Please Help!!

[DaddyDanny]

hello! im new to this so please bear with me!!

I have recently got my results for my daughters primary school place. It came back saying NONE of my chosen 5 LOCAL schools have accepted her, including the one she is already at the nursery of, which was my first choice! all 5 schools were within a 1.1 mile radius, with 3 of them being just over 0.5miles away. So they allocated me a school which is 4.1 miles away and a 50 minute uphill walk, when i clearly stated i have no car and a baby to take on school runs to. The school has an inadequate Ofsted rating (4) and is under special measures! I feel sick to my stomach with worry. There are people on my street that have chlderen in the school choices i asked for! All the schools were in my area and apparently there was not even 1 place for her within any of these 5!....I'm going to appeal anyway, but i am worried as they have already advised it most likely wont be successful. Can anyone help me with what will make my appealing process stronger? Also i have put her on the waiting list for all 5 schools but again they said its very unlikely. Also can i go direct to other schools to apply?

No advice but bumping you!

You need a lot more information for the experts on here (I'm not one) to be able to give you any useful advice I'm afraid.

As an initial point, having or not having a car and having a baby aren't going to be relevant. The only factors which are relevant are those in the published admission criteria.

People will want to know whether you will be looking at an Infant Class Size appeal (i.e. do the schools you wanted have full classes of 30 - either from an intake which is 30, 60, 90, etc or from mixed years, so maybe an intake of 15 and a mixed reception/year one class). If you are, the only way you will win an appeal is basically if the admission criteria were applied incorrectly.

If not, there is more room for argument.

What are the published criteria, and where do you think you fell on the list?

If you have this many schools in such a small area I'm guessing you are a City centre somewhere. Unfortunately soaring birth rates and increased population density (new housing, etc) mean that you can have this many schools on your doorstep and not get one.

So sorry OP to hear that. No advice, just hand holding here.
I was offered for DS last year my 5th choice to start with, then 2 days before start, 4th choice had a place and during mid term at the end of October, I was offered a place by our 2nd choice. Of course, it is just luck and this will probably not happen again. But you never know.
Wishing you a successful appeal. Keep us posted.

At 4.1 miles away, your DC will be eligible for transport - I'd also be asking the LEA what they are planning to provide to meet their obligation with that. It might not work for you, but it's worth knowing what the options are.

Also, do accept the place you've been offered in the first instance, it doesn't do any harm re getting a place somewhere more palatable.

Read all the threads offering advice etc - get on waiting lists - a lot may change yet

Did you put your catchment school on the list?