no offer for state school wimbledon, what should i do??

[lilasimpson]

hi, i just got a letter from council saying that ds has no place for dundonald, wimbledon chase or pelham....i am lost, don't know whether i should apply privately ie willington, rowans..on top of it, dont know if ds needs a test prior to entrance.....can someone help me??? don't know if it's worth it..i am also looking at other schools like holy trinity, the priory, joseph hood...what do u think???

Where are you on the waiting lists? There is quite a lot of movement in the lists. Quite a lot of people in Wimbledon apply for state schools as a back-up, but really intend to go private. My friend's child got a reception place in a very popular school two months after the first round of offers and he started as 3rd on the waiting list.

I guess you really need to speak to the Council and see where you are on the waiting lists. They'll probably tell you that you need to wait for people to accept their places - from memory they're given about two or three weeks to do this. After that, some more people will be offered places and others will move up the waiting list.

unfortunately, i am 10TH on waiting list for dundonald, 20 something for the other 2! so chances are quite slim!!

When this happened in Lambeth about three years ago I know friends phoned schools in neighbouring boroughs. At that point some Wandsworth schools were sympathetic and helpful, and places did come up. They did this themselves, and I assume schools who did have places were encouraged consider children whose parents were making the effort. This year however, with increasing populations and the impact of the credit crunch will not have helped.

But a horrid horrid situation. It is really disheartening for kids, and we know of some who had to go the whole of the summer term not knowing what school they would go to.

If you are considering private as a back up/fall back, one option might be one of the 13+ preps who lose a lot of kids at 11+ and hence will have places right up and until the start of the September term. These push forward on the Common Entrance syllabus so represent good value in educational terms, and some breathing space whilst waiting for that State place.

thnks all...btw, does anyone know how to measure the distance using ordnance survey maps??

Yes I do but Merton use the straight line distance from the centre of your property to the school's entrance gate. If the school has more than one entrance they use the one nearest your property. It should be easy to work that out with an OS map and a ruler but the normal 1:50000 maps won't be accurate enough.

The title you've given this thread implies that you haven't been offered a place at all. Is that the case? If so there is a real problem. The LA are obliged by law to offer you a place. It doesn't have to be at one of your preferred schools (or even within the borough) but they must come up with a place somewhere. If they haven't offered you anything you should call them and ask them what they intend to do. It may be that they've had more children applying than there are places, in which case they should be figuring out how to get more children into at least one of their schools and/or negotiating with a neighbouring borough to get children in there. Whatever they are up to, they shouldn't just leave you hanging with no place anywhere and no indication as to what is going on.

i did not have any offer indeed but received a list of schools that may have space or a short waiting list in the borough, however, they are the least popular!!

"may have a space" errr they have to find you a space not you find it for yourself!

I would put yourself on the waiting list of all the nearest schools you would be happy with. The LEA may be having to put on extra classes at one or more schools so being on the waiting list may get you a space that way.

This is certainly what happened in Kingston last year which isn't really that far from you.

i will have to reapply through second round and see if i can get an offer....how do you get an os map by the way?

our local library should have maps. ring the LEA and ask how you get on the school waiting lists. It's bizarre I live in Surrey and we share admissions with London, there is no 2nd round for us.

We didn't get a place in any school in our LA in s London last year

The reason they won't have offered you one is because they will be pretty sure something will come up at one of the schools they listed. Waiting lists do move faster than you'd think and if there really is such an oversubscription problem then one of the schools or more will probably run a bulge class. That's what happened to us. It is very stressful and unpleasant but you will get a place eventually. Good luck

CarGirl is right - they MUST make you an offer. It is not acceptable for them to simply send you a list of schools and wash their hands of the situation. It is up to Merton Council to find a place for your son.

Call them and ask them what they are going to do. If they try to fudge and make it your responsibility to find a place, remind them that they MUST find you a place - that is the law. If they don't, you should lodge a formal complaint and threaten to refer them to the Local Government Ombudsman as it would be a clear case of maladministration.

I'm not sure what this "reapply through second round" is - I can't see anything on Merton's website about a second round. And I'm pretty sure the LGO would take a dim view of councils which failed to give places to all children and made those who missed out apply again.

We were in a similar situation last year. After the first round there were no offers for us at any of our nearest schools. Eventually we were offered a place in our first choice school (but we were very close to the top of the waiting list), and several people I know were also offered their first choice schools in summer and even in September (Bishop Gilpin, Wimbledon Chase and some others). They were in between number 10 and number 20 on the list.
There was a lot of movement in the waiting lists between the first offers and September. The council was very difficult to reach by phone, though, but, surprisingly, it was much easier to communicate with them by e-mail. I hope it all works out for you.

thanks ivy, hope so too!! what does anyone think of joseph hood? all saints?holy trinity?

In terms of distance can't you ring LA and ask them what your official distances are ? I'm in Kingston and they certainly tell you.

Offers of secondary places must be sent on 1st March. Offers of primary places must be sent "on a date specified by the local authority". The LA will publish a timetable each year which will include the date on which offers of primary places will be sent out.

Of course, if the number of applications exceeds the number of places (a situation which should generally only happen for primary admissions), the LA has a problem. They will have to negotiate with schools and/or surrounding LAs to get enough places. That may not be possible by the date when they have to send out the offers and may result in late offers. When this happens I would expect the LA to inform the parents affected of what steps they are taking to resolve the situation. It seems that this year a number have not done this and at least one has wrongly suggested that it is up to the parents to find a school with places.

Three years ago when my son did not get allocated a place the Local Authority phoned in May to say they might have a place some way away in North London. We then never heard from them again.

It did not worry us as we knew we lived in a real problem area for schools. Lambeth is massively short of places and the problem is worse the further north you go and we had assumed we would need to go private if he did not get his preferred school. I might have made a fuss (taxpayer, entitled to place etc) except I heard that 3 kids in the local Primary who needed local schools were in the same position and got nothing till the end of the summer term or through appeal.

I also know other people who had previously thought because they lived between good schools they would not have a problem. However demand rose and they ended up too far away from both.

It probably should be for the Local Education Authority to find you a place, but people I know got places by phoning round themselves. I dont know how the system works but the sooner you phone an acceptable school which is within travelling distance the higher up the wait list you may be. And as I said before, Wandsworth schools are used to this. I was told some schools were particularly nice and made kids feel very wanted, in immediate contrast to earlier experience.

And again people found it awful, and particularly difficult for the kids.

With my second a year ago things had improved a little. We got allocated a place at a school 3 bus rides away. When I asked if we could look round we were told there was no provision for this and we would have to wait till the end of the summer term when there would be an open day for new students. Hmmmm.

Just one point - your position on the waiting list does not depend on how soon you contact the school. At this stage the waiting list must be handled by the LA. The law requires the LA to use the same criteria for the waiting list as they do for admissions, so someone can go on the waiting list one day and be admitted the next even if there were already 50 children on the list.

Think the Rowans is notoriously difficult to get into. But would definitely be worth calling the Willington, they may have a bit of movement.

Holy Trinity is an excellent school, really liked it when I went to visit. If you applied to Pelham, I guess you'er not a million miles away from there?

Don't know Joseph Hood but it doubled up to a 2 form entry so they may have a shorter waiting list.

Try Garfield & Hollymount too.

Which schools are on your list? Holy Trinity and Priory are both good schools - they have two form entry and while in theory are CoE half the intake is done on distance. Both full of nice middle-class kids and well regarded, if not as sought after as, say, Bishop Gilpin.

thanks all....i must say, it does worry me...i am constantly on the phone with council, who are nice because they will tell me which schools are close to me but will not tell me how far i would be in the waiting list...got quite upset with all saints school as the woman kept telling me the waiting list was with the council when it is a CoE school...the council tells me otherwise...i phoned holy trinity, who were the nicest and they said i would be around 7th on the waiting list right now...do u think i have some chances knowing that lots of people who did not get a space like me will apply there too???

i am 23rd on pelhams waiting list by the way!

7th place sounds good to me, Lila.

The thing is that parents are now returning their acceptance slips to the council by around 10th April.

So until then, they won't have the full picture of who is taking up their places at HT.

How far distance-wise are you from there?

Oh and yes try the Priory too. It's not much further than HT.

i dont know in terms of distance but thats the next closest one to me