Got last choice secondary school, hate it, - turn it down?

[TeenToTwenties]

Click bait sorry. I haven't got a child starting secondary. I only have a lay interest in this from reading the boards over the years.

Of course I and anyone else would be totally unreasonable to turn down my offered school unless I already have a place at a private school or I really would be willing to home educate

Accepting an offered school does not impact your chance of a successful appeal.
Most areas you automatically go on the wait list for higher preferences but check rules for your area.
You can get appeals advice on the Secondary education board.

If you reject a secondary school offer, you become solely responsible for securing an alternative education place for your child.

First thing that comes up on Google and then it is repeated underneath on every single webpage when I scroll down.

Sorry, I misread the OP! Correct :)

This is why I only ever put down 1 school for both of my kids

You were lucky

Hope this is a joke.

Putting 1 school down doesn't help you get that school.

All it does is mean that if you don't qualify for that school the LA gets to pick a school once all applications have been processed. So you run the chance of the undersubscribed school 10 miles away rather than the unpopular but last resort for many one on your doorstep.

A fantastic reminder OP, and for all those who don't bother reading your post.

Do NOT reject the place offered.

(Unless, as you say. You have a place in a private school, or you're willing to home educate)

Which you are not guaranteed to get. You could have got the worst school several miles away after everyone else was allocated a school. You got lucky, most others don't

Well, how would that help? That just means they will pick a random school (that you probably really don’t want) and offer you that instead. Which gives you the same issue: accept it or sort yourself out.
That you were lucky and happened to get choice you listed was just that: luck.

That was a risky move. The LA isn’t obliged to offer you a place just because you put only one choice.

I hope that is a wind up in response 😬.

(That is a monumentally stupid thing to do)

If you got into them for both you were lucky. If you hadn’t, you’d have been given the nearest school with a place and if you hadn’t wanted that you’d have had the chore of reapplying for other schools and may have been given one miles away that you really hated.

The LA are obliged to offer a place. Eventually. But only putting one school is a stupid thing to do.

If that’s the case then you clearly haven’t read the rules for school allocations.

What you did is quite literally the worst tactic you could possibly have adopted.

If you got your schools of choice your children are lucky your ignorance didn’t cot them dearly.

Can you appeal? I appealed for my sons place and won

Wouldn't have worked then we applied.

Most people I know only put one school down. The entry criteria and catchment are so predictable that there's no way any of us won't get first choice. The flip side to this is we also have next to no chance of getting into any other school either unless you want one ten miles away that no one else wants to go to.

It's really a total illusion of choice where we are.

So I don't think it's a stupid thing to do.

If DS hadn't got his choice this morning something would have gone very wrong indeed as on paper he already was guaranteed it on the criteria as long as we got his application in and if he hadn't we'd have had a slam dunk appeal we'd win.

Ah @RedToothBrush .
Putting down 1 choice that you are assured to get because e.g. you live right next door is fine.

Whereas putting down 1 choice in some misguided thought that it will force the LA to give it to you is quite another thing.

This isn't the case in most areas and shouldn't be recommended on a thread where people might follow this without looking into the consequences

It is monumentally stupid however you look at it. In every case where someone does that they are removing a degree of choice.

If you live in an area where most people go to catchment and other surrounding schools are all full then the outcome is likely to be the same. However the outcome could be a whole lot worse if you only put 1 school down, it can never be better.

This worked for us both times

It worked for you. But it doesn't work for a lot of other families.

There are zero downsides to putting additional schools.

That's on them. Saying anyone doing it is stupid, isn't if they actually understand the criteria for the school.

If other people don't understand the system that's them being stupid not the people who have understood how the system works for them locally and know it's a fucking pointless excuse.

Does nit mean uou will be offered a place. Could still be offered a place at an alternative school.

So much unhelpful information. Don't ever just put one school down, sure it might work for the odd few but 99% of the time it didn't work and you are offered a school miles away after all the other parents who put more than one school on. Putting one school on won't pressure the lea to offer you that school. That's not how it works

I did that once. Didn't think there would be an issue since my eldest had already been there without issue. We were refused a place and given a place somewhere we never would have considered or wanted to go. Quickly had to join other waiting lists. Fortunately we did get in to the preferred school on the waiting list, but it was stressful.

But it is not helpful on a thread like this to appear to be encouraging posters to only put down one school. Yes in your situation it was fine, but a poster saying "This is why I only ever put down 1 school for both of my kids" on a thread about being offered last choice and you appearing to endorse that approach (even if you aren't) is confusing to readers with less experience.