London mums. Are you stressed about getting into schools?

[cheapandchic]

I cant help but be stressed out. I am only applying for nursery but already discouraged. We attend church and I was hoping for a religious school. But recently a mother from our church said they didnt get into the school. 130 applications for 30 places!

My two back up schools...one of them told me already that I would not get in unless I started going to THEIR church, at least fortnightly and another parent told me my second back up school was also impossible to get into and that I am not close enough in distance. I am too far from any of the good schools in my area. The only school I have a chance getting into is the worst in the council, and I have had at least 3 parents tell me they took their kids out. Is any one else stressed? What can I do?
What did you do if you didnt get anywhere of your choice?

When you say 130 applications for 30 places, the situation isn't as bad as it sounds. These aren't first choice applications. Anyone who puts a school down on the form gets considered for a place there no matter where they put it on their list of preferences. For example, when we've applied for schools my third choice school is a good school, but we live too far away from it to have any chance of a place, but we'd still be counted as applying for that school.

Does your church grade their churchgoers by how involved they are? I guess you could get more involved - help at Sunday school, become a warden etc - so that you'll be in their top grade. Some people start attending church a month before the forms are due in. They're not going to get much of a reference from the vicar.

You can call the council and ask about the distances at least for the non-church state schools; this can be much more reliable than parents' word of mouth for how hard a school is to get into. Word of mouth or calling the school might help you figure out how many siblings there are likely to be. Actually 130 is "good" - with everyone putting 6 schools down, there are 6 times as many 'applications' as there are places needed. 30 x 6 = 180. But that's not really the point because it doesn't help you predict what you'll get. Also, how are the waiting lists for the two schools you're not close enough to?There's a lot of movement so you might get in to one of those relatively soon after starting...
We got the 4th school on our list, it isn't that popular among the local parents (but we didn't know any local parents at the time!). It's rated "good" with various typically London comments about challenging circumstances etc etc. We're on the waiting list for 2 other schools that are quite popular. But actually so far, we couldn't be happier with the school! DD loves going there, is happy and stimulated, making good friends, seems to be learning things, and my sense is that it's better (better resourced, more thoughtful about social things, ..?) than some 'outstanding' schools some of her friends have gone to. I think those other parents who look down on our school have, at best, second-hand information from previous years.... So take them with a grain of salt.

I have asked about the distances. They are all too far.

my church seems to go by how long you have been attending, not what you do. but there are still so many people going from birth and when you consider siblings...the intake is really rather small.

it just so frustrating to know that you have no choice but a bad school. I just wish there was something more I could do.

I am unbelievably stressed out about schools! My poor old dd is getting rejected at all the private school assessments ( no idea why), so Im thinking she's going to be going to the school down the road, which is completely new, so no ofsted yet or anything. What I am wondering is what happens if you decide to move when they are say 6 or 7? Is it then hard to get a place at a good schooling your new area?

I have no idea what happens when you move in London. We most definitely will (my husband like doing up house then selling)...

what if there are no places? the whole system is confusing to me.

Yes, it's a worry and the whole system is new to me as I grew up in Scotland but moved t'd love to get into but she probably won't as the waiting list is so long, and one that is ok but close enough to our house that she'll probably get in. Even the further away one is only 0.6 miles from us, but apparently that's not close enough!

Yes ellie, if it is the same as Herts you get the closest school (or any school) with a place available while being on the waiting list for your preferred school. List is not on first come first served basis but will follow the normal admission arrangements.

We moved just before DS1 finished Year 1 (summer half term). I think my name was mud at Lambeth Council. We followed the rules, and there was no space....they offered a crap school somewhere about 5 miles away. I rang everyone and emailed more....I was a thorn in their side. Eventually the Head of Education (I think) rang me and said, "You're the woman who has emailed everyone....we need to sort this out." Dave Cameron who didn't reply and the minion in Mr Gove's office and Chukka Ummana...may collectively have assisted me. After a month out of school, he finally got into the school 2 mins walk from us. there had been a space for over 5 months.

OP- where in London are you? Sounds like where we are. If it is happy to PM about particular schools..

Which borough are you in, cheapandchic?

It's a situation common to so many parts of London, mine included (am in Tower Hamlets).

By the time you apply, there may be bulge classes added to existing schools or even new schools opened...

fedup, I dealt with Lambeth admissions as part of my job- I assure you, it's my name at the top of their shitlist

Tethersend - I feel I am in good company!

By the way, Lambeth have just invited my DS to their "Haven't you done well in your SATs" thing on the South Bank....good thing they let him in.

Wait till you get to secondary transfer stage!

When we were in South Ken we got rejected from the nursery 0.2 miles from our flat and everyone went to private nurseries as far as I could see. I gave up at that point and left London.

Yes. I am obsessed. We live around the corner from a good state primary but it seems to have a catchment of centimetres. We have applied to about twelve private schools as well (did this when DS was a couple of months old).

The fact is...I cannot afford private. I wish I could as another option.

But I really dont even see the point of listing 6 schools when I cannot get into a single one because their catchments are all less than 0.2 miles. I am 0.5 from every single school that is decent!

I dont want to say my area of London (I have a thing about being very anonymous online)
But I will say, I was told this area has great state schools, which it does....but only if you pay a fortune for a house on top of the school.

Sounds like where we live. It is all a real worry. Nearest school to our house as the crow flies is not somewhere I would be happy with in any way. We could manage private but I am hopeful we will get into local faith school. We do attend church weekly. I hope it is enough.

but if I only list the schools I can get into...then there is only one! The worst one in the borough.

i sympathise as we will be in a similar secondary situation in a few years. from what i can tell, other parents either find religion or a rental property at the school gate! school choice is a myth that i am feeling a bit sick about. good luck.

I understand what you are going through. I did not attend the local churches as I'm Pentecostal Christian and travel far to attend church. I felt uncomfortable attending a church for the sake of a school place and was not ready either to baptise my DCs just for the sake. I therefore applied for a good school in the neighbouring borough with easy commute and not far from transport ie tube and bus. Infact all schools on my list were in the neighbouring borough. I managed to get my first choice for DC2.

DC1 is in year 3 and was in a private school. I applied for him in a state school but got none of my choices but rather offered a recently judged good school but was very far. I accepted the offer but also requested for appeal forms. At the mention of an appeal the lady dealing with me spoke to someone else in the background querying why I hadn't been offered one of my choices as class numbers don't apply in yr 3 and above. Next day I got an offer in an outstanding school and this is DS1's second week and he is already flourishing.

Sorry for my long post but wanted to show you that there are other options out there that you can use.

By the way using the threat of an appeal was advised by a friend whose DS was attending with mine in the private school. He had been on the wait list for a year and half until he applied for an appeal. Got a school place at preferred school not long after way before the set appeal hearing.

I was until I went round a load and started reading up on MN as to how to work the system.

The school I want DD to go to is not one we will get a place at. However it has a high level of mobility so I am reasonably happy that we will eventually get a place, although not before term starts I imagine.

On the upside, we have no private schools in the area, we are far too heathen and the wrong brand of atheists to get DD into the RC or CofE schools and out of catchment for all but one school. So the choice was pretty simple - go for THE option or find one we really like, get on the waiting list and potentially buy two sets of uniform in one year.

My daughter is only one and I worry about this already. We are not in the catchment of any of our six closest schools based on distance of admission last year. There is a massive shortage of places. All the local schools are using bulge classes but that results in 2/3 years of sibling-only admissions afterwards. I've just heard that our closest and by far my favourite school will bulge in 2013 so 2015 (our year) will be a write-off. Two of the closest schools are heavily Catholic, which I would loathe, but unlikely to take her anyway on faith grounds. I'm not even being picky otherwise. I'm not fussed about Ofsted if the school feels happy and supportive, and there are plenty of examples round here of schools that were under-subscribed and failing becoming thriving because children of determined parents got sent there. But we are seriously far from any under-subscribed school, two of our closest schools are out-of-borough as we're at the very tip of a borough, and I'm dreading being sent off to a school miles away with a disparate parental community. The LA of course can't set up a new school to meet demand so we're at the mercy of some unappealing-sounding free school ideas. At least they might free up spaces.