You'd think the LA would be too busy now.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Just posting for a bit of a rant and also wondering if anybody else experienced this.

Today I received a letter from our LA informing me of the place that has been allocated to my dd for secondary admission in september.

We haven't applied for a place and dd has been H.ed for 3 years now.
The letter stated the HT would be in touch soon regarding transfer arrangements.

They have accepted the place on our behalf by the sounds of it as it also goes on to state it is their responsibility to make sure dd attends a secondary school.

As it happens dd will be attending school from September but it is a private ss in a completely different area.
I informed them of this and they said they would be in touch in due course after investigating the matter.

The cheeky buggers, I'm quite mad tbh.
I can understand them getting in touch to see if dd intended to continue H.ed into secondary and would have been fine, a simple no thank you would have been fine.

Why do they think they are the law, and why do they get it so wrong?
I am all for keeping them informed but this is ridiculous.

That's entirely bizarre. Not only are you getting messed around, but potentially another family is as well. If the secondary the LA has decided your dd ought to attend is oversubscribed, then some other child who should have been allocated a place there straightaway has been denied their place in the first instance because it has been given instead to your dd, who doesn't want it!

A few years ago there was a government proposal to amend the law so that children whose parents wanted to deregister them would remain on the school roll for six weeks in case the crazy and impulsive parents came to their senses and changed their minds about HE. In the consultation, I pointed out how harmful it would be to children who were waiting for a place at that school, who would have to wait an extra six weeks while the place was occupied by someone who wasn't using it and didn't want it.

Congratulations to your dd for getting the school place she has wanted for so long!!! I didn't realise that was a definite thing now. That is fantastic news. Hope she loves it!

Which county ? Mine (Norfolk) didn't contact us at all. It does seem a bizarre approach to take.

How extraordinary and what a complete waste of everyone's time .

It's unbelievable, I know.
The school isn't over subscribed as it isn't as good as it used to be, but it certainly was a few years ago.
saracen Thanks for the well wishes, she can't wait, but has already asked the house master if she can skip maths
We are in Wigan, who seem to be having a bit f a staff shuffle around atm.
I was offered an appointment this time from somebody who was completely new to H.ed section. I completed a review only last month and informed them where dd would be going in September
I have never heard of automatic selection for those who don't apply and thought the sheer number of people they need to sort out for September would mean they would be too busy for this.

Hi

This is what I imagine has happened...
Council, like all councils, has had it's funding cut so it is trying to find efficient methods to do things which mean it can save money (sack people). It has therefore probably adopted an automated system of allotting a school place, at transition times, to all the children that it knows exists. It probably doesn't have the staff to check each child's status. It will save the council money to just give everyone a school place all in one go rather than to have to deal with the parents who don't bother/know about the fact that you have to apply for a place. [sounds crazy, but I know 2 families who didn't bother to apply even when they intended for children to go to school]

It seems doubtful that they'd have time to adopt subtefuge in order to get children back into school.

Only a parent can register a child in a school by law.
So something very odd has happened.
You couldn't be done for truancy as you did not register the child, and she will not be attending on the first day.
But yes odd

bang

yes, when I contacted them this is what they said. The school had been assigned as it was the nearest with space. The head teacher would be in contact about transition.
It is on our doorstep actually and the one we would have chosen, even though its having to improve atm.

I think you are right about somebody not knowing what they are doing as we received the confirmation letter today they usually send to state that the report we sent was sufficient and dd was receiving a suitable education.
Despite me telling them she was starting school in September they said they hoped it continued to go well and they would be in touch next year before the annual review was due.

I've come to the conclusion it is partly due to standard letters being issued and right/left not knowing what the other is doing

I live in hope it is all sorted now and no further emails or letters will appear.
I won't be holding my breath