Primary school places - no preferences awarded

[megtok]

Hi,

we got the results back yesterday, and didn't get into any of the preferred schools. Got offered a school which I had never even heard about before, and is 4 miles away from home. Traveling to and fro will also be manic.
We are number 4 on the waiting list of our preferred school - what are the chances we will get into that one? its wimbledon chase primary.

Also..does accepting the school offered reduce our chances of a better second offer?

I had no choice but to reject the school I was offered yesterday for my son, so guess I'm on my own now to find him somewhere else. It's going to be incredibly difficult and I don't even know where to start

OP Wimbledon Chase is a 3FE school, it's a very mobile population, I'd think you've got an excellent chance. Had you put down all the other local schools as your other options? I'm just surprised as it was quite common a few years ago to get a non-preference school if you lived in the Wimbledon end of the borough, but I thought it had improved recently because of all the expansions. If you didn't put down the other local schools, then I think you can ask to be put on their waiting lists, too.

Its very area / school specific. Our 3FE has higher turnover than people realise and people also go private at the last minute. People are desperate to get in, but every year people who were 9,10,11, etc on the waiting list get in, in reality. Some enter from waiting list in year 1 also - one child I know was 13, 14, 18th and then 13th again before they suddenly got a place (others on the waiting list had decided to stick where they were when they got late offers mid year).
In a single form school with all siblings, the odds are way less ...

OP the public system is used by the vast majority of DC and also works for them. It may not be perfect but most schools are fine and kids will thrive if parents support them.

True...

I was reading a thread on a local thread elsewhere on social media yesterday.. It was talking about a local school lots of children were sent to a particular which wasn't there first choice..They all were happy they ended up there.. Get yourself on the local waiting lists...Schools that don't tend to work usually aren't about 1st of second choice.

We were number 4 on a waiting list at offer day. The waiting list position crept slowly up as more people moved into the area, and we weren't offered a place over a a year on. This is for an intake of 60.

I imagine your chances are very area/school specific.

Hibble it can even be year specific. For the same infant school in my dc's years:

1. Was undersubscribed the whole time
2. Was full the whole time, but around 4-6 children moved away per year and very few people joined above them on the waiting list.
3. Was full the whole time and no one joined/left until summer term of year 2. And the person offered the place had moved into the area only 2-3 months earlier.

Just to give you some hope, we were 42nd on the waiting list for our first choice (very central London) and got a place 3 weeks into the first term.

Heard on a Thursday morning, had to go in on the Friday to meet the HT and sign the forms and she started on the Monday... crazy mad dash to find all the uniform, but 4 years on all good.

After the start of term is quite common as sometimes children just don't turn up as parents forget to tell the school/LA that they are moving, going private etc.

You do need to re-register on the 31st August for all waiting lists (or you did when I was doing it) and may find you move a lot. At this point anyone who listed the school on their form higher than their allocation will be on the list. So, you may have names on the list where that school is their 4th choice and they're holding out for a place elsewhere, or a parent may have been 50/50 on two schools and while they're on the waiting list they are actually perfectly happy with their allocation.

We also found that lots of parents are very reluctant to move after the start of term and so you can move very rapidly up the lists - we went from 42nd to 3rd in a week and 4 places came up.

Good luck!

That's true witch it is iincredibly unpredictable.

elfonshelf that's an incredible story. Fascinating. Thanks for this..it helps alleviate some of the stress faced this week :)

This really shouldn't happen though - you should always put down a banker on your form - you may not like it but if you don't you will run the risk of being offered something miles away in special measures.

Did you just put down schools you would accept and not a local banker?

There are school deserts but I wasn't aware that this part of Wimbledon was now one of them.

It's worth looking at the allocation information if your council publishes it and check out the number of siblings offered places out of the PAN. The higher the number of siblings, theoretically the lower the chance of movement.

My council (Herts) releases these figures on allocations day. Our first choice school with a PAN of 30 had the following number of siblings:

2012 -27
2013 - 23
2014 - 27
2015 - 35 (yep, they had 36 altogether!)
2016 - 18
2017 - 4

So, even though it is our closest school, we didn't stand a chance back in 2014 when we applied for my eldest. We ended up in the independent sector. We applied this year for my youngest and got a place easily.

People with siblings are theoretically less likely to move into independent schools last minute or not accept their place.

We had an interesting conversation about whether we could have one child in state and one private (nope). No space to move the eldest to the same school. But that's a whole other story!!!!

My friend lives on other side of the town. She wanted her ds to go to my ds' school. He was something like 100+ on the waiting list. Her ds got in during yr1.
Fast forward few years, the school her ds was originally allocated turned around massively, and now one of the best in the county. My ds' school is one of the worst.
You never know what happens in few years.

I know this area (used to live there) and agree - I think your chances of getting a place are very good. Friends of mine in the WImbledon area were further down the list initially and got places (albeit a few years ago now). They did have to hold their nerve and wait and it was stressful though. Open some wine but don't panic :-)

I know it's easier said than done but just get yourself on as many waiting lists as you can and don't panic. You might even be able todefer your child's place until later in the year (depending on birthday) to give yourself a bit longer to get to top of waiting list.

This is very helpful information! If the place offered by the council is rejected, then you just have to wait for a waiting list position to materialize. If that's not happening say a couple of months down the road, is it possible to reapply and have the council help in finding a place again?

If that's not happening say a couple of months down the road, is it possible to reapply and have the council help in finding a place again

You can apply for any school at any time. If you have rejected the place offered and aren't getting anywhere with waiting lists you can ask the council which schools have places and apply for one or more of those.

@prh47bridge Thank you very much for that clarification. Glad to know rejecting an offer will not mean no future help in getting a school place!