Any happy ending stories for primary admissions?

[3asAbird]

Spoke to admissions at local la today was feeling quite upbeat about the 3schools going to put down yet admissons man really negative, thinks im mad and suggested apply for nearest schools dont like or risk special measures.

My 1st choice out of catchment small primary less than 2miles older sister goes there but shes not classed as local sibling so no sibling link.

school 2- new city centre free school lottory for 3 places kids in care siblings 1st but only opened in sept 150 applications last year. different la to where i live very obscure but got to be in it to win it.

school 3-over subscribed local infant school same postcode ad suburb where i live same la to where i live 75 spaces always oversubscribed as on border of 2 las ,last year 55 siblings but head said last year was unusual and there wouldent be many siblings this year and that the council told her low birth year so worth a shot as school 2 is so random ie name pulled out of hat no 3 could be the school but la were like you be lucky.

anyone got any happy ending stories of admissions when felt doomed?

each year must be very different so not sure why la so negative and doom mongering.

admissons man really negative, thinks im mad and suggested apply for nearest schools dont like or risk special measures

Seriously, listen to the admissions man. If he thinks you have a very low chance, then you do.

how on earth are you going to manage having children at different schools?

The risk of having no safe choice is that your child could be put anywhere. School on doorstep that is in special measures is better than school two miles away that is in special measures.

Have you actually visited the schools you don't like?

yes really tired i have. I would have to use breckfast/afterscool club or childminder with 1 of the kids.

we hopefully moving areas in next 6months.

Im prepared to home educate if don't get school im happy with.

I have looked at 1 school that,s not on my list other week and due to look at 2more which are close to eldests school and both been undersubsribed in recent years as possible fall back optionif dont get my top 3.

The other la admissions spoke to last week said put 3over subsubscribed ones on list as theres always undersubcribed schools near eldests school to fall back on providing I like them.

Listen to the la. You have chosen 3 schools that you have a low chance of getting into. If (as is very likely) you don't get a place at any of them, you will be allocated whatever school still has places left after everyone else has been dealt with. This could be a poor school some distance from your home.

Much better to put down your catchment/nearest school for one of your choices- at least then you won't have to be taking your child miles away while they're on the waiting lists.

Are you local schools, which you don't seem take by oversubscribed?
ie if you don't get a place at any of your three choices, you would still be able to get a place at a local school?
Or are you in an area where every single school place is taken?
If the first, its worth a gamble, and you might get lucky, otherwise you end up with one of the local ones.
If everywhere is over subscribed, you risk no school place.

We put in catchment school first, but stood no chance of getting in, as the church places go first.
Second option was the oversubscribed, outstanding school were not in catchment for, unlikely to get in, but where the neighbours go, so is possible some years (but prob not now they have built more houses between us and school). It is the second closest school to our house.

Third choice, the other catchment school, which is a 90 place intake, and generally sweeps up all unallocated kids. We've got a place there, and to date are very happy.

I know 2 people who filled the form with unrealistic choices, and got a letter saying "we have been unable to allocate your child a school of your choice, please ring for options", despite there being primary places in town. Not a pleasant week for those parents. I would strongly advise you to ensure you would get an acceptable place offered.

I have a good story despite not getting any of my 3 choices for DS1. He was offered a place at the most awful school imaginable ... so bad I was planning on home schooling until a place came up. Then a colleague of mine told me there were still spaces available at the tiny village school her DC's attend, 7 miles away. At that stage OFSTED report was satisfactory but went to have a look around and got the most amazing feeling from the place. I told LEA I wanted a place, they agreed. 3 months after DS1 started to school had an OFSTED and was judged to be outstanding. It is an amazing school with lovely children and dedicated hard working teachers. It was clearly meant to be and far better than any of my original choices. DS2 started there in September.

Thanks addicted to sugar.

local schools near me.

large community school
faith rc school
well performing infants less than half mile which dident like and oversubscrbed peope recent years who live here dont get it

none of nearby schools have catchments or area of prime responsability.

its kids in care/siblings
then its ourly distance within 2miles

school 3 is within 2miles
its in my actual area
it has 75spaces
head reckoned last year was exceptional and we stood good chance .

school 1 is still local just its quite unusual in sense it has a catchement but its within 2miles but due to la policy on local siblings means I have no sibling link where as neigbouring las a siblings a sibling and school 1 and school 3 are within the la I live but also on borders of another la so get applicants from both la.
School 2 is wild card I admit.

I do have backup plan which is why im veiwing some local undersubscribed schools not on my list so if worst happens I have a backup plan in place.

I dont think I have been unreasonable.

I have picked 2 local schools within la I live and eldest attends one of them and we very happy with that school.

If i had picked 3out of area schools people have a point.

sometimes where people live can give them very little choice im not going to send the to local community school as we moving and want to move closer towards eldest school.

Thats lovely Abby some positive stories.

Lots of people on my estate new build drive nearby village schools.

dd1 goes to small village school but got in on mid year admission shes not bee there since rception so now with dd2 im starting as if new due to to no sibling link.

She will have 3years left at primary before she attends seniors.

do you have younger siblings go to school and will they have sibling link?

I have dd3 going in 2015 so if got school 2 or school 3 would have sibling link for him which be one less year of worry,

seeing a really bad rep school next week to see if its as bad as people say, I dont just judge schools from ofsted /sats like to get a nice feel when visit.

Agree with tiggytape. You really should list at least one school where you have a realistic chance of getting a place. Also if you fail to list your nearest school you probably won't get free transport for your child no matter how far you live from the allocated school. Having said that, if you list your local school as last choice and get one of your first two choices you still won't qualify for free transport.

They will allocate you the closest one to home.

But don't, so far as I understand the code, have to (although they're unlikely to spite you by deliberately making it awkward).

Not putting a school you are likely to obtain a place at as the last choice on the form is a very, very high-risk strategy, and MN is full of people complaining about the outcomes.

If you put down three primaries for which you are on the periphery of or outside the likely last child admitted distance (you don't say where you live, but at the moment these distances are shrinking in most authorities as the cohorts are getting larger year on year) then you could be allocated a place anywhere in the authority. It will be a school which has places left over after the allocation process has completed, which rarely happens for good reasons. You would have no credible basis for appeal to the schools you applied to, and in any event KS1 appeals on oversubscription are much harder to win because of the class size limits (you can't appeal on the basis that the school could take an additional pupil without prejudice, as you could further up).

Listen to the admissions man.

I really think that you need to choose between one of the schools 2 and 3 as your second preference and then put down one of the more local under-subscribed schools as your third preference.
Could you perhaps one morning soon try out the journey to the city centre school at school run time with child number 2 - that would show you how realistic this would be as an option. There are threads on Mumsnet where people have chosen schools some distance away and have found life really difficult due to travel problems.

HTH

If your plans for moving are firm, and you have a good plan for HE for an interim period, then putting down only long shot schools probably won't matter in the long run.

But if you are not sure about the move and/or are not sure about HE beyond a short period of the reception year, then you do need to include a school where you are as sure as you can be of getting a place - on the general grounds that a school that you don't like so much but which you can manage logistically is better than chancing a random allocation which will be the nearest school with a left over vacancy that you qualify for better than any other families without a place (for the admissions criteria still apply when placing late applications and those left without a place on first round).

Schools with lotteries of course make this far, far harder, so you are unlucky with that. And you cannot bank on whether your DC is in a big or small cohort (no one knows until applications are in, but trend is for bigger).

Here is what I would do on the schools you have mentioned (assuming you don't qualify for the local RC school).

Preference 1 - School your older child goes to (and cross your fingers)
Preference 2 - Local oversubscribed outstanding school (even though you're not that keen on it)
Preference 3 - Local community school that you have a very good chance of getting in.

But don't, so far as I understand the code, have to

That is true. They Admissions Code simply requires the LA to come up with a place. It does not stipulate that it should be at the nearest school with a place available as, where there are lots of children without places, that may not always be practical. However, if the LA allocated a place 20 miles away when there was one available 5 miles away the parents would have a good case for saying that the LA had been unreasonable.

Thank you for input guys i do take on board some of the comments.

The moves looking definate as landlord selling up, we outgrown this house plus nothing tieing us to this area other than dd1s brownies as school 1 is 1.2miles away in diffrent suburb, dd2 moved to school 1s feeder preschool in sept as did 2last year miles apart and was too stressful.

I did test run of ity centre school 2other day got bus at 8 was down town by 8.30 in centre so if everyday was like this no problem as leave house if walking here at 7.50/8am at katest get eldest to school on time.

Eldest schools has option of breckfast club every day 8am shes currently doing 4mornings and husband drops her off as its on his way to work.

Husband can get 1 week day off per per week.

school 1 currently hs no after school club as activities which take upto 4.30 but they not consistant if needed it. They are talking about starting one and know the 3child minders who serve the school.

Dd1 will be staying at that school until end year shes happy, doing well and we already made one mistake at one of our nearby local schools so that rules that school out.

The well performing infants had horrible tour, find the parents quite cliquey and hear they quite pushy I know this from freinds who send their kids to that school.

The community schools doing better but so large and we wont be this end of town.

School 3 is about 1mile from my house and under la rules would give dd3 sibling link if we stay living within 2miles as it has no catchement so if within 2miles theres a sibling link for dd3 when he starts 2015 whereas with school1 we be in same situation again unless we found house within school 1 catchment which has proven quite tricky but we would like to live closer to it and looking t areas between school 1 and 2.

The admissions man mentioned 2 la schools which undersubscribed oe is no way as awful and wrong direction from school run but the 2nd hes mentioned is local and close to school 3 , just ome out special measures, we know people that go there, has nice grounds wouldent be total disasster was actually our 3rd choice for dd1 few years back but its large and not on my list as know its traditionally undersubscribed so dident want to waste a choice.

But this time round theres a new primary within my la miles from where we live now but close to school 1 which some parents use which was undersubscribed last year due to look at start jan, it has an after school Club

Or the 2nearest schools to school 1 are different la as school 1 on border so rang other la ad they both been undersubscribed and nothing stop me getting a place at them rather than the under subscribed schools in my las as they arethe 2schools split siblings in school 1 use as any parents live within the other la.

School 1 has lots of movement in years 1 and 2, 3 so people have moved and schools used to starting new people.
So when i looked at school within my la other day not looked at before doid keep an open mind as quite liked the infants but not the juniors almost put on list but decided after reading bad oftsed that would add the free school and maybe that school be under this year.

I happy to home ed if need be just dd2is 5 in september ad desparate to start alredy but have made links with local home ed community and dd3 will have place at preschool in sept but until we know its hrd to plan dd3s preschool location.

so this week will get application in got to see 2more schools.
after xmas start looking at where we can move to
by time offers come out we possibly may have moved by then.

so guess once moved we then notify la we moved not sure will help but no after offers acepted and rejected and could get us higher up on wait list for school 3 as we p[lan to move as close to there as possible.As upo often see someone who moves in august can push people down list if they live closer. itss just we hadent been able to move before deadline.

I think most parents don't think enough about the school they will send their children too, but I fear that you're over-thinking it. Put DD1's school as 1st choice, a punt as second choice and a dead cert as third. It's the only way to play it without risking a shit school 5 miles away.

Put down a school that you are likely to get in to as one of your choices. We didn't and ended up being allocated a school two bus rides away at the other side of our London borough because we didn't get the schools we chose as we were out of catchment for that year.