9th on waiting list - told no chance....

[dollypops]

So I spoke to Kensington and Chelsea today who told me my ds is 9th on the waiting list (approximately!) and that there was very little chance he would be offered a place before September. Last place offered was 0.42 miles and we are 0.52 miles. It's a one and a half form entry with 45 kids. 17 places allocated to siblings and 28 others. Just wondering if anyone has any idea whether there still might be a chance for us or if I should just accept the fact that probably he'll start at his 3rd choice (which I desperately don't want) & then might be able to move him after September (which I don't want either).... 3rd choice new school with extended days (8.30-4) and my ds isn't 4 until July. Feel so upset as had been hoping we would get in on waiting lists.... Thanks for any help

That's a long day for a LO isn't it? Can you negotiate a PT start? (we did for ds3, also a July baby, though he also has SN).

I moved ds1 in year R due to moving away and it was fine, he was settled almost instantly: littlies are very adaptable.

So- if it were me- i'd look at PT followed by a move when a place comes up.

Hey Dolly we are also in RBKC. I was told there would be no waiting list news till 26 April when all acceptances/declines from first round offers would be complete. How come they told you?
Good luck BTW. It is really tough waiting for a concrete answer. I hope you get what you want in the end.

I remember with our son's nursery application (which the school handled and not the LA) they showed us a 5 pages waiting list. By May we had an offer. I know a nursery application is a totally different thing but before we had even applied 2 schools were trying to discourage us by saying we lived too far (and they were the closest schools!!).

Don't always listen to them. There is nothing wrong with accepting the 3rd choice and still be in the waiting list :) Of course it will be the LA's headache to keep monitoring who comes and goes from the waiting list so they want people off their back ASAP. You sit and relax! We had accepted a completely different school we hadn't applied to (> 2miles away) and were still on the waiting list and a place came up at a school we had applied to.

It is totally wrong for the LA to making such a comment.
9th out of 45 sounds a lot but you only need a few going independant and a few moving out of the area for you to be near the top of the waiting list, anything could happen between now and September.
It would also be wrong to assume that you will get a place, so you should assume 3rd preference school is the one you have at the moment and anything else is a bonus

Am another parent with a child on the waiting lists. We didn't get any school we listed on our choices at all (our council only gave us 3 choices), let alone our first choice. Of course it is better than those who didn't get a place at all; however when it happens to you it does make you question why they are even asking you for your 3, 4 or 6 choices in the first place if they are likely to be futile.

Can I ask parents whose posts I've read who stated they didn't want their child to go to their 2nd or 3rd choice school why that is the case? Do a lot of parents put down a school they do not want as a 3rd or a 2nd choice? I thought the whole point of having alternative choices was that they were schools you would be happy with too. Not carping - after all, I don't think we're in the same borough - but I am just puzzled as to why a parent wouldn't be happy with the choices they themselves submitted.

Number 9 on a waiting list doesn't seem that impossible, I wouldn't necessarily believe what that person said and pull out straightaway - then again, it isn't a guarantee either.

Ninani - thanks for your encouraging anecdotes!

southofthethames, the school we put 3rd I didn't want my dd to go to, but I put it 3rd because if she was going to go to a school that I didn't want I'd rather it was local rather than across the borough. So, no, it wasn't a school that I'd be 'happy' with, I was just trying to be a bit strategic.

We got 2nd choice, which I liked (although it's on a notice to improve now, so by no means a desirable school for many); our first choice had twice as many siblings as two years ago so we were too far this year.

I do know a few people who got caught out by just putting schools they'd be happy with - I don't think the system is that clear tbh, especially if it's your first child and you've never done it before.

And having said that, I know that some people put their 3 or 6 nearest schools and didn't get them, so the system is more workable in some areas than others.

Thanks, Rosebud05 and GiddyPickle.....some days I wonder whether the best thing might be just to have an auction for the school places or something! I know someone who was (last year) allocated a school I would have been reasonably happy with - but it's 4 miles away or something like that, and she wasn't happy with the travel at all. They in turn wanted the school we were given but we're not very keen on. If they had a swap shop for parents who didn't get their preferred choices, I think it'd be interesting to see if parents would come up with a better result! My choices (only allowed 3) were made on the basis of two nearby (the rest were church schools of parishes that we didn't go to) and one big one which has previously taken kids from quite far away, but that obviously didn't work either. Of course, one would have to stipulate things like how many places for boys and how many for girls - you shouldn't have a class with 29 girls and one boy, for instance!

I believe that some areas do have lotteries for secondary schools - Greenwich and Brighton I think - to try to level the playing field in terms of opportunity to decent schools.

I don't think this would be practicable for primary school as younger children will need to be taken to and from school.

The present system is very unequal, not just in terms of quality of school, but how much 'choice' each family has. Some people have a choice of more than one reasonable school, some actually don't have access to any local schools as a result of shrinking catchment areas and an unlucky geographical location.

I don't know what the answer is. I do know that this didn't happen when I was at school - part of me thinks that it's good to have Ofsted reports and League Tables publicly available, although I do also think this has contributed to the problem.

The sibling factor is a huge force to be reckoned with. Know at children's school 32 of 60 places allocated to siblings. Not any help at all with first child but if you do eventually get into a school that you are happy with for your eldest it will pay dividends if you should have more children.
I wouldn't be totally disheartened by the waiting list factor - we had huge issues getting eldest child into primary of our choice. He kept going up and down the waiting list like a yo-yo (he was never higher than 8th when we checked). It wasn't (typically) until we had looked for a half-decent compromise and gone down that route that we were offered a place (mid summer hols) for our preferred school.

In London there's so much movement of families, that often people apply for places even though they know they might be returning to country of origin or moving elsewhere abroad before the start of the school year. Eldest had a girl in class who moved to Copenhagen after six weeks in Reception and everyone knew from the off that the family would be moving. Personally think it was very selfish of them to deprive a long-term pupil of a place - particularly as she was nowhere near five and therefore legally didn't need to take up place....
It is a very stressful waiting game but thankfully think the Councils have fine-honed their admissions procedures..... When eldest was at that stage parents were holding onto faith school and other primary places simultaneously and the Councils had absolutely no idea what was going on. Of course they denied it was going on but knew from friends and general playground chatter that was rife - funnily enough the next year they changed the system!

Waiting lists do work but not all parents tell when they are moving town/ not taking the place as soon as they know, they basically just don't turn up. I do know a couple of children who were told in September they could go to their chosen primary school only during the settling in period - the teacher had called the other parents to confirm the time/ day of the home visit and was told the place wasn't needed anymore.
Good luck, 9th doesn't seem to be so bad.

Sorry it won't help for this year but I'm working with Constable Educational Trust to set up a new primary school in London for September 2012 if anyone here has younger children as well? We're using the free school legislation so the school will be state-funded. We're looking at five boroughs at the moment and will focus our proposal on the area where there's most parental demand.

The boroughs are Tower Hamlets, Haringey, Camden, Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea.

In 1998, the parents who formed the CET opened the The Moat School, Fulham for children with dyslexia and other special learning needs. The new primary free school will be mainstream, but will use best practice in early identification and intervention to ensure that all pupils can reach their potential. If you're in one of our five identified boroughs and would like to demonstrate your demand please sign up at our website - www.cetrust.net

Thanks