Waiting Lists

[cswilliams78]

Hello,

My DS didn?t get a place at any of his preference schools and has been allocated the school which is deemed 10th closest to our home. I have visited the school now and I can?t fault the school itself (which helps a little) but I am still not happy with him going to a school outside of our area (he won?t know anyone where we live, travel issues, grandparents can?t help with school run and all the council offer for travel assistance is a free bus pass for the child ? nothing for an adult to accompany him, I have checked).

My local council (Wigan) are giving me the run around on waiting lists! They have a three list rule which is supported by the schools adjudicator (someone posted their response on here yesterday). The council won?t tell me where I am on the two church schools waiting lists that I applied for, they say to contact the school the schools say they don?t do it and to contact the council and the council say it is definitely the schools but they won?t know until late next week, very frustrating as I feel like time is ticking and I am making no progress!Is this normally how it is managed (ie church schools do there own?)

I have wondered how the council can apply a three school limit if they only manage the community lists? Is there a loop hole there?

I am 8th on the list for my first choice school, there is a double intake (60) but 32 of those places are sibling so I am not hopeful there will be that much movement. The council also won?t tell me where I might be if I joined other waiting lists so that I can work out which will give me the best chance, all I can do is write to them to request they change my preferences and then they will tell me where I am on that list.

I have am also going to apply for two schools outside the borough, each school has 1 place but I have to go through the application process again and if anyone else applies I will up against them on criteria.

I was wondering what usually happens with waiting lists, is there an initial flury of movement after the deadline for accepting places and then another around appeals time?

Thanks for any advice that can be offered, I have calmed down allot since I first got the news but still very upset about this I rarely think about ANYTHING else (which the local council seem to have no idea about ? do they understand that they are dealing with real people here and what we are going through in this situation? I have kept my calm at all times in my communication with them and not blamed them for the situation I am in, only ever asked for help?.).

Catherine

Hi Catherine, i am in much the same boat as you, had an awful shock at DD2 not getting into DD1's church school but have since calmed down a bit. We did not meet all of the clergy criteria and this takes priority over even a sibling at the same school.

For me there are 3 different phases to the process:

1. 30 place offers have been made and these families have 14 days to accept or decline their place. Because of easter hols however the school have allowed them until yesterday to return the form they received with the offer. From today until next wednesday they will be chasing any stagglers. The admissions board of the school then meet again to re-allocate any spaces not accepted. The school have informally told me they produced a list of 1-40 applicants from all applications at the time of allocation. So in theory if one place is declined they offer to number 31 on the list and so on until all places are re-allocated.

2. They then create a 'waiting list' which is all those families who still wish to be considered for a place should it come up. This in church schools is a moving feast as someone could move into the parish who meets more criteria then you and leap frog you on the list. The school is the first point of contact to update you on the list and where you are on it.

3. Running concurrently is the appeals process, deadline for applying is next Tuesday for us. Appeals to be heard the back end of May, so spare places are not kept back in case an appeal is upheld.

Cannot see why the church schools cannot tell you direct how far down the list you are ? They do not officially like to say as it can get people's hopes up, but maybe worth asking at least when they will decide on the reallocations and how you will be notified of the outcome.

Hope this helps, good luck.

I am not sure what Wigan are doing.
There is always a small time period of a couple of weeks after the initial allocation letters go out when there will be no movement whilst parents are returning their accept or decline forms.
They as the local authority have to administer all waiting lists for every school in the LA. As such they have to give you the information on where you are on the waiting lists for the two faith schools, but it is literally at that moment and can change by the minute.
The LA has to work with the faith schools to decide who is the top of the waiting list as an when places become available. The LA make any offers of places but it is in effect the schools admission committee who decide who is top of the list.