Has anybody turned down a primary school offer and what happened??

[Courtney10891]

I'm planning on declining my sons primary school offer as I'm really not happy with it. It wasn't one of our five choices. I was wondering has anybody turned down a school offer and if so what came of it? My son will be the youngest and only turns 4 at the end of august, I'm pretty sure it's not even a legal requirement for kids to be in school until 5 years old? Or maybe I have that wrong x

Don't turn it down. If you do, the council have no obligation to find you another place. Just join all the waiting lists.

Also, as a summer born, you can defer to start reception next year but I'm unsure of the process.

Will you go on waiting lists for schools that you would be happy to send him to?

Turning down the offer won’t help speed up your waiting list place at other schools.

In the end, are you happy to home educate if a waiting list place does not come up?

Because that is what will come if it.

He doesn’t have to be in education until the term after his 5th birthday - and that education can be at home or at school.

If you turn the place down, the LA doesn’t have to offer you another place, and you need to be willing to have him out of school next year - you would still be entitled to your 15/30 hours funding. You could do this, & go on the waiting lists for the schools you like, hoping that a place comes up at some point in his Reception year. Indeed you could home educate him indefinitely until a place comes up at a school you are happy with, he doesn’t have to be in school at any point if you’re happy to home educate.

Oh, and yes as a summer born you could possibly apply again for Reception next year but this will depend very much on where you are in the country, and won’t make you any more likely to get into the schools you didn’t qualify for this year...

If you turn down your offered place, the LA have no responsibility to find you another place.

You are best off accepting it and going on waiting lists for other schools you'd prefer as there can be a lot of movement before September. If you reject now, you may find there are no other places and have to home school or find a private school for your child.

If your child is 5 in August, then they don't need to start school until the term after which would be the September of year 1 as apposed to reception. However, school places will be filled up by the same children as in reception so it won't be any easier to get your child into school at that point.

Nothing will happen except that you won’t have a place at a school. The LA will have fulfilled their duty in offering you a place somewhere, and the responsibility for educating you child after he turns 5 will be yours.

You would be offered places at other schools you are on the waiting lists for at exactly the same time as you would if you had accepted the original place.

Did you pick a catchment area school? Were the choices realistic, ie based on previous admissions /areas? I’m surprised that you didn’t get any choices at all if you picked schools that were in your catchment area?

I’d accept a place and go on the waiting list for all your 5 schools and hope people move etc

I personally wouldn’t turn down the place unless I was in a position to send my DC to a private school or homeschool them indefinitely.

He doesn’t have to be in education until the term after his 5th birthday, but there’s no guarantee that a place will have opened for him at any of your preferred schools by then.

Whatever you do now in terms of accepting or declining the place offered, make sure you’re on the waiting list for any schools you’d prefer.

It won't make him a higher priority in the schools you want if you decline your place- it just means if the waiting list doesn't come up trumps he won't have a place.

Nothing will happen unless you make it happen. If you turn down the place and do nothing come September he just won't go to school.

Don’t decline the place. Accept it and then go on the waiting lists for your preferred schools. There’s no limit on how many waiting lists you can go on I don’t think.

All of the five schools I picked were in my catchment area. They were all very realistic choices. I am all the waiting lists for all five schools that I was turned down from so I'm praying that something comes up. My son is 4 on the 30th august so he only made this school year by a couple days. I am wondering whether it's best to stay on the waiting lists and maybe find him a nursery that I like instead for him to go to until something comes up? Honestly the school they offered is the worst in the borough and I can't explain it but I genuinely feel like I've failed my son that I couldn't get him in to a semi decent school.

Why is it the worst school? Based on ofsted results? If they failed an ofsted trust me, they'll soon improve (they have to).
Don't decline the place.

What are you hoping will happen? It won't force their hand with your preferred schools.

Reiterating what everony else said.

I wouldn't decline a place unless you have an alternative in place. The LA don't have to do anything if you do.
No, he doesn't have to be in school until Sept 22, but you will be applying for a Year one place then and there is no guarantee there would be one in any local school, and it would be much more difficult to settle straight into Yr1 without having done a year in Reception.

Yes, you have the right to ask for a deferred place, but no automatic right to have a deferred place. Different LAs feel less or more strongly about this in different parts of the country.

Equally, not all Nurseries will take on a new child once they are Reception age.

School places aren't choices, they're preferences.

It is very unusual to have 5 schools all designated as your catchment school - is it really a catchment (with criteria like LAC/SEN, siblings in catchment, other catchment children, non-catchment siblings, all other non-catchment)?

I'm just wondering if there has been some sort of error in publicising catchments (which might be relevant to appeal, depending on what type of error)

Or do you just mean you live close enough that in recent years you would definitely have qualified for one or more of them on distance, but this year you were too far away from all of them?

If you turn down a place, you will have no place. The council has no obligation to find you another.

You need to find out now what your council does about requests to place a summer-born child in the next years cohort. They are not allowed to have a blanket approach, so what is their policy for considering individual requests.

It might be unwise to turn down a place if you do not know for sure (and I mean in writing) that you can apply for reception again next year. If you have go in to year 1 (ie not starting until he reaches compulsory age, but joining his normal age group) you might not find available places any easier to come by (as all the reshuffling will fill the popular schools)

Accepting (or at least failing to reject) your offered school makes no difference whatsoever to your place on the waiting list for schools you prefer.

Ah that sucks OP. School places can be so arbitrary and unpredictable based on factors like siblings, faith admissions and other factors.

In your situation I would:

1. Accept the school offered. You can always pull him out later and there is no advantage to you in rejecting it - it just lets the local authority off the hook for educating your child.

1. Stay on those waiting lists and check in from time to time to see where you are - this will give you an idea of how likely a place is to come up. There is always movement as some kids will go private, some will move away, etc. It’s a long time to September. I know kids who got their preferred school a week before term began.

1. Start talking to the LA about whether it’s possible to delay starting for a year, so that your son would start reception just after he turns 5. They are required to consider this now and the process should be set out on their website. However you should be prepared that you may come up against the same scarcity of places next year, and have a plan for that.

@Disneyblue

We spent 8 years getting from inadequate to good!

OP- I would accept the offer for now, go on the waiting list, if by end of aug you don’t get one you want I would defer and try again next year.

It is very unusual to have 5 schools all designated as your catchment school - is it really a catchment (with criteria like LAC/SEN, siblings in catchment, other catchment children, non-catchment siblings, all other non-catchment)?

Many places don’t have catchments at all, or designated catchment schools, so the idea that there is a catchment school may be confusing here.

For example in my borough (and I believe all of London) there are no catchments. It’s done on distance after other criteria (LACs, siblings, etc) - unless you pay or pray. The latter in particular can really distort admission patterns, as can a big sibling year in a local area.

“ There’s no limit on how many waiting lists you can go on I don’t think.”

There is here. You have to express a preference for three schools and if you don’t get them, you go on the list for those three. If you want to go on the waiting list for another school (or indeed take an empty space at an undersubscribed school) you have to put in a new application, limited again to three schools (so you’d have to give up one or more of your previous preferences). You can’t just go on the waiting list for every school in the local authority!

Op you didn’t fail. You applied on time and made realistic choices - it’s not your fault, there were just too many applicants chasing too few places. Nothing you could have done to change things. But declining the place doesn’t benefit you in the slightest- it’s not an effective form of protest. There’s nothing to gain from it. You could start by finding out roughly where you are on the waiting lists for your five preferences - there may well be movement between now and September.

You can delay his start until later in the same academic year and then join if a place comes up at one of your preferences. However declining your current place would mean no fallback. Alternatively you could defer completely until 2022 and reapply but some schools are not keen on out of year pupils.

Hi OP - you could accept this place as a back up and speak to this school and defer his actual starting point with the school itself? Check their admissions policy. Our state primary does consider these types of requests. In the mean time, you can see if another place comes up on a waiting list and keep him at nursery.

I’m in favour of deferral of summer borns, where parents have decided to do that because of the needs of the child, in advance of applications. It’s a bit crap to want to use it now, as an excuse for two bites of the admissions cherry. Round here the LA will and do allow deferral but you need a good case for why and they explicitly say it won’t be allowed just because you don’t get the school you want.

@Disneyblue

Why is it the worst school? Based on ofsted results? If they failed an ofsted trust me, they'll soon improve (they have to). Don't decline the place.

Not always...

We got a place at a failed ofsted school. It then went through 8 heads in 3 years before any improvements actually happened. Massive disruptions in the process.

We were told that it would be ok to start at a failed school because it had to improve and “loads of money would be thrown at it” this didn’t happen.