Recommendation for secondary school in Lincoln

[InaTea]

Hi all,🙂
My husband got a job offer in Lincoln, Lincolnshire. We are planning to move whit our daughter (she will start secondary school next year).
I would be grateful for any info on secondary schools in Lincoln.
Daughter is taken ballet classes for 6 years now and piano classes for 2 years now. Is there any schools that can accommodate these activities?
Thanks'!

If she will be 15 on or before aug 31 2024 she will be in year 11 in September. It’s very unusual for state (free) schools to take a child out of year. I would get on the phone to the local authority tomorrow and find out which secondaries have space in year 10 in sept and would they be willing to take her out of year.
Sorry but schools with space probs won’t be the popular ones.

When is your younger dc 11?

Lsst (South Park) is the best secondary school. I doubt they have a space in year ten but contact them and ask. You also need to ask about their admissions policy for any waiting list. They have/had an odd admissions policy for year 7 entry which allocated so many places per primary school. So living close to the school did not necessarily mean a place. No idea how they allocate from the waiting list.

your other option is move to Welton and aim for Will Farr. Another good school

Yes my younger one will go to yr 6 as she will turn 11 in oct . As dor my older one she turned 15 this June and needs to be in YR 10 starting sept. We have no choice but to move to Uk and hope she gets an admission in yr 10. Hoping she csn get into some grammar school but we would like to live in Lincoln itself . My DD has been doing ballet for last 8 years so need these opportunities closer to where we can live . Any good neighbourhood recommendations please ?

I’m not sure what transport to any of the grammar schools are like from Lincoln. I do think I’ve seen kids standing on wragby rd in a horncastle grammar uniform so not sure if there is a bus they catch.

if you can drive them to school that opens up possibly Gainsborough and sleaford. But again I’d imagine difficult to get into. Dd passed the 11plus but there wasn’t space for her (they have a pass mark and then allocate on distance), she was on the waiting list for five years and didn’t get in.

If your older DD is already 15, then she will be year 11 in an English state school from September. Schools rarely admit into a non-chronological year group (unless the child was 'fully' deferred from the outset); however, if your DD has been in a school system with different school years, e.g. January to December vs September to August, a state secondary may allow entry into the lower year group.

I think transport from Lincoln is well served for grammars. I hope it would be free? Outside Lincoln it can depend on catchment. DGS lives in catchment for DeAston at Market Rasen and there is a De Aston bus that goes through his village. He got a place at William Farr, though, so his Mum has to drive him there. Having said that, he would have been equally happy with a place at De Aston, which seems OK.

I can’t imagine transport would be free. You get free transport to your nearest state school. So the kids in my village have to pay for transport to school A as it’s a mile further away than school B. There is no school bus from Lincoln to Gainsborough (or wasn’t a few years ago), so you’d have to pay on public transport.

Yes I imagine the buses are funded by passenger fares rather than the council (unless subsidised?) In the case of DGS, had he gone to De Aston it would have been free as he lives over 2 miles away (?) yet it is his "nearest" school. William Farr not the nearest, therefore no free/subsidised transport. All very confusing!

Hope OP and others get sorted out.

Thanks for replying. My older one tirned 15 in June 2024 but if that means she would be admitted in year 11 then i guess i will need to write to council as in Malaysia even thougj tje session beguns from september the age allws her tobe in Yr 10 . Had she been there she would have been promoted to yr10.
As for my younger one she will turn 11 in oct so i am assuming she can go ro yr6.
We have received emails from Washingborough Academy but thrn again since our home address is likely to change i dobt think this school will be it. William farr and priory Witham are either oversubscribed or finding a house to rent nearby is difficult. How does most of primary kids go to school if their schools are more than 1.5 miles. I am asking bcoz we are cominh from malaysia where kids had to be dropped off by car and had no bus service. Walking was out of question bcos of it being a tropical country.

My daughter has to go to Yr 10 and we had applied to council about 2 weeks back . We live in washingborough , Lincoln and moved recently from Malaysia . The council offered her a place in Lincoln UTC which wasn't even our choice of schools. Also when contacted the school said they don't offer languages and Humanites as subject . My daughter aims at taking up Language n Humanities in GCSE and this school not having the option feels restrictive. We spoke again to council n they said either to appeal or apply again . Session has started n she is still at home with no school . We are beginning to get worried. Can anyone suggest what can we do ? Should we appeal or apply again to schools. Also which chice of secondary schools do we give. Our choices initially were Lsst, Pembroke n William Farr but now considering g Pembroke , Branston and one more school but don't know what . As I mentioned we are new here . Please anyone help . Thanks .

Have the council told you where has places in Year 10? UTC does not have a great reputation at all and like you say does not sound like it would be a good fit from a subject pov for your dd.

Could you get her to North Hykeham? North Kesteven or Robert Patt?

LSST is an excellent school but tends to be very over subscribed, same for Will Farr. I believe Branston is OK, not sure how that compares to the North Hykeham schools.

If you're on FB maybe join the "you're probably from Lincoln " FB group and ask on there.

There is a dance school in Market Rasen and De Aston secondary school. We live in the local area and DD goes to the school and it seems good.

Hey @TinaVerma sorry you are in this position. I agree the UTC does not sound suitable. Can you contact the LA again and ask which other schools have space? I don’t think you can afford to be super picky tbf.

You can appeal but I would focus on finding a school even if only temporarily. Maybe start a new thread for appeal advice as posters may just respond to the first poster.

@TinaVerma also is there a school bus from washingborough to horncastle for the grammar school? Think there might be if grammar could be an option for her.

www.qegs.lincs.sch.uk/Parent/Transport/ www.qegs.lincs.sch.uk/Parent/Transport/]]]]

https://www.qegs.lincs.sch.uk/docs/Policies_Y7-Y11/Admissions_Policy_Y7-11_-_2024.pdf

Particularly paras 8, 11 and 15.

In the meantime, contact the LA again to ask about where there might be places, but also look at the 'admissions' page on each school's website for how in-year places there are handled.

If you submitted your original application through the local authority, if they couldn't offer a place the school(s) you wanted, they would have offered the nearest place to your verified home address. There may have been a place at a school a hundred metres further away, which was more suitable and had places, but the UTC had a place, and so you were offered that. If you have refused the UTC offer, the council won't keep looking for places for you, but will process your own applications for any school you apply for, if the process is to apply through the LA.

You can only appeal for a school once you have applied formally for a place and been rejected, but you can appeal as many such decisions as you want to at the same time - you do not have to await the outcome of school A before appealing school B and so on.

UTC IS about 4.5 miles away from where we live . We did speak to the council about Utc and they responded that it's mid year application and there is no vacancy. None of our preferred schools were given to us. Which is fine as long as one cam gobto a school which offers her a place inbyr 10. MY DD comes from different school system and as per that she has to go to Yr 10 even though she is 15 now. The UK schools are not even considering our request to let her do yr 10 . They want us to put her in Yr 11 when clearly she did Yr 9 in Malaysia bedore we came and was promoted to Yr 10 in July 2024. ITS only been 20 days here n so much of confusion n uncertainty about her school . Never knew age group is considered so important. Surely many people here come from different countries where there are different rules about the age grouo admissions .