Is it too late to change my school preference?

[Mackonadragos]

Hi everyone,

My daughter was not accepted into her first choice of school (Didcot, Girls), which, according to OSTEAD is rated as outstanding. To my shock horror, my husband listed another school (Aureus, Didcot, that needs improvement) and my daughter is accepted there.

My daughter has lived abroad with me, that is why my husband sorted out that issues, and he sent in the school application without discussing the other choices with me. He was very relaxed about it, thinking that she will be accepted by sure. Eventually, I was told, but I failed to act upon it, to resend, or amend or do anything at all.

So now she is in a school, that I don't want her to be in.

Is there anything to do now? Can I resend the application? Or is it only the private school route that is available only?

My daughter will start Y9, the last two years in a non-English speaking school, so plenty to catch up. I feel now, I totally ruined her chances.

Any idea what shall I do now?

Your help is much appreciated.

So did your husband put down Girls as the first choice and Aureus as the second? Or did he just put Aureus?

If he put Girls down and she didn't get a place, there isn't a place. Whether is too far to walk or has the club's she wants or is outstanding is irrelevant, there isn't a space. None of those are grounds for appeal. There may be a waiting list you could join but if she's moving from another country and starting in September, you probably don't want to move her again in e.g. December and start all over again.

If he didn't put it down at all, then yes you could probably request to find out if they will have a space.

Also maybe read the Ofsted report for the requires improvement school. If it's a fairly new school it's not unheard of to get RI from a paperwork error or something which is easily resolved, and the school may have resolved that and be much better now just hasn't been re-evaluated yet.

Similarly the outstanding school could have gone downhill, it may not have been inspected for 7 years.

My husband just read that under specific circumstances (no need to be SEN) we can request children to be placed outside of their age group. We could ask to put her into Y8 in case there are free places available.

My daughter is incredibly introvert, hardly ever talks to anyone at school, no friend whatsoever . She reads a lot and writes a lot. She is a little better with younger children I think, also that would give her the opportunity to catch up, particularly with Maths.

Would you consider that?

Aureus is a fairly new school, and it is their first Osted, I think, from 2022, the Girls' is from 2015, so it might not be accurate any more. So we will consider this too, and it might help to overcome our disappointment .

Girls' School was put down as a first choice, Aureus as a second (and I was not aware of this). He talked to the Girls' School earlier this year, and they said there are places available, so we were quite relaxed about the whole issue, especially, that it went so easily for the boys.

But thank you, I probably will put her on the waiting list.

Out of year is very unusual in the state sector. If your dd has only been educated outside uk for two years it is unlikely to have had a significant impact on her subsequent education. Did you live in that area previously?

I would be very cautious of a 7 year old ofsted report telling you anything.
2 weeks ago a similar school with an outstanding from 2015 was reassessed and went into special measures on safeguarding mainly due to pupils not feeling safe in the class room and we are just down the road from Didcot.

We lived in Abingdon many years ago, pre-children time, so we are not familiar with the schools, we have no friend ("fixers") who could give us more info.

Eventually, it might well turn out that bad is not so bad and good is not so good.

It is very difficult to judge.

May I ask which school is it? We were thinking of listing the school in Wallingford.

She cm do what most kids do, and get the school bus.
Anyway, how did she get a place at any school seeing as she doesn’t even live in the Uk yet?

But how would that help with your logistics, even if they had a space?

If the girls school was named as 1st preference and you were given the other school it is because the girls school is full and there are no spaces to offer to your daughter

You should have been placed on the waiting list for the girls school but as you are currently overseas it is possible you have been placed on the bottom of the waiting list as your child's current address is overseas.

You have the right to appeal against the decision not to offer the girls school

You have the right to request to be educated out of year group (make an application for the year below) but it is at the discretion of the Head teacher who may not accept an application for a different year group.

Schools that are requires improvement have money, staff and effort thrown at them to get them back up - this can be very good for schools and turn them around completely - it is worth checking what the school's weaknesses were to see if a change of staff can fix it etc.

Father of the children live in the UK, and has done so in the last two years, while the children and I were outside. We have an address in the UK.

Thank you. I will find out what address my husband put down for her. It is a good point that needs to be clarified too.

Would it be very rude to raise the issue of the poor ofsted report when we visit the school?

OP it looks fine as a school: modern buildings, great extra-curricular, STEM links to Harwell (which is amazing) and Oxford university and a programme for more able students. The only thing I would see as a negative is that music GCSE isn't offered - you can only do BTEC.

There are some issues in the Ofsted report - it's the behaviour which would worry me most, but it's not awful, and they'll have an action plan to deal with it since the inspection. I can see how a new school could feel really unsettled since the pandemic but it's been a normal year so every chance things are settling.

If you really can't stand Aureus then make sure you check out transport options from where you live and get your dd on a lot of waiting lists. Didcot has good transport links so your dd may be able to get a train or bus to a school elsewhere. Don't give up the place at Aureus until you've been offered something else though.

It is extremely hard to get a child educated out of year group in the UK even if they do have sen so I do not think that is likely to be an option for your daughter.

Thank you. I will find out what address my husband put down for her. It is a good point that needs to be clarified too.

Her address is outside of the UK though (unless you are in the forces) and any child living nearer who applies will be given a place ahead of her because it is where she is living not where you live or where your husband is living. I would move her over as soon as possible even if the rest of you follow.

Its fine to ask the school about how they are working to improve after the "requires improvement" ofsted results. They should be happy to explain.

@Mackonadragos it is aNewbury school had an amazing head he left and things spiralled downwards.

Thank you very much for all your answers. At least it is now clear for me, that there is still some leeway for us and we're not completely tied to our original choices.

Not yet but your options are limited as year 9 is not a main entry point. If you want her to start in September you may need to accept a less preferred school before the holidays start in less than two weeks' time. There would not be time to hold an appeal in the interim and not until she is living at the address. The letter refusing the place at the girls' school would detail the process and also whether she has been placed on a wl or you need to request it.

One thing to consider is when GCSE options ate chosen. Didcot appears to run a 2-year KS3 (Ofsted tends to frown on this), with options chosen sometime in year 8, with Aureus following the 3 year KS3 model, options chosen during year 9.

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4905753ff3cea231a868-376d75cd2890937de6f542499f88a819.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/aureus/uploads/document/Updated-Options-Booklet-2022-2023-2-1.pdf?t=1657525871

Assuming that your DD's age-appropriaye academic year will be year 9 starting this September- and assuming that you are not successful with a year 8 application, an assumption you really do need to make, realistically - then Aureus would look to be the better prospect in this respect. The normal offer at Aureus is 9 GCSEs in total; this is less than some, but better to get 9 decent GCSEs and to have had a full choice of options, than to have to take more, but have to make do with the optional subjects that have spaces available, not necessarily the ones you would have chosen yourself.

Where is she on the waiting list?

Looking at the admissions policy, the school holds a Continuing Interest list - this would only need to be ranked, should a place become available. Although the school might be willing to confirm whether or not there were girls at the time of asking who would rank above the OP's DD, a) they probably wouldn’t b) they would definitely not run a ranking of the list to give the answer and c) knowing today that they would be number 1 on the list, were it to be ranked now, is pretty meaningless when there isn't a place available anyway and even when/if a place did come up, a girl with a higher ranking may have joined the CI list in the meantime and it would be offered to her.