WAITING LIST - GIVE ME SOME HOPE

[schoolsgettingonmynerves]

Ideally I want success stories!! But hit me with reality too..

I am 4th on a waiting list for a reception place. I didn't get any of my 6 choices and was given some rubbish school miles away as no one else wanted it. Im on every waiting list possible for schools that are decent and within a reasonable distance. Being number 4 on a waiting list is my best option so far. Im 40th on the waiting list for one of the schools and when I bought my house I was told I was in the catchment for it - PAH! (I know catchments change year on year but come on - 40th? you have to laugh).

My last hope is sending my child into private education and to be honest that goes against what I want for my child so I am not happy at all about doing that.

Have I got ANY chance in hell of moving on this waiting list or should I just give up and accept the fact my child will be going through the private system?

ps - I don't want a debate about private vs state

thanks you lovely lot. x

I'm 1st on the waiting list of my preferred choice but even then I've been told there's no guarantee of a place becoming available

Sorry we were 5th on waiting list for secondary with 270 places we still haven't got a place. New people keep bumping us down the list.

I hope you have more luck than us.

Honestly, who knows? If you are in an area with higher population movement, 4th sounds not bad. If not, then you could be there years! It's an impossible question….

If you want some particular advice I would be only be able to give it if :

1.I knew where you were

1. I was near that.

So I should say that I sometimes know a bit about what is going on in the Archway, Crouch End, Highgate area....

BUT

In general.

Do not loose hope, Offers will continue to be made through the admissions system, and fourth on a waiting list does give you areasonable chance of success, but this may not happen until shortly before the autumn term.

Maybe there will be a last minute bulge locally that will cause a shift in places allowing you to nab a place?

Often you can get a place after the school term starts as many people are more reluctant to switch schools at that point so even if you're still 4th, numbers 1-3 may turn down the next available place.

There was a relevant post in another thread, relating to a particualr local situation, but the general principle of what it says is sound:-

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2055379-Been-offered-brand-new-free-school-or-last-choice

"ZucchiniPie Thu 15-May-14 15:28:49
In case this is reassuring to anyone, we live in Whitehall Park and were 12th on the waiting list for Ashmount on Reception offer day last year (we live 0.416 miles from the school). DD got a place there six weeks into the autumn term - and at least one more child further down from us on the waiting list got in the following week.

So even though I agree all of this is a total mess and an extraordinary source of stress (it was equally bad last year, although we didn't have the added element of not knowing whether to choose the free school), things do change quite a lot over the five or so months from the day you get your offer to the time the children actually start in September (or if you're willing to jump ship mid-way through term as we did, even longer)"

We were 42nd on the waiting list for our first choice and got a place 3 weeks into the Autumn Term.

However, we're in central London, the area has very high mobility, all the surrounding schools are Outstanding and a large proportion of children in this particular school are from overseas.

Even so, we thought it would take years.

You might move up or down, you might not. It is massively dependent on area. However, I will say that if you've been allocated that terrible, awful, RUBBISH school, please don't run it down to other parents - some of them won't have the choices you have. And it might be a better school than you realise. I bet you haven't even been to see it.

Thanks everyone - good to hear all these experiences.

Hawkshaw - yes I have been to see it, the ofsted actually says 'good' however after a conversation with my local mp - HE even told me that it's had a bad rep for a while then quickly added "but it's beginning to change". It's over 2 miles away from my house too and is the only school in the whole borough with zero people on the waiting list - yet it's in a built up residential area. It has basic facilities and even the website doesn't seem to promote the school very well - nothing inspiring whatsoever.
When I visited the school it was based right next to a telegraph pylon - needless to say I immediately was turned off by that!! I know someone who works there too and she said she wouldn't send her kids there. I hope I have justified myself enough as to why I don't want my child at that school

Please don't patronise me I would never run the school down to someone less fortunate than myself. I'm angry as hell over my situation so please excuse me for calling it a rubbish school. I bet YOU are one of these mums who got there first choice.

Well, I did get my first choice (I think you mean their not there), but it was a very unpopular school as it happens, and at the time rated Satisfactory (everyone was getting themselves worked up about supposedly Outstanding schools which I had not liked at all). People kept saying 'are you OK?' and I kept saying 'Yes, we really like this school, we chose it'. I maybe just have different priorities from some people. I don't really care about results etc. I just want my child to be happy, really. She's a fairly bright kid. She'll do well anywhere, and indeed is doing well in her unpopular school which gets not particularly stellar results. I picked the unpopular, underperforming, but small and friendly school where I thought she'd have a happy time. There were people literally crying about having got this school who now have children there and find it perfectly fine. I'm not being patronising on purpose. I'm just saying, things aren't always what they seem.

Hawkshaw - sorry I did mean 'their' - thank you for pointing out my mistake in another unpatronising way. Please do immediately point out any errors in the following -

We are very similar in the sense that I too do not really give a toss about ofsteds and results, you'll notice I said that the school I have been given is actually 'good' on ofsted. I go more on my gut and my gut didn't like the school. I feel the same about a private school I viewed that other people rave about. I would have been happy with any of my 6 choices - now 8 as I have added my child's name to another 2.

I know my original question of 'have I got a chance of a place being 4th on waiting list' is obviously an impossible question to answer I just wanted a few success stories to give me hope.

My experience of getting an in year transfer after waiting a year at 4th place, was that eventually the Education Entitlement Team got involved and negotiated between both sets of headmistresses at each school.

It is possible to seek a private appointment with the head of the desired school...

My current school is consistently oversubscribed and no, I don't live in Crouch End or Bromley which is where 90% of Mumsnet seem to! But some nondescript town elsewhere on this island, yet the area is massively transient with immigrants at present. Four new Polish children alone have added to my child's class in the last few months. Yet my same child tipped the class size to one over the legal limit already, so I don't know what's going on there...

So there's some hope for you.

Two days ago we were offered a YR place to start after half term at our first choice primary and we've taken it. We were told at Easter we were number 6 on the waiting list, so getting a place now was a shock, maybe noone else wanted to make a transfer at this stage.

We were No. 11 after the offer day in oversubscribed Catholic school. We got place on 1st of September.

Where about are you. The "rubbish" school that you have been allocated sounds like the one my ds goes to. I also didn't get any of my 6 preferences and only got a space at the school he is at because they put on a bulge class. One of ds classmates is still on the waiting list for their first choice - they are now in year 2 and are still waiting. One pupil has left the school ( in the year group needed) in the last 3 years!

We didn't get offered any of our schools last year either (and the first on our list was the school whose catchment area we live in!). I totally understand your position as I was also offered a school which had an appalling reputation and an awful ofsed. But what absolutely decided me against it was the fact that despite emailing and phoning repeatedly over a couple of weeks no one there could be bothered to call me back. I found an alternate school that had space, even though it was 4 miles away and we would have to drive there as there was no viable bus route. At least at that school they showed that they were willing to talk to their parents.

In the end we were lucky. We were fourth on the waiting list on offer day and we got a place at the beginning of July. And my DD is loving reception.