Not Offered A Primary School Place At All!!

[TheOriginalPranksta]

So, letter arrives from council this morning. We had put down two preferred schools - we are within catchment for both (three catchment areas overlap where we live).
We weren't offered a place at either of them, nor were we offered a place at any other school - at all.
The letter said we have to wait until after all the acceptance forms have been received and then we will find out whether we have a place after all or whether we have moved up the waiting lists!
Included with the letter was a list of 20 over-subscribed schools in the borough (including our two chosen schools) and numbers of children on waiting lists. Our 1st choice school has 95 waiting and our 2nd choice 48. All well and fine if we are in place 1 or 2 on the list, what if we are 56th or something. ARGH!
Has anyone else experienced anything like this? If so, what was the eventual outcome?
To think, a week ago I was utterly unconcerned about school admissions and thought people were getting their knickers in a knot over nothing!! That's a lesson learned then.

I was in the same situation last year, although had listed 6 choices, no school place offered. The schools I had listed were the nearest to me, just happened to live in a black hole spot for schools. Speak to the lea, they were very sympathetic and helpful, at one stage I was on the waiting list for 10 schools. When I rang to find out where I was on the waiting lists (1st choice - 10th, 2nd choice - 58th!) they advised where they were looking to put in bulge classes and I added my ds' name to one of these and he got a place.
It took about a month before the offer of a place came through and it was very stressful. Just wanted to say please don't panic (easier said than done I know) speak to your lea - they will be able to give you advice of what to do next.

Come and join the misery party! We moved last year into a specific area in London where there were plenty of primary schools of reasonable standard (we had 5 in our list). According to last year's data, we would have gotten into 2 out of the 5 schools we put down easily. We got none, instead we have been given a place but a school we have never heard of 2 miles away. 'Catchments' literally have shrunk by half this year. I was like you a week ago, can't see what the big deal was, convinced we would get into second choice (first choice was 'nice to have' but we knew realistically we wouldn't get). Now we are f**ked to high heaven and have no idea what to do as we have to wait until the shake-up happens. Boo! :( Do your letters state how much you miss the distance for each school by?

Thanks for your replies.

I will ring the LEA on Monday. Now I understand why they send out the letters on a Saturday - I would have happily verbally violated the first person I spoke to had there been anyone available to speak to today! They obviously know to give us the weekend to calm down! I will find out where we are on the two preferred schools waiting lists and enquire about adding DS to waiting lists to a couple of others that are within walking distance.

Angel our first choice school, the last distance offered was 0.27 miles away, and we live 1.16 miles away and out second choice (my favourite, but DP preferred the other school) the furthest distance offered was 0.11 miles and we live 0.28 miles away.

It just bugs me. We live in a really densely populated area and a lot of money has been spent on urban regeneration. The council has repeatedly given planning permission for residential developments (including the complex where we live) and in fact only this week more planning has been signed off for more apartments just over the road. However, there are now hundreds more families living in the town centre but no new schools. Makes me wish we'd known this would happen before we decided to put down roots here.

Arse. Arse. Arse.

Here's to hoping at the end of the day our DCs come through this un-scathed.
Nightmare the thought of going through all this again for secondary school makes home educating or emigrating seem like a good idea. Perhaps we should all club together and set up some MN free-schools!! :o

TheOriginalPranksta Our top two choices are both just under 0.2 miles from our house, so go figure. I am writing to the counsellors on Monday. They need to know there are enough angry parents out there. It's not asking for the world is it? For your DSs to attend the school in your neighbourhood...

Just a thought for those living in London Boroughs. Same situation happened to 2 friends a few years ago. 1 was in a complete black hole and realised that whatever school she was offered she would have to drive to get there. She chose to look at schools in a neighbouring borough. It was on the edge of the borough, had an excellent rating, but no good transport to get there. It had spaces and she arranged this herself with minimal input from her own borough.
The other also chose a school in a neighbouring borough. Her own borough told her that that other boroughs released their lists on day x. She contacted them before that and found that they were quite happy to let her know earlier. She was already offered a place before our borough would have even given her a list.
Be pro active, accept offers but stay on waiting lists, be prepared that you may only know a week before they start. You can also stay on waiting lists after school starts and transfer during the year.
good luck

Hey OriginalPraknsta I'm pretty sure we're in the same catchment area!!!

.....and we're in the same boat

1st choice was the school with last placement .11 miles away, 2nd choice was school with last placement .27 miles away. We are slap bang in the middle, less than half a mile away from all 3 schools in the catchment (put the other school, where last place was .31 miles away 4th place). I am so sad that I have used a compass in the schools book to identify all the areas where children without older siblings will not have been offered places - quite a few streets - of family houses.

DH doesn't work and I have nagged him regarding setting up a free school in the soon-to-be vacant commercial units across the road from the big Tesco (council wanted them built but now doesn't want them). However checked the website and applications for schools starting up in 2013 have closed so the earliest we could set one up would be 2014.

I am really hoping that OR will be forced to take a bulge class as when we did the tour they revealed an extra classroom that the headteacher wanted to convert into a kitchen - yeah all very nice but not when my child could do with getting educated locally...

The council must have seen this coming and must have had some time to write us a more reassuring letter, rather than having goodness knows how many angry parents ringing up with all the same questions tomorrow.

Sorry if you're in a different area and this is all gobbledeygook, but the figures that you quote would be strong coincidence. I'm just excited (if that's the right word - I wouldn't wish this upon anyone) to come across someone in the same situation, it has been so stressful and gone some way to ruining our weekend.

We might even know each other

This was us last year, didn't get any of our three preference schools got allocated a school two miles away. I was told I could only go on the waiting lists for the schools we'd listed as our preference. This was a nightmare because for our first choice school we were 80th, second - 57th and the third we were 98th. I then enquired about whether I could sit on any additional waiting lists, just so we had a chance to get in any school. We were refused, I finally complained about this policy and it is still on going today.

We had the same problem with lots of new housing being built but no additional schools. We've still not been offered a place from the waiting lists we're on. My son is still attending the school we were allocated and I have to drive, otherwise it is a 45 minute walk which my son can't cope with.

I am also dreading secondary school, my son is only 4 but we will no doubt face the same problem all over again unless we sell and move.

This boat we're in seems pretty huge 😞

I need some advice please.

Catchment boundaries were rearranged this year, without any notification, moving 2 streets into school B. I only found out the day the application process opened. Not a problem, or so I thought, school B is as good as school A, & would have been 2nd choice. DD knows children from her pre-school going to both (BFF is going to school A).

Applied for catchment school B 1st, school A 2nd. & yes hindsight is a marvellous thing, but we didn't apply for any more. Mainly because they're poor schools or wrong direction for work, no childminders pick up/ drop off etc. plus school B accepted lots of children out of catchment in previous years.

Didn't receive an offer at either 😡

We are as far from school B within catchment as you can get at just over a mile as the crow flies. It isn't even one of our 5 closest schools (atcf). We're now 9th out of around 100 on waiting list, 10 of whom are "in catchment no sibling" like us.

School A accepted 9 children out of catchment with the furthest being 1.8 miles away, we live 0.5 miles away (2 of these had siblings at the school). Somewhen along the way an extra category for admission appears to have been slipped in "out of catchment attends nursery", the councils website clearly (still) states nursery places DO NOT have any influence on LEA priority. & there's nothing about this new category in school A's admission policy either.

Does anyone think there are grounds for appealing for school A? Unfortunately, it is full at 60 places, which is an increase this year from 52. This also wasn't obvious from application info & is buried on the councils website.

Added joy that DD2 starts school next Sept, so we'll have this pleasure all over again next year & without the bonus of moving to "in catchment with sibling" or stress- free applying!

A lot depends on exactly what the published admission arrangements say. Can you identify the school and LA involved please so that I can take a look. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post it publicly.

Who do you call to find out waiting list position? Is it the school or the local authority?

We're in the same situation with no school place offered at all - despite applying for our nearest schools (rather than just applying for the 'best' ones). I have now met a few people in my situation. Intake areas have become so small that where we live has become a black hole in that it is "too far" from every local school to get a place.

We spoke to the LA and they told us our position on waiting lists. They currently have 250 children with no school place. I also spoke to the neighbouring LA, but they have 90 students with no school place. More housing is being built in this area of London and no new school places, so it doesn't take a genius to work out what will happen.

I was thinking of writing to our MP and council to ask how they will deal with the situation for the "black hole" area going forward. Has anyone done this before?

MDM - I would start with the LA. They may tell you to contact the school if it is a VA school, academy, free school or similar.

Petal33 have you printed the bits off the websites which say that there is no preference for children in nursery, and ideally get the date confirmed, if you know a tame professional, solicitor etc to certify the date. It might not help but might be useful for an appeal. Once you point out the inconsistency they may change the websites. Also you need to find out if anyone did get a place on that basis and how far away they were compared to you. The 1.8 mile away child could be a sibling.

isn't there something in the admission code which says they can only include nursery if it doesn't disadvantage certain groups of parents? Thus if the nursery operates on a school day, doesn't that disadvantage working parents? Once in school they are old enough to use wrap around care but its not usually available for pre-school?

The old admissions code says something along those lines, yes. That makes it difficult to give priority to children attending the nursery, which is why most schools don't. A few schools and LAs do have this category, however, although the LA is still required to say that havnig a place at the nursery does not guarantee a place at the school. This is why I want to know which school/LA we are talking about so that I can take a look.

Well I spoke to the Admissions team this morning. It took two hours to get through and the lady I spoke to had had to deal with some very angry people!! I was very nice to her though, and so she was very helpful.

We are 55th on the waiting list for our 1st choice school. So we can pretty much rule that one out! I'm not hugely bothered as it isn't the closest school and our second choice is also a very nice school - and much closer. We are 19th on the list for that one. She said the area we live in has a high proprtion of rented properties and that people move frequently, hence the waiting list moves quite quickly too. She seemed confident that a place would be offered for him there mid-way through his reception year.

I am also going to write and apply to be added to the waiting list for another school which is close by and only has 12 on the waiting list. We are just outside the catchment for it though so I'm not sure how that will pan out.

process you definitely live in the same place as me!! I will send you a PM so as not to out us!

I am also going to write to the council and my MP to try and find out how this situation was allowed to happen in the first place. Another MNer from my local area has been in touch with the local press and I am debating whether to speak to a journalist about our situation.

Have lots of copies of what they have printed. They also have this year's & last year's admissions policies available, so it is very easy to get the wrong info, but do have copies of all of it. PM'd pr47bridge-thank you!

The 1.8mile child is out of catchment & place at nursery - LEA have sent the info.

Feels like the LEA don't want to be helpful at all. They have only 2 staff manning the phones - 250 children have no place at all & as this doesn't include those who haven't been given one of their higher preferences, I'd have thought a few more staff would have been appropriate. They take over an hour to pick up & are only open between 9.30 & 4 - impossible to call if you work.

Not a happy bunny :(

TheOriginalPranksta Glad to hear you got some useful information but it's like getting blood out of a stone isn't it? I made some progress too but not hopeful. I called up LEA today and they have confirmed they have received my acceptance of the place we were offered and for me to go on all the wait lists of the schools on our preference form. I also emailed all the councillors of my ward as well as the Director of Children's Services at my council. One of the councillors actually got back to me and admitted our ward is one of the worst affected. When I spoke to our LEA about going on the wait list for a RC school nearby which we didn't apply for (only because we have heard they only take in RC kids but have since heard a rumour that some kid got in without ever going to Mass :(), they said I couldn't till September and basically I could only ask for a place at one of 4 schools that still have places. They are all out of the way and c**p so that's a no go. However, I checked out these 4 schools and found out 2 of them are taking bulge classes for 2012/2013 but why on earth is the council allocating money for them to take bulge classes when clearly there is no demand for them?!!!! Argh! Makes me so mad!

I'm going to take a look at this school that my DS has been assigned to tomorrow before decided if I want to go down the private route. We could afford it at a push and it might be a temp solution till we get a place. sigh

I would second the proposal to contact your local press. With Mayoral and local elections around the corner, the timing is great and the LEAs will have to respond.

Good luck..

Local press reporting tomorrow...

angel which LA are you in? Hackney said they would send out a letter giving us further details but no such letter yet. I've found out about a bunch of people in the same situation of no offer (applied for local schools, in a black hole for intake).

Hodel Lewisham. The LA are sitting tight and basically saying nothing but call back mid-may when they have shifted through 4000 acceptances/declines. But it seems a bit silly to sit back and do nothing.

This is what the local councillor said in his email to me:

"I'm afraid there's not a lot that can be done about relieving the pressure this year and, indeed, I know the Council has been attempting to grapple with the issue in advance for several years. You may appreciate that there are limits on what the Council can borrow to get the money to build the classrooms in any one year."

Which is when I replied then why are you giving precious resources to schools that no one wants to go to rather than those that are in high demand (two of the four schools left to have spaces in the borough are amongst those that are taking bulge classes this year though clearly not needed if they still have spaces)? Doesn't seem like rocket science does it?!!!

Thanks prh. My LA tell me that they don't give out that info!