year there are tears and tantrums on social media from parents whose DC aren’t getting a place cos they don’t live in the catchment.

Sadly some of the DC have done primary in catchment area (despite living outwith) and therefore have friendship groups they are not moving to secondary school with. Parents have gambled their DC will get in as they went to feeder primary despite all the evidence telling them they won’t. If you want the school, you need to be prepared to move into catchment. One family I know live in a fantastic house out of catchment- if they did move, the house they could afford in the catchment area would be shit in comparison- I guess it depends what you want to prioritise.

My favourite story was a mum who put down a school for her 2nd option she had never even seen the school or really knew where it was ! Very small classes so she had expected she would get option 1. Option 3 was a school a couple of miles away. She got option 2 had a nightmare getting her child there as no footpaths outside of the village.