Son didn't get in to any of our school choices

[Courtney10891]

Hi,

Don't even know why I'm making this thread I'm just so upset and angry. My son found out today that he hasn't got in to any of the four schools we put down. He has been offered a place at a nearby school that isn't the greatest. I'm so upset and disappointed. I feel like I've failed my son. The school I wanted him to go he is currently in the nursery there and is settled and loves it but he was declined.
I am appealing but I know it will be hard. Anybody else disappointed with the school they have been offered? X

Find out the date (usually just after the start of the summer holidays) that the waiting list stops and the “in year transfer” list starts instead.

For main round admissions (in this case, Reception), the waiting list has to be maintained - in the same order as the oversubscription criteria used to rank the applicant's to start with - until at least 31st December in the year of entry.

I think you are thinking of when you can make a mid / in-year application for the upcoming September; this would normally be no earlier than the summer half term. But this would only apply if e.g. you wanted to move your current Reception child to start Yr1 at a new school in September.

It may be checking that the LA have used your information correctly just in case.

But not getting a place at your preferred schools isn’t necessarily about having done it wrong. Sometimes there’s simply not enough school places to go round.

@MarchingFrogs I may have misunderstood, but those were the exact instructions I was given by the school/nursery we missed out on and were desperate to get into when I asked them what the procedure was re waiting lists. I was told that once the “in year transfer” list opens after the start of the summer holidays, this is what is used even for children about to start reception since they are already at that point on the “reception list” for their given school. Maybe it differs by LA. Anyway, it worked.

@RandomMess

It's worth checking that a mistake on the LEA part didn't happen, because occasionally it does. It sounds like you live in a densely populated area and to get a place on distance you have to liver very very close to the "better" schools. Also in some reception years many spaces are allocated to siblings just by fluke it could be a high year.

I agree with this. This year there are at least 12 siblings just in my 2 DDs years. Could be other siblings that I don’t know about.

Sibling places can right royally screw things up. The year we applied for my eldest DD, there were 34 siblings for 30 places at our closest school. Four siblings didn’t get a place let alone the child who lived literally next door.

High birth years, siblings, building of new housing estates etc can all seriously affect chances and can cause admissions statistics to vary widely between years.

In my twins' intake last year at their sister's one form intake school there were 19 siblings.

It may well be that the schools you were hoping for simply had a very high number of siblings across the year groups so the number of non-siblings in the intake was very low.

You won't win an ICS appeal. The law states there can't be more than 30 in a class. That 30 has been determined by rank - see their admissions policy. I work in appeals.