DS didn’t get any of secondary school choices :-(

[IAmMum85]

My DS was unfortunately not offered any of school places we listed. As a result, they gave us the nearest school to our home with a place.

it was my worst nightmare to be offered this school- though, it is mainly based on the way in which we see the children behave after school. It also has a ‘Good’ ofsted rating which, for me is not great considering all the hard work my DS put in over year (sadly he didn’t meet the private school threshold after taking 11+)

is anyone else going through this? Any advice on next steps. He is position 28 for our first choice.

i also only applied for one school in Lambeth which is the borough we live in, simply because I am not keen on any of schools local to us- hence why we probably landed in this predicament in the first place!

Can you say which school you are 28th on the waiting list for, some parents may have some experience to offer?

Every year there is advice from knowledgeable folk on here about the need to select school preferences, not choices, with care, ensuring that you meet the admission criteria for at least some of them and including a catchment school if there is one.

Every parent wants their child to get into the school they prefer, but it isn’t logistically possible and if you take a gamble and put down schools you have very little realistic chance of getting a place in, the result is the allocation of the nearest school with places.

The advice is always to ensure you are on waiting lists for all the schools you listed and accept the one you’re offered. Waiting lists do move, but not immediately. Many parents have found that the school they were allocated, is in fact good for their child, but if not, spaces at others may become available later on.

There is also the option of private school, as OP has indicated.

This year’s admissions process seems to have been a bit mad. I don’t know anyone who got their first preference, and at least three families we know got none of their list of 6. We got our second preference - I had been pretty confident about getting the first preference but the distance offered shrank from 3.1km last year to 1.7km this time!

Are Dunraven, Elmgreen and the Norwood school on your list? Did you put them down?

Surely Elmgreen would have been your ‘sure if a place’ school if not quite close enough for Dunraven?

I will be honest and say I would prefer these over City Heights - BUT I hear City Heights has a new head and the school is doing well. Someone on Streatham Mums Facebook page was praising it recently

Did you put Kingsdale down for a lottery place?

I have seen a few Streatham parents asking about Harris Crystal Palace and Harris Battersea having been offered places there - which suggests they are undersubscribed.

That was my advice and I am not sure if the irresponsibility is in the advice on what might be grounds for appeal (which are on the right lines as I understand it from reading many comments from experts – obviously there is no guarantee) or the advice to appeal at all.

It’s a parent's right to appeal and while I am a big supporter of schools, I don’t see why this parent (or any other) should waive that right if they think they have a good case, just because the appealed-for schools will have "very robust defences". We don't know what the OP's grounds might be so I don't see why we should assume they are weak. Or should no one exercise their right to appeal? I have seen cases on MN where the family had a very strong case and were successful.

It is your flippant encouragement to appeal without knowing anything about this parent's circumstances or the schools she is applying to. Parents do have the right to appeal, but the system is being swamped by those who are just having a punt because they believe they have "nothing to lose". We all have something to lose. If the appeals system becomes too expensive then it will be changed, and the most obvious way to change it is to limit the grounds for appeal.

This is the Government's first step on what will inevitably turn into downward spiral: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-admission-appeals-cash-cut-penalises-successful-schools/

And although that article is about academies, appeals for maintained schools cost a fortune too - their costs are usually hidden in the local authority's top slice of school funding.

Presumably you know that this position could go down as well as up , depending on allocations, private school acceptances or movement into the area.

I think I made it clear that I took a risk given only one school was in Lambeth

Kingsdale was also one of my choices too. (Very far down on waiting list)

It is what it is, and just because I’ve done this twice, doesn’t mean I know it all- my daughter’s school is a 35 minute walk away and that was the 5th choice- similar criteria to our second choice for my son, and he still didn’t get in- and yes it was oversubscribed

I accept it’s just the luck of the straw at times too

Yeah, sadly I found that out yesterday…he was 71 on waiting list for a school in Wandsworth, now 74

St Thomas The Apostle school in Nunhead

You don’t need yet another person to tell you that you took a huge risk in applying mostly for schools in other boroughs - not because they’re in other boroughs, but because the distances involved meant you were unlikely to get a place.

On appeals, I agree with Clary. You have the right to appeal but should think carefully about whether you can identify solid reasons why your child would be disadvantaged if not given a place at the school (and disadvantaged more than the school would be, in having to accommodate an extra pupil). Generic arguments about it being a good school or preferring it to the allocated school won’t be strong enough.

Don't lose hope. Accept for now the offered place. The WLs are very dynamic and change a lot till Sep. Many people just only got their private school results, so they might decide to go there instead. My son also took 11+ and for now was only offered his last preference. He is in upper teens/early 20s on WL for 2 schools with higher preference on the list, so he might get something closer to Sep. Of course the only issue will be the uniform cost if he has to change abruptly. I wouldn't worry for now yet.

OK – allow me to modify my advice. Although the OP is entitled to appeal to any of the schools they listed on their form. So to clarify – @nothyme4this I think it is a good idea to appeal only for schools where your grounds for the appeal are strong, if for no other reason than because putting together an appeal is time-consuming and challenging, as well as adding a further layer of stress and perhaps false hope for you and your DC to what can be a stressful process anyway. We don’t know how strong the OP’s appeal grounds are but it’s certainly worth you interrogating in advance – and I repeat, there is a lot of good advice on threads on this board. From @PanelChair for example.

I don’t personally think that you should refrain from appealing bc the schools you are appealing for will have really strong cases (tho disclaimer: I don’t know anything about the schools in question or to what extent this will be the case). Any school could claim that and put parents off from exercising their right to appeal. I am sorry that schools are having to spend money they don’t have defending appeals, and I do take your point I am not sure it is a major point for @IAmMum85 to worry about though. Should schools be better funded? For sure. Should the cost of appeals be borne by another agency? Very probably, just show me who is proposing that and I will vote for it.

Most posters are - rightly - focusing on waiting lists. Take a good hard look at whether you have reasonable grounds for appeal at any of the schools in your original list. To be successful you will need to prove that the disadvantage to your DS not attending that particular school outweighs the disadvantage to the school of having the extra pupil.

In general, things like behaviour; discipline; your child’s ability; Ofsted; results; transport; friends will not win appeals to schools which are heavily oversubscribed, unless there is a very particular reason that is unique to your child eg a medical condition (with supporting medical evidence) that makes a longer journey much more difficult for your child than most or a particular difficulty (again supported by evidence from a professional stating the need for that particular school) that means they are very unusually dependent on being with known peers.

You may have a greater likelihood of success if you can make a strong and evidenced link between your child and the school eg your child plays an orchestral instrument to a decent grade and the school has an orchestra & offers A level music while the offered school does not.

It seems likely, given your thinking around applications, that WL will be the best way forward. Have you explored whether there are other schools (not your original ones, but realistic options near to you) where you would be high on the WL and that you prefer to the allocated school?

You mention sport - again, an appeal ground could be that the desired school has facilities and clubs for sports x and y that your child plays whereas the allocated school does not.

I agree with this. If we go down the route of discouraging appeals because of what they cost schools, less confident / less brash parents with good cases may well decide against appealing ‘for the good of the school’, while confident chancers with weak cases will continue to appeal and thus gain places they might not have done against a ‘full field’ of appellants.

Independent funding of appeals would indeed be fairer, as it can be a ‘tax on success’ for schools that have fought hard to improve and thus become popular.

Are Dunraven, Elmgreen and the Norwood school on your list? Did you put them down?
Surely Elmgreen would have been your ‘sure if a place’ school if not quite close enough for Dunraven?

This is what I was gonna say. I think Dunraven is a stretch if you're not close, but Norwood catchment's fairly wide and Elmgreen is a really good caring school with big aspirations (my DS is in the 6th form and we've been impressed).

But if your worst nightmare (which seems pretty mild to me) is City Heights simply because of what you've seen of some kids after school, then I'm thinking you probably discounted Elmgreen and maybe even Norwood too. Honestly these schools have lots of kids and the few you've seen don't mean there aren't good kids like your DC who'll do well. If you're living in that area, you know what it's like and that there's a huge mix of all kinds of families which makes it a great place to grow up in many ways.

Better to go to the local school than flog to Nunhead (really??) every day just to go to a religious school in case that makes some big difference. I get that the ideal is a Kingsdale or some more selective bubble, but that's a lottery and not everyone can win. Unless you're loaded, I wouldn't pay well over £100k for private secondary just to avoid City Heights. At least go and see what it's actually like. Many kids act like prats after school, it doesn't mean the school is poor. So yeah, go and see the school you've been offered (and accept the offer), get on waitlists and keep an open mind. Your kid is from there, like the other DC. Don't write off a whole cohort out of fear.

Apols my tags were the wrong way round in my last post - meant to tag @IAmMum85 in the first paragraph and then @nothyme4this in the second one but hopefully you got the gist!

Banding tests are a method of selection, though - to obtain equal numbers of five ability bands. You could be in band 3, but other children in other bands living further away could get places ahead of you.

(Norwood school is good btw. Both my DC went there for secondary. Well worth reconsidering if you've dismissed it for some reason.)

That is a long way from where I guess you live.

i am familiar with the area & schools as my two are in a local school & I also know kids who have been to St. T.

I think you’ve had sound advice here, visit the school you’ve been allocated & accept the place. Put your name down on all the schools you didn’t get in to & also any others you didn’t originally select but you would prefer to city heights.

worst case, your child goes to city heights & you supplement their learning with some private tutoring (if you are concerned about the teaching). They will find like minded people at whatever school they end up at.

it will be ok

There is plenty of movement in the waiting lists between now and September. Initially there is a shakedown of rejected offers (chosen private, moving house etc), and second offers go out early April, I think. After that there is less movement, but that also works both ways, so if a place is offered to others on their waiting list, they are more likely to say we're sticking with what we've got.

The only school on your probable list that I know is Kingsdale, which through its size will have more movement. I know of one boy, quite a few years ago, who only got his KIngsdale place on the day after the August bank holiday. It had been a very stressful summer for him and his mum, but it worked out well in the end as I am sure it will do for you too.

Elm Green? That was a local school which really impressed and many of my son’s classmates are going there. It was our second choice but we were offered our first choice

I’m not too far from you and didn’t even go to see City Heights. As its reputation is really poor - violence and results. Despite being the closest secondary to my son’s primary they didn’t even show up to do a presentation to the parents and students. So I assumed that it wouldn’t suit my son.

But I saw the same Streatham Mums post raving about it too. And I do know that a lot of opinions about the school come with thinly veiled racism and classism. So definitely tour the school to get a feel for it yourself. I also saw that through their partnership with Dulwich one student was offered a bursary spot at Dulwich.

BTW our first choice was Westminster City. Every time we visited my son and I rated it more each time.

if you’re willing to travel to Nunhead I suggest looking at Westminster City.

It was Wandsworth, I think we just worry too much as a parent😔