decisions, decisions. dont know what to do for the best..

[shelley72]

well we have finished looking at the local schools ahead of sending in our form in January. unfortunately, the school we like is in the next county, and whilst they do take pupils from our neighbouring authority, this year they were over subscribed and furthest distance was 2.1miles. the head had no feel for numbers applying for 2012, just suggested that we apply and hope for the best.

it was a similar story at our second favorite school - over subscribed and they have a limited catchment (of a few streets on a newish estate). again head said that the school is expanding so to apply and hope and see what happens.

this leaves two other schools in our town. 1. a catholic school which was ok but neither of us were keen on (very religious, obviously, didnt get to meet the head - 'too busy' and there was something about the place that made me feel a bit sad. it was almost institution like - tho my mates kids go there and they seem happy enough), and 2. a CE school which has recently come off special measures and is our 'official catchment school'. both are ofsted grade 3 and we really dont like either of them, though i have to admit the latter wasnt as bad as its reputation and the head impressed me - she has made lots of changes - excluding 40 pupils (in a primary school , and replacing teaching staff where she thought there were issues.

so to our form - do we put our two preferences down knowing that we are unlikely to get either and resign ourselves to the fact that we will get our crap catchment school, or do we start looking at other schools slightly furhter afield in the next villages?? DS nursery teacher is of the same opinion as us, that he would probably do better in a smallish school - he is quite a sensitve lad though i hope am sure that he will make friends easily enough.

short of winning the lottery on sat night we are feeling a bit desperate, and a bit stuck as to what to do. i feel like his whole future life is hanging on this (tho thats prob just me being overtired and irrational)..

any advice please???
thanks

Can you say where it is you live?

Well if you don't put down your catchment school 3rd, you may not even get that.

Are you only allowed 3 choices?

Be careful if you don't apply to your local school, you may be fine in your circumstances, but people here have assumed they will get local school as not great ofsted (mainly 3), so put 3 different choices, and all full plus local school full so sent across town to a worse school. Wouldn't need to be top of list but worth considering. Maybe a village school, the one which is expanding and the local one, depending on where you think more likely to get space.

we are in wilts, so yes we only have 3 choices on our form. As other places i guess it seems that most schools are oversubscribed. at the minute (in our heads) we have the schools in the following order: 1. out of LA (a village school where most of DS nursery peers will be going); 2. the out of catchment (but within a mile) expanding school and 3. undecided. even if we dont get our catchment school, i am not sure its possible to send us to a worse school tbh.

is it the case that there are schools that are seriously UNDER-subscribed? as around here anecdotally it seems that there are too many pupils going for too few places. some schools i have phoned to arrange visits have told me that they are not even bothering to host open mornings for prospective parents as they are so over subscribed there is no point! i am aware though that there may be some travelling involved if we dont get our preferences. however last year someone who was turned down for our no2 choice - their only choice - got placed in the 'outstanding' school 4 miles away. we love that school so would have been very happy with that! am wondering whether to put that on our list on the off chance actually...

We're in a similar position, with only three options too. My feeling is that if we don't get one of the two schools we like, we'd rather she go to a crap local school, than a crap school 5 miles away, or get allocated no school at all. We're also crossing fingers for a bulge class.

If the school that your child is most likely going to get a place at is crap it makes it very difficult to feel positive about the whole system. Inherently unfair.

Not very helpful I know - but excluding 40 primary aged children . I would run a mile from the place, because if they are happy to abandon so many children heaven help your child if they have learning or behavioural/social/emotional needs down the line.

yes i was too when the head told me. it was at the introduction of her 'zero tolerance' policy on behaviour - the school has a reputation for poor attendance, poor attainment (unsurprisingly, if parents arent bothered if they turn up or not) and poor behaviour - children were throwing chairs at each other and teachers. the school (she said) is working hard to improve behaviours and gain parental involvement - which is hard as she said that largely the parents arent that interested in their childrens futures, they dont expect their children to amount to much, or aspire to even work (i am about to become a SAHM myself so have no room to comment there). the ofsted report seems to back that up.

on the plus side (?) they have a separate class for those vunerable children, or children who have been excluded from elsewhere where they integrate them back into school life before rejoining the main class groups, if ive understood correctly. that seemed like a very happy class.

alexandramary i completely agree the system is unfair. i had never really understood all of the fuss until now...

Local school would usually ALWAYS be my first preference, but 40 exclusions in a primary school is shocking, really shocking.

Did the head give any indication of why/what for? That would be the main thing that concerned me - sounds like they have little to no resources or capacities for working creatively with challenges and/or have their eye solely on attendance/SATS sats, neither of which imvho make a good school.

Do understand that radical action is needed at that sort of situation, and there were probably a few children who needed else where to get specialist support or a fresh start. However having worked for a head who started working at the school under similar circumstances, but has never excluded a child in their career, I know it isn't the only solution. It makes so angry that young children can be written off and have their problems dumped elsewhere.

i forgot to say that the head was brought in after the school was listed as 'failing' back in 2010. exclusions on behavioural grounds were one of the first things she did i believe. SATS results nothing to write home about either so they clearly werent concentrating on that! the headteacher said it would be about 3 years before SATS started to improve (first cohort of children under new regime i guess) - though of course there is more to life than results. i have to say the head did a good job of convincing me that it was trying to improve but time will tell and im not sure that i want my son to be there waiting in the meantime ~

Look at BetsyBoop's thread of top tips for those applying for schools for the first time. It has lots of good advice about (for example) applying for at least one 'banker' school where you can be sure of getting a place - if you don't, and only apply for schools where you're very unlikely to get a place, you could end up being allocated a place in a school which is further away and less to your liking than any you might have applied for.

Tbh, I'd be less than impressed by a head who spoke about the families she worked with in those terms.

I appreciate that you're probably paraphrasing a little, but I'd be more impressed if the exclusions had happened after a reasonable period of her trying to engage families who find formal education challenging rather than them being one of the first thing that she did.

40 pupils? A fairly large 2 form entry school has around 420 pupils from reception to year 6, so 10% of the school population were kicked out almost immediately.

I meant the new head having eye on SATS results to 'prove' her success, which it sounds like she does.

I can really relate to how you're feeling as we went through this same scenario 2 years ago (DS now in yr 1), when the intake was exceptionally high (example: one of the schools he didn't get a place at 70 applicants for 30 places, this year 24 applicants all got places ) so we knew we would be very unlikely to get a place at our 'top 2' choices. We're still feeling the aftermath now...
It is really stressful, am also in Wilts so if you want to PM me happy to discuss nitty gritty local stuff and general let off steam at the stupid system if that helps!!

Could the exclusions have been temporary suspensions rather than expulsions?

We went through this 2 years ago as well. I would say select your schools realistically as many people round here (SW London) ended up with no school of their choice by only picking the ones they really liked. We looked closely at previous years for info on how schools were allocated and picked the one closest to us that we felt was the best of an OK bunch followed by our 'if we could afford the £700k house to live near it school'.We were offered the first school at the second school 2 months before the term started.So much changes between offer day and the 1st September that its worth being a bit strategic and working out whether you may stand chance on the waiting list. You will be amazed how much movement there is in the first few years so you may find you can move to your desired school at some point anyway. Good luck.Its a horrible time but generally works out in the end.