Didn't get any choices for primary - faith school wrong criteria

[justamum1988]

Hi all

I seem to have posted this in the wrong place so now reposting here and hoping someone will have been through this or have more information.

We were shocked yesterday not to receive any of our 3 school choices and the only schools with free places are not very good. We've been really unlucky with our top 2 - 1 had 50% more applications than normal and allocates religious applications on the basis of a draw out of a hat and we are 3 places too far. Last year all faith applications got a place but with an intake of 30 we now suspect we don't have any chance of securing a place there.

School 2 also had lots more than expected and the catchment area halved and we were already on the outskirts of the catchment so again it seems we don't have much of a chance.

School 3 we thought we had in the bag as it has a large intake and it was an application on the basis of faith. We provided a copy of the baptism certificate in the application to the council and made a note in the application that the application was being made on a faith basis. When I contacted the school yesterday they said DS was considered in the last category "all other children" because they didn't have a copy of his baptism certificate. I feel that we have been failed by the council and someone should have contacted us to advise we need to send the certificate to the school direct or advised the school of the basis for application and they could have contacted us.

We were told by the school to send the cert so they can update the criteria for round 2 but I expressed my concern about this as I feel we've been let down by the council here.

Has anyone come across this? Do you think we have a basis for appeal after round 2 if we don't get a place?

Many thanks!

Submit the certificate asap and get your DC name on the waiting list for every acceptable school. You can also change your order of preference for schools and it might be worth doing this to include different schools on your preferences.

Sadly I think this sound like your error not theirs, but you could well be lucky with a place.

Where I am things don't go in "rounds" its literally the moment a place is freed the next person on the list gets it. I thought that was standard practice - so don't waste a minute.

Hold your nerve... !

I asked the council and they said they don’t allocate on 1st come 1st serve basis unless there are like 15 free places in a school so have been advised it’s ok to “wait” but I have sent the certificate and just waiting for the council to get back in on Monday so I can swap out a school and get on the waiting list for 3.

They have to allocate your place in the queue by admissions criteria. With your 3rd school it sounds like you would possibly be quite high up the list so it's key to get your name on all the lists asap. They will fill the places as soon as they become available. Good luck.

I think that it would be useful to confirm what the process of any application is, so that people are aware of what happens.
All the applications go through to the LA and after the cut off point for on time applications the LA generate a list of all the pupils who have applied for the school. Where the school is an LA maintained school or a voluntary controlled Cof E school the admission criteria is that of the LA and the LA will put all the applications in admission order criteria. However for Academies and Voluntary aided Cof E and catholic schools, the LA send the list of all applications to the school and a committee of the Governing Board / Trust has the responsibility of putting all the applications in the correct order. This is where the SIF for schools and conformation of baptism etc becomes important to have gone to the school as the school will agree the admission criteria order based on what information they have. This confirmed agreed list is then sent back to the LA who then act as the central body for all allocations.

We applied to a faith school, but on the web page we had a link that told us we had to send certificates directly to the school. If the council have made an error and haven’t done this as per the criteria I would ask them to look into it.

The Council or any admissions authority don't notify parents that there is an error or omission in their application.

Get your info into the school so they can ensure you are placed correctly on the waiting list.

We put our local RC faith school as 2nd preference...but had to ensure we supplied school office with baptism certificate and extra form to be considered near top of list. Almost all the families at the school went to church or knew each other etc so this was common knowledge. Even parents with DC already at the school were searching for mislaid baptism certs. If no form, then you'd are considered in the non faith categories

We have two Catholic schools in our area and after children in care, there are two bands of Catholics. The higher in priority will go to applicants who provided the Supplementary form (signed by the priest) and baptism certificate, and the lower priority would be the applicants who just have a baptism certificate. Both needed to be handed directed to the school.

I actually forgot to hand in my son's baptism certificate to my second choice Catholic school as they are both linked to the same churches, so I stupidly assumed I didn't need to hand them in to each school. Luckily I got a phone call from the school admin and was offered a chance to hand it in. Luckily I got my first choice but I was grateful!

JayDot500 that was lucky but we’ll done getting your first choice.
Unfortunately we don’t know any of the catholic families at the school so hadn’t been bouncing information.
The person at the council emailed me back yesterday (on a Saturday!) to advise we can change our 3 preferences if we wanted to and get on the waiting lists and there’s no harm in waiting as nothing is handed out on a first come first served basis which gives me a bit of comfort.

Can you also get a letter signed by the priest (if you are regular church goers) this will also strengthen your appeal

That will only help in getting high on waiting list as per SIF. The opportunity to be considered in faith category for main round has gone.

If you have been offered a place at any school, accept it unless you would prefer to home-school instead of taking it. Not having accepted the place does not strengthen your appeal as you appeal for the school you want, not against another school.

@justamum1988 oh that's good, I hope you do get somewhere you're happy with. The church circles would have been hammered with information about how to apply to the church schools, but with no access to that circle it's very easy to miss out on important dates and info. I got it wrong and I do attend church 😅. All the best to you and your DC!

Crazy how religion can control what school your child gets into. I suppose its one good thing about the scottish school systems we don't need to worry about that. Hope you manage to get your kids a space.

Yes we will hold the place we were offered and I’m getting as much info as I can on the school from people who go there. It’s hard we can’t see it due to lockdown. Home schooling is not an option as we both work full time. We do attend church but we used to go there when we lived in the area but have since moved so not the same school preferences. We have friends whose kids go to the school but they are not religious so wouldn’t have known.

Really appreciate all the comments and help