None of preferred top 3 schools accepted. Help!

[smuudge]

Hi all, received the dreaded primary school confirmation for our 4 year old and she has not been accepted at any of our top 3 choices. In fact as the crow flys the accepted school is the 8th furthest away. To top it all the Ofsted for the chosen school is not very good at all.

The current nursery she is in (with our 2 yr old daughter also), at the bottom of our lane, is connected to the primary school adjacent and we moved her there with the strong belief that she would have a strong chance of getting in. To not get any of the top 3 in the immediate vicinity, and to be handed the 8th furthest from us is devastating. To add insult to injury I went there when I was young and have lived in the village since I was 4 and brought up our family here as it's a lovely little community.

We understand that the primary school (1st choice) is oversubscribed with a big sibling intake but would be interested to know everyone's thoughts on appeals and next steps.

We are thinking of declining the offer for the place, appealing and going on the waiting list for our original 3. Could we also go on waiting lists for the other 4 schools that are nearer? Could we even go on waiting lists for schools in a different catchment area that are still closer than the offer?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Do not decline the offer! Accept it and go on waiting lists.

I don't know much about appeal process but I do know if you turn down your offer the LEA don't have to find you anywhere else.

Someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly.

Sorry hear that smudge

we in same boat allocated none of 3 choices including no 1 where eldest attends.

dont turn it down accept maybe defer

get on waitlists.

appeal if you think you have case.

see if schools 4-7 nearer ones have vacancies?

everyone on here gives such good advice there will be movement

just frustrating not knowing now,

this is just 1 st round allocations they need wait until people accpt or reject.

some go private and move.

Then late applicants

maybe bulge classes.

asll too early tell yet its long way off yet.

re last comment

do you mean diffrent catchment or different lea.

as my lea offered me school too far from my house and too far drom dd1 sschool wrong direction.

rang neigbouring lea who have 2schools closest to dd1snschool and walkable from my house and they both have spaces so worth a try try everytjing.

yesterday i had choice of 1 school.

now have possible choice of 4 not my prefered 4 but made me feel bit chipper.

good luck.

Thanks everyone. The school that has been offered is really bad. So much so that we do not want to accept for exactly that reason. Would rather force the hand.

Our top choice, as we understand it, is 30 children per class and full so assume we would be wasting our time with an appeal?

Tiggy do you know which authority doesn't allow other school waiting lists?

You won't force their hand by declining though.
They have fulfilled their duty, they need do nothing else.

Accept the place.

Declining a place doesn't force the council's hand at all. They are then under no obligation to do anything further so you are stuck with home educating or private schooling.

Snap!

Ring your lea admissions today i rang 2 yesterday and they were able to tell me which schools had spaces.

Maybe theres another but all there one you not considered thats amazing and at very least better than school allocated.

Do join wait lists and appeal if have chance but todays last working day and schools dont go back until next week.

Try stay calm and positive its hard but realised its all I can do.

Have you actually seen the "really bad" school? Or are you just relying on Ofsted and local gossip? Lots of stories on MN of parents who ended up having to send their DC to schools they had never considered, who ended up thinking they were great!

(My DC go to a school that many naice middle class people shudder at. It's a perfectly good school but is still trying to shed it's bad reputation from 10 years ago!)

Listen to Tiggytape and others.

Do not refuse the allocated place unless you are in a position to send your child to an independent school or home educate. Refusing the place will certainly not force the LEA's or the appeal panel's hand and it is that kind of thinking that can alienate appeal panels if they think the parents are trying to manipulate them. If the arguments at appeal for and against giving you a place are very finely balanced, you want the panel to give you the benefit if any lingering doubt, so alienating them would be a very bad move.

That said, if this is an infant class size appeal and you can't point to any error or irregularity in the admissions arrangements, you are not going to get close to winning.

Noted. Thanks for the advice. Will contact the LEA and take it from there.

redskyatnight - yes the school is pretty bad and we know that via first hand knowledge :-(

Last question. Is it possible to get information on where our daughter is on the list for our 3 choices direct from the schools or should i go via the Local Authority?

yes but lea wasent able to tell me yesterday said all letters had to go out.

all they could tell me was who had spaces i asked about 2local schools to my new house 1 was oversubsribed 1 possibly has 1 space.

The other lea told me 2 local schools to my house were over subscibed by 12places each and 2 schools that had spaces that I could apply for.

Im waiting until next week find out how many applied, where on waitlist i am for 3 i dident get .

You need to visit the school you've been offered and see what you think. Don't rely on Ofsted (my child's school got RI this time and it's a lovely school) and don't rely on the views of other people - t's your child not theirs.

The other thing to remember is that when a school or the LA say there are 12 on the waiting list, that does mean you are actually going to 13th on the waiting list. The waiting list is set up in admission criteria order so you could be close to the top of some of these schools. The other thing is that whilst in theory parents are on the waiting list and are above you in the admission criteria order that does not mean that when asked they will want a vacant place at the school, especially as time goes on and people stick with the school they have been offered.