Independent international school while on waitlist for catchment secondary?

[AurelieW]

Hello everyone, you were so helpful with my question about school transportation yesterday (thanks!!) I thought I'd ask this here as well. I'm waiting to hear back from the local authority on this but understandably communication is slow at the moment and DD is somewhat anxious about it so was hoping some of you may be able to shed some light on the issue!

We've just moved back to the UK after four years abroad and the local catchment secondary is full in DD's year (Year 7) and has a waitlist. DD would love to attend there, it's a good school, her old friends all go there and it's biking distance from the village. While abroad DD attended an international school and we have access to a similar school here through DH's work. DD would very much like to continue in the same international school system, same curriculum etc. while she waits for a place at the catchment secondary. I'd prefer this too as there's a bus to the international school, rather than us having a long school commute (have got 2 younger children to take to school). Waitlist I've been told by the catchment school isn't terribly long so a place should hopefully become available.

Long story short, having DD attend the international school means refusing the 2nd or 3rd choice school place she'd get allocated by the local authority. Does anyone know what this means for being on the waitlist for the catchment school?

Has anyone here opted for independent education / homeschooling / other type of education whilst staying on the waitlist of a local non-independent school? Would refusing the school place allocated to her in favour of the international school mean she would be taken off the waitlist for the catchment school?

Thanks again very much for your help everyone! It's an odd time to be moving especially with all the schools closed... trying to figure out our best options. Also thanks for reading this far, it got very long!

Actually I think have just found the information I was looking for! Would delete this thread if I could but I have no idea how... Thanks!

Be careful if you're relying on the waiting list. DD went on a waiting list for her preferred secondary school. She was 7th on the list at the start of the year and 9th on the list at the end of the year.

She can remain on a waiting list but bear in mind should a place be offered she would need to move quickly, before any notice period at the private school could elapse (usually a full term's notice from the start of a term, or payment in lieu), which could incur a substantial cost. Will the company fund it on that basis? There is also the chance her wl position could go down if others apply and meet the admissions criteria more closely (priority based on siblings, distance etc)

@SMaCM

Be careful if you're relying on the waiting list. DD went on a waiting list for her preferred secondary school. She was 7th on the list at the start of the year and 9th on the list at the end of the year.

Oh no that's terrible, sorry to hear that! Was her preferred secondary school her catchment school? DD does not have any siblings at the school but we will be in catchment and in the closest town to the school (2 miles). It's a heavily oversubscribed school though mainly because there have been so many new builds in the catchments over the past few years, so we'll see I guess!

@LIZS

She can remain on a waiting list but bear in mind should a place be offered she would need to move quickly, before any notice period at the private school could elapse (usually a full term's notice from the start of a term, or payment in lieu), which could incur a substantial cost. Will the company fund it on that basis? There is also the chance her wl position could go down if others apply and meet the admissions criteria more closely (priority based on siblings, distance etc)

That's a really good point which I hadn't thought about, thank you! I hope the company may be willing to pay for it based on the fact that once she changes to the local school they will not incur any further cost, so essentially it'll be a lot cheaper for them than if DD stayed at the international school for the next 7 years. However we'd definitely have to check to make sure that is the case before we enroll her. Thank you so much for mentioning this, it's a very important point which in our crazy move, house-hunt, search for schools for 3 etc. had completely escaped me!