Do we answer yes for reception

[LittleTurtle]

Just wanted to make sure this is correct that I answer yes to choice 3 even though I would love to hold out for choice 1/2 to answer back, as they put me in their waiting list? ie. it will not affect or make me get taken out of the waiting list once they realise that I have been offered a place and accepted.

Today I am supposed to send back the acceptance letter for DS who was offered our 3rd choice.

Choice 1 is right across the road and scores extremely high for ofsted and school leagues,it's CoE, but we are non practising catholics with birth certificate and letter of occassional attendance.
Choice 2 has a good reputation and good scores too. THey are catholic.
I got choice 3 and 4 which are a little way from us (3 bus stops)because the other schools a walking distance from us have appalling results and reputation.

Choice 2 sent a letter saying that they have 30 places - 10 to siblings, 18 to nursery attendees, 2 to those who live close by. But we are still on the waiting list. Do we stand a chance? If we do, am I supposed to still answer yes to Choice 3?
Choice 1 never answered.
Choice 3 accepted. I went for them because a parent recomended it, so did the head of son's nursery.
I have no leg to stand on for appeals. I guess that means we are stuck with this school.

In my local authority, you only receive one offer.

You can accept the offered place but remain on the waiting list for your preferred school I believe.

Accept theoffer of choice three and make sure you remain on the waiting list for choices 1 and 2.

In the meantime check the criteria for both 1 and 2 have been applied correctly (chase choice 1!) and double check choice 2 re the nursery attending bit -that's not normally allowed to be a criteria, possible appeal there.

Hi Little Turtle:

I was in a similar situation and I rang the school, who helpfully explained the procedure.

Explain to them where you are (right across the street) - given your proximity you may be high up their waiting list and they may be able to give you an idea of how likely it is you will be entering Class R this year.

If the deadline for a reply is today - you do have to accept what place is available, but you can (at least in our area) let the first choice school know you wish to remain on their waiting list.

HTH

Thank you all, I did reply to the school and sent the letter to the council. I rang up the other schools.
Choice 1 said someone will call me back, but up to today no one called. So will try again on Monday.
Choice 2 said they will keep him on the list. But when she looked, he looked so much further down though she asked if he was catholic and said she did not really know if the list was in order. But said there were kids closer to the school on the list, and that there were only 3 people they were waiting for to come back to them.

I feel a bit bad at the moment, cause I just have not sorted out our DS schooling properly. He was a bit of a late bloomer, so we sent him to a special nursery where he was guided and now has really come out of his shell and has more than cought up - already good with multiplication. We don't necessarily have money, but it was worth the investment. We would have liked to even keep him longer at the nursery - and they have no problems with catching up kids (some of the older ones are even doing division). But we are afraid of him not being able to just come in at year 1 as we've been told it's even harder then. Choice 3 only scores 2 on oftsted, while choice 1 and 2 score a 1. Like I said we could not send him to the schools nurseries, because of his development needs. Now I feel we are demoting him after his brilliant nursery. Just wondered if there were moms on the same boat?

Little turtle - after your other post about Westminster schools, it's pretty clear which schools 1-4 are.

Choice 1: Forget it. They could fill up 3 times the number of places just with people playing phoney religion down the road at The Church of the Holy Pushchair, or across Edgware Road at the Church of the Drinks Party with the Nice Vicar. You're better off out of there.

Choice 2: Again - more of a guess - I'd suggest no chance

Choice 3: Perfectly good school. See my comments on Ofsted on the other thread. We've chosen our son's school precisely because of the areas that Ofsted see as weaknesses. You're not "stuck with it", you're lucky that the area has so many good primary schools. You will be stuck at 11, but that's not the school's fault.