Advice needed after no secondary school offer from preferred choices

[Atlanta04]

We applied for 6 schools and unfortunately My daughter was not offered any preferred place of secondary school, I have refused the alternative offer of the undersubscribed school place. The position of where my daughter is on the waiting list show that she will not be offered a place and our only chance of a decent school is winning an appeal. Is there anyone who could give advice please?

It’s not been helpful that you haven’t shared the grounds for appeal. Your post asked for help, but you’ve declined to provide useful information that could help posters actually guide and advise you.
You say you’re in a position to home educate or go private, so it sounds like your DC will be fine anyway.

My mistake.

Thank you, yes we are north part of the borough

Ah OK, that makes is easier to make some suggestions.

I would get on the list for any LBHF schools which you could accept if you aren't already on their waiting lists - check admissions criteria as they all vary - for example HA is banded and in previous years has gone out of catchment to fill the top band.

Then look at schools towards central London from you - Holland Park School, Kensington Aldridge, Westminster Academy are all popular but there will be movement before September. Check bus routes as something that looks a way away can be 30 minutes on a bus - and the buses are full of children doing exactly that journey.

On appeals - lots of excellent advice on here and some very knowledgeable posters - but there are no guarantees of success with that route. In your position I would proactively seek a school place, prepare to HE if that is the realistic alternative for your family, pursue appeals if you feel you have a case, and then make a final decision once you have all the options later on in the summer.

OP, you mention about taking your upcoming year 7 child to school - pretty much all year 7s will get themselves to school and back and that includes in London. That won't be something you can use for an appeal.
Catchments are very small in London boroughs and really you needed to have a safe backup which your child would have got into within your 6 choices. Out of borough schools would have been pretty much a non starter unfortunately. Sorry you're in this situation and very stressful.

Thank you, that’s very much appreciated. we did apply for Kensington Aldridge as its drama department would be beneficial to my daughters passion for performing arts, we also live within a mile radius and even though it’s another borough was still a closer more suitable option. I have also been in communication with admissions to put down other options and broaden the hope of a school place for September. The local mp and church have also given letters of support for appeal due to circumstances that I have not disclosed on here. But it’s seems that there are not many people that are in my situation so that is interesting. As for the person who said I have nothing, not only are you wrong in because you actually do not know the finer details but also as a mother I have everything to give, which also means standing strong for my daughter and giving her the best chance as this is her future, either way we will see gods plan and I will rise to the occasion adapt and push for progression whatever the path maybe, we are ready with everything we have thank you very much!

So for KA the drama makes a good appeal point if you can evidence interest.

I can see where she gets her passion for performing arts from…

Yes agree with this. If your DD attends drama club or is involved in productions @Atlanta04 that's the kind of stronger argument we are talking about.

Congratulations on your decision to home school.

I'm not sure what magic you are expecting from MN if you're 90th on a waiting list, refused the place you have been offered and don't see to be able to come up with a valid reason for an appeal other than 'because we don't like the other ones'. Especially when you are applying out of borough.

Yeah she is confident and bold just like me for sure! But honestly what is the point in that comment? I really think people on here should have some reflection time because those platform is quite patronising and hostile, just keep scrolling if you have nothing positive to say, strange behaviour from other mothers meant to be contributing to a supportive group or did I miss the memo?

She sounds delightful!

Thank you, would you recommend confirmation/reference of attendance from stage school, dance school and guitar teacher or just stage school as that is also her agency?

Not a clue! (Lay reader of admission appeal threads, no real life experience!)

All of these. The more evidence you have of her interest, the better.

I don’t think confirmation of attendance is particularly helpful in itself. You would need them to state in their opinion this school is the one to best meet her interest because …. Do you have evidence of regular participation, speaking roles, performances, festivals etc. Lots of kids do drama, dance and music at or out of primary school but soon drop it at secondary age. What does the school offer in terms of curriculum and extra curricular activities to support your dd’s interest? Have you thought about applying to PA schools if that is really her thing?

If you win on appeal it will likely force the school you win a place at to make a class bigger than it normally would be, or bump another child from the waiting list down to give you priority of a place that appears ahead of another child on the list.

The reasons these might happen basically consist of

	1 Original criteria being overlooked:

For example:

• your child having a sibling at the school you want, but not being granted sibling priority
• or you being placed after children who live further away from your preferred school.

	2 New evidence coming to light meaning that your child's needs as at the time of application, were very different to their current needs requiring a different school meeting different criteria.

3 Naturally a place actually becoming available at a school you are high up the waiting list for anyway.

Short of these things happening, you are unlikely to win on appeal. You obviously can refuse the offers and stay on the waiting lists of any schools you applied for and didn't get a place for.

In answer to your initial question: An appeal is likely to be winnable if your reasons for rejecting the schools you were offered:

• centre around those schools not meeting the government criteria for your child or
• you can show that your child has individual needs which cannot be met even in a school which she meets the general criteria for. For example, if she has a disability preventing independent travel over a distance/ using a method, that most children her age would manage.

If you cannot show this then you rejecting her offers alone are not going to land her with a better offer. You will need to accept an offer she got, or hope she naturally moves up the waiting list for a school you want, and be prepared to home educate if she does not.

@stichguru At secondary level (or actually y3 upwards) you need to show detriment to your child is greater than detriment to school. It is more flexible than infants where infant class size restrictions are in place.

I always find such OPs insane. Do you really think that anyone wants to send their DC to a terrible school?
The time to act was years ago, either movingwell within the historic catchment of an acceptable school or (as a lot do), attend church for years in some cases to secure a place at the outstanding local Catholic school.
Similar to you happened to a friend. I was astounded that she believed DC would be offered a place at one of the schools she'd nominated, just because she'd only applied to them, four vastly oversubscribed schools that had catchments miles away.
When the school places were offered her DC was given a place at a failing school three bus rides away. She was further shocked to find out that she was massively low on the waiting lists of each of the schools she had wanted, refusing initially to believe that her grounds for appeal were baseless too.
It was surreal, she believed a place should magically appear for her DC because she refused the offered place. All that did was dissolve the local authority of a duty of care.
My friend then thought, again spectacularly naively, that because she refused the place at the school offered that it would help when she appealed. Her grounds for appeal were ridiculous but again it was like she thought if she created a fuss a place would appear for her DC.
Iirc she appealed stating she couldn't drive and had a younger DC at another school. She didn't win and ended up 'homeschooling.' She barely had a GCSE herself. It was disastrous. Her DC would actually have been far better off at the school she was offered initially.
I was surprised my friend was so naive. She seemed more shocked we'd moved when our DC was three years old (I'm not smug, there's no grammars here and I knew we couldn't afford private), to ensure school places. It felt like she thought she'd invented a loophole to win a place in a school she had zero chance of ever getting. I did wonder if she'd attended open evenings. They usually tell you the historic catchment area and if they're oversubscribed. Ultimately, the outcome wasn't great for her DC.

@Atlanta04 by aligning with our values, do you mean things which don't actually form part of the concrete, legal, oversubscription criteria of the schools you applied for - e.g. they don't allow pupuls to have a mobile phone, even on the journey to school - and your DD was not ranked highly enough (or anywhere close, if shes in the 90s on waiting lists) against those schools' actual oversubscription criteria to be offered a place? Or things which are part of the actual oversubscription criteria, but your DD still wasn't ranked highly enough to be offered a place (e.g. a faith school where your DD is of the same religion as the school, and you provided the required evidence, but although the cut-off was within the criterion she was in, she was ranked below on the 'oversubscription within criterion' grounds, or she was ranked in a criterion lower than the cut-off one)?

In your position, I would start with looking at schools which are on a single bus route from home. You already know that on March 2nd, the nearest school within your borough with a place available was the one which you turned down, but in he intervening weeks, places may well have become available at schools more convenient to get to (and, which - who knows? - may not be so antithetical to your personal beliefs), which you hadn't previously applied for.

Was the school you turned down the only one in the area which your DD would have been offered even if it hadn't been under PAN?

Providing DC with an education is a parental responsibility - you can do this by asking your home LA to find a school place, by submitting your list of preferred schools once your CAF - but they have already done that and you have declined the only offer that they was able to make under the Admissions Code, so it is now up to you to apply elsewhere and to appeal for as many schools as you wish which have not offered a place. But elective home education is just another valid choice, not a Gotcha! for an appeal.

Presumably, you've already seen the links on your LA's website?

https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/children-and-young-people/schools-and-colleges/school-admissions/transfer-secondary-school-2026

https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-03/schools-with-vacancies-or-short-waiting-lists-2026.pdf

Or perhaps would not meet the faith criteria by not attending or practicing regularly or being baptised/confirmed but think of ourselves as C of E, RC et al.

Or perhaps would not meet the faith criteria by not attending or practicing regularly or being baptised/confirmed but think of ourselves as C of E, RC et al.

Yes, there is always that...

I don't know where the quotes came from, but this is wrong.

There are two ways of winning an appeal:

• By showing that a mistake has been made and your child should have been admitted, e.g. your child was placed in the wrong admissions category
• By showing that the disadvantage to your child from not being admitted outweighs any issues the school will face from having to cope with an additional pupil. Contrary to the quote, this does not have to be new evidence showing that the child's needs at the time of application were different to their current needs. And what you say after the quote sets a much higher bar than is actually used by appeal panels. In OP's case, if the appeal school has a better offering for the performing arts than the allocated school and she can evidence her daughter's interest, that could be a winning case.

I wouldn't give up yet, OP. It's still April and there is often plenty of movement on waiting lists before September or even just after the start of the Autumn term. (There are pupils who don't turn up on the first day because they have moved for example).
Yes you can appeal.
Do Stay on waiting lists.
Finally the system is that you are offered your closest undersubscribed school if all your preferences are oversubscribed. Are there any undersubscribed schools a bit further away that would be easy to travel to e.g. on a main bus route?