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.

In my town there are two secondary schools. Last year there was a hoo har on Facebook because a parent had applied for secondary schools for her ds but on allocation day they found out he hadn’t been given either of the town secondary schools, but instead a school 7 miles away. The parent was ranting and raving and accusing migrants and “non-local” people moving into the area of stealing the local school places because she knew of a number of out-of-town kids who lived further away who got places in our towns schools. There was a lot of drama on Facebook about this…then we discovered she’d only put down the name of one of the schools because she wrongly believed that would guarantee her ds a place at that school.

Well then your council runs a corrupt or incompetent system because that’s not how school allocation works.

Or the other people lied to you / their children about order of schools on application.

Mistakes do occasionally happen, though. If what is described actually happened (someone who fulfilled the criteria less well got a place over those who met a higher criterion) then appeals should have uncovered the mistake.

The solution to sort out the error can be complicated- bulge class etc - but if the poster knows of nobody who they think should have had priority who got in on appeal, it is likely that the criteria were applied correctly.

There will be people on this thread who tell you this never happened and putting one school guarantees you that one school 😂

I only put down one choice too, because I didn't see the point in putting down a school that I wasn't going to send them to, so made no odds to me what other one it might be.

That’s not what we’re talking about though. The “patronising attitudes” are about people who genuinely believe they they can play the system and get the school they want simply by putting down only that school.
thats completely different to putting down one school when you live in a place where there is only one school, or you’ve got a pretty much guaranteed place because of meeting criteria like having a sibling there and living next door to it

Misconceptions about secondary school places:

You never "reject" a place. The LA keeps your allocated place, even if you choose to be considered again for your preferred school. The place is only "lost" when you tell the LA you are going private and no longer want a state secondary place (or move LA).

Putting only 1 school down. This does not help your chances of getting that school. All schools receive your application and review it against their criteria. All LA have to apply the "equal preference" system, so schools do not look or even know whether they are first or last choice. They review the criteria and list applicants in order of the criteria, then they either have a place to offer or not. They give their yes/no answer to the council, which then puts your offers in the order of preference you've expressed. You will then get your "top" yes.

You don't get a place on "appeal" in May. After the March allocation round, people accept or give up their place due to a private school place, or because they moved. Some places become available at most schools, so a second round of allocation happens. This is still based on the criteria for the school, not your "appeal letter". Only in the summer will the school look at appeals. There are usually 3 rounds of allocations on criteria.

THIS. It took me years to understand how often people lie. I still dont get it. But I mostly dont engage with a number of parents as a result. Its so weird.

The problem with the 'it's fine to just put one choice down if you know they will definitely get a place' advice is that even if that's right for you, there are lots of people who think that's the case for them too but are wrong. If you want to only put one school down, fine. But encouraging others to do the same is ridiculous.

I have been to a secondary appeal (which we won for our child) and have sat alongside other parents in the appeal room where they have explained that they only put one school down and the school they were allocated was too hard to get to do they couldn't possibly accept it (they would have got allocated a closer school if they hadn't only put down one choice). Some of these also had siblings at the school they wanted so clearly thought they were guaranteed a place. It's such a risky thing to do in many many cases. They didn't win appeal.

Also, the pp who says they mysteriously got a place when they should have been lower on the list than people who didn't get a place - you are either mistaken and haven't understood the criteria, or all of those parents would have been pretty much guaranteed a place if they had appealed. If that didn't happen then I can't imagine you are anything but mistaken. LAs don't just randomly allocate students outside the criteria (unless that is what their rules say they will do)

In my LA there are some schools that do a certain percentage on random allocation. I think 25% of their intake is on that basis. That’s just the admission policy for that academy. Perhaps this poster’s child got into a school that way.

This is where understanding the criteria an system matters.

A child in DS's class lives pretty much opposite the local high school.

His parents started to get cold feet about whether it was the right choice and were considering putting down School 3 near where they work. Possibly with the other nearest school, School 2, as a option.

I had to explain to them that just because the headlines "90% of children get first choice option" doesn't mean that if you put school 3 down you are going to get that school. I had to carefully explain the system to her that if she put School 3 down as her first choice and School 2 down as her second choice and didn't put down School 1 she'd be utterly screwed as he wouldn't meet the criteria for either School 2 or 3 as they are oversubscribed and based on previous years data he didn't have much of a chance of getting in even on the waiting list because of where they lived and how oversubscribed both schools were.

I don't actually know which school he's be allocated to. It'd be interesting to know what she did in the end and whether she realised she was between a rock and a hard place in terms of choices.

Essentially where you go to primary school decides which high school you go to round here, with only a few primaries having a choice between a couple of options. And the authority plan on this basis. Knowing that a lot of the primaries closest to our local high school currently all have 32 or even 33 kids in most yr6 classes, they have made next year a bulge year because its substantionally cheaper and easier to do this for one year (knowing that the birth rate drops off significantly for year groups after) rather than not allocate those kids the local high and have the liability for transporting the other side of the borough.

The impact will be greatest on kids who live out of area. The school has traditionally always take a bunch of kids from the neighbouring county due to pressures on schools there and this school being closer. There are unlikely to be places available for some of these children this year.

BUT everyone who lives locally will get the local high school. Just cos thats how the system works here. The parent above who was considering School 3 and School 2 would get School 1 regardless of whether she put it down as her 1st or 3rd choice as long as she'd put it down as its the only one he would meet the criteria for.

Conversely if DS didn't get School 1, knowing how he met the criteria and theres a large intake and he shouldn't be more than half way down the priority list even on a 'bad year' we knew he would have got a place on appeal because the only scenario in which he wasn't allocated a place was because the council had screwed up and failed to follow the allocation system correctly.

Its a stupid system which causes confusion and catches people out because they don't properly understand it. There is no substitute for understanding it. Understand the options and chances of getting each of those choices matters. Sticking down a second choice can be bloody irrelevant if its as totally unrealistic as your first choice.

Yep! It’s amazing how many people don’t find out how school allocation works/admissions criteria for the schools they want to send their kids to.

Again.....repeating myself. It worked both times

Not everyone would out that one school down. We're lucky that we have plenty of decent secondary schools in the area

Exactly this 👍

You know repeating something over and over doesn't make it a fact right...

Each to their own. There are a couple of people on here who have stated they put 1 school down and their kids got that place. Coincidence.....I think not. I've told you what I did....twice and it worked. So has others. Enjoy your school placements whichever way you do it.

I didn't say you had. I said either that OR the LA have misapplied them, which does happen occasionally, and those that didn't get in should have appealed.

I've read what you've wrote. How about you try and read the entire threat before imposing your judgements

Coincidence.....I think not.

Yes that's exactly what it was. Believe otherwise if it makes you feel superior in some way but it's really unkind to state something as a fact when it could leave others without a school place if they follow your incorrect advice.

I have a feeling that we need to point out that correlation does not equal causation.

@soccermum10
Put down 1 school and got it. Twice.
However that does not mean that she got that school because she only put down 1 school.

Putting down 1 school only is never better than putting down more schools. It can be equal if you are a shoe in for that school, but it is never better (if you discount the trivial effort to put down more schools or order them).

Anyone who got a place putting 1 school down would also have got that place if they'd put 3 schools down.

It didn't "work", you just haven't bothered understanding the process.

🤣🤣🤣 OMG delusional or what!! 🤦‍♀️

You got the schools you wanted but not for the reasons you believe you did.

What you did is objectively stupid. There can never be a scenario where putting just one school down puts you in a better position.