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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Original poster

School Place

71 replies

Boymama83 · 08/03/2022 20:43

So my eldest goes up to secondary in September and has had an offer of a place at a local Catholic High School. The issue is my family are Protestant, like move from NI (Ulster) in 1972 Protestant. I have appealed and will wait for that but I've been checking out the school etc and can 100% hand up say this is without doubt a faith led school. They state that sex and social education will be taught in line with Catholic beliefs.....what do I do??? There are 2 other schools, one which we applied and didn't get and the other is a Grammar but eldest hasn't done 11plus.

OP posts:
arethereanyleftatall · 09/03/2022 12:53

@Heckythump1

There should be an option on the form to not be placed at a faith school!
This adds an unnecessary extra layer though doesn't it? The forms already cover this - you can fill in 5 options so if you don't want a faith school, you don't include it.
MyDcAreMarvel · 09/03/2022 13:00

@ChairCareOh It’s not a case of being prejudiced. It’s a case of not wanting your child to revive a Catholic education. I wouldn’t want that for my own children either. It’s personal choice. it is prejudiced, the op isn’t an atheist who doesn’t want their child in a faith school. She is against one specific religion.

ChairCareOh · 09/03/2022 13:17

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at the user's request

RafaIstheKingofClay · 09/03/2022 17:15

There is no way that a box allowing you to opt out of certain types of school would be workable in the admissions system. I’d imagine trying to allocate the nearest school with spaces to people who hadn’t qualified for any of their listed schools. Which is the only time it would come into play.

Zolla · 09/03/2022 20:12

OP, simple. You messed up your application unfortunately. You should have researched into what you needed to do to apply for schools.

One choice is hopeless. Schools have allocation procedure. Mostly done on how far you live from said school. Presumably, you live in catchment for or close to the school you don’t want. Did you know this when you moved to your house? When we moved, high school was a consideration despite my kids only being young primary age! We moved to a guaranteed high school place of a school we currently really like (we literally live next door 😂).

Did you consider schools further away? Did you check their allocation procedure? Did you find out any data on if you would be likely to be successful given how far away you lived? This would have helped..

Find out if there are other schools around you within a reasonable distance with spaces. You child may have to travel a bit. If not, get on the waiting lists of those you like & hope for the best by September!

boyblue · 09/03/2022 23:53

@Boymama83

2 of the other families DID provide another school and still got this one as its closer than their alternative. I'm not sure how it works. I have already put an appeal in, will contact LA tomorrow to see if they have alternative with spaces
I'm not sure you have read and understood how school admissions and the equal preference scheme works?
prh47bridge · 10/03/2022 12:55

@Boymama83

2 of the other families DID provide another school and still got this one as its closer than their alternative. I'm not sure how it works. I have already put an appeal in, will contact LA tomorrow to see if they have alternative with spaces
They didn't get this school because it is closer than they alternatives they put down. They got it because they weren't high enough up the admission criteria to get places in their preferred schools and this was the nearest school with places available. If they had qualified for a place at their alternative school, they would have got it regardless of the fact there is a closer school.
Yellowmellow2 · 13/03/2022 09:19

OP - unfortunately for you, I think you weren’t given enough advice/information when applying. The system is such that you apply for 5 schools. Those schools then allocate places based on their admissions policy, and you are then offered a place at the highest school on your list that allocated a place to your child. By only listing one school, you took a serious risk, and your child was too far down the admissions criteria for the school you chose. You won’t have any grounds for appeal, but worth finding out where you are on the waiting list.

It is hard for those of us living here to understand your strength of feeling about a Catholic school but I get it, as I understand the sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland, and the system of protestant and Catholic schools there. Good luck.

berksandbeyond · 13/03/2022 09:24

@Yellowmellow2

OP - unfortunately for you, I think you weren’t given enough advice/information when applying. The system is such that you apply for 5 schools. Those schools then allocate places based on their admissions policy, and you are then offered a place at the highest school on your list that allocated a place to your child. By only listing one school, you took a serious risk, and your child was too far down the admissions criteria for the school you chose. You won’t have any grounds for appeal, but worth finding out where you are on the waiting list.

It is hard for those of us living here to understand your strength of feeling about a Catholic school but I get it, as I understand the sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland, and the system of protestant and Catholic schools there. Good luck.

Wasn’t given enough information about to apply?

I am willing to bet £100 all the relevant information was available on the local authority website if OP looked. The onus is on people to educate themselves, not be spoon fed on how to apply to a school.

OP you’ll need to suck it up with the catholic school or home educate 🤷🏼‍♀️

TeenPlusCat · 13/03/2022 09:39

I think there is something to be said for all primary schools in y5 (or in y4 if in a grammar area) having a meeting for parents and spelling out in words of one syllable how the equal preference system works.

There are still too many parents who for whatever reason don't seem to understand it, the OP is not alone. Sometimes a verbal presentation is what is needed to get the info over.

Yellowmellow2 · 13/03/2022 09:49

*Wasn’t given enough information about to apply?

I am willing to bet £100 all the relevant information was available on the local authority website if OP looked. The onus is on people to educate themselves, not be spoon fed on how to apply to a school.

OP you’ll need to suck it up with the catholic school or home educate 🤷🏼‍♀️*

Quite harsh?! We always do a secondary transfer meeting at my primary school to explain the system to Y5 and 6 parents. It is quite a complex system and not everyone has the capacity to understand it just by reading up on it.

Suck it up?! This is her child’s education, and for a Northern Irish Protestant family, a Catholic school is a big deal. OP came on here to ask for help @berksandbeyond, not to be made to feel inadequate.

berksandbeyond · 13/03/2022 09:51

5 mins on the education boards on here would have told you never to put 1 choice down, never mind actually reading the applicant guides and information.

I’m sure OP can go on a waiting list for another school but this outcome is her fault so they’re not going to magically find another school place are they?

berksandbeyond · 13/03/2022 09:52

They moved from NI 50 years ago 🙄

BobbinHood · 13/03/2022 09:54

I may have misunderstood but I read didn’t read the OP as she’s in NI or even from NI herself, but that her very Protestant family left Ulster in 1972.

A family who moved away from NI 50 years ago? Yes I think this level of angst about a catholic school is excessive. And it still doesn’t negate the point that if she would be prepared to send her child to any school before a catholic one, they should have completed the form that way. That’s not saying someone is inadequate, it’s saying they’ve made a bad decision and this is the logical consequence.

berksandbeyond · 13/03/2022 09:59

@BobbinHood

I may have misunderstood but I read didn’t read the OP as she’s in NI or even from NI herself, but that her very Protestant family left Ulster in 1972.

A family who moved away from NI 50 years ago? Yes I think this level of angst about a catholic school is excessive. And it still doesn’t negate the point that if she would be prepared to send her child to any school before a catholic one, they should have completed the form that way. That’s not saying someone is inadequate, it’s saying they’ve made a bad decision and this is the logical consequence.

Exactly.

OP needs to move on from the idea of appealing, because she has absolutely no grounds to appeal whatsoever, and get her child on the waiting list for every appropriate school - and keep her fingers crossed!

SellFridges · 13/03/2022 10:08

Although the OP has made mistakes, their situation is exactly why should not have state funded religious schools. They are simply not acceptable to many families, either because they follow different religions or because they follow none at all.

EduCated · 13/03/2022 10:39

It is not helpful to state that OP has absolutely no grounds to appeal.

An appeal on the basis of faith would be extremely weak (but could be made and heard), as has been explained further up thread. But OP can appeal on other matters (see the many threads on secondary education) with the aim of showing that the detriment to her child is worse than the detriment to the school taking another pupil.

PrancerFeet · 13/03/2022 12:24

OP needs to move on from the idea of appealing, because she has absolutely no grounds to appeal whatsoever, and get her child on the waiting list for every appropriate school - and keep her fingers crossed!

Bollocks. Of course she can appeal. The panel aren't going to say 'ohhhh, you should have put more choices on your form'.

My sister just appealed and got her dd into the most oversubscribed school in town as they offered textiles at GCSE and no other school for miles around do.

Hellocatshome · 13/03/2022 12:26

Bollocks. Of course she can appeal
Yes of course she can but she needs to appeal for what the other school can give her child not what she doesnt like about the one allocated.

PanelChair · 13/03/2022 12:37

There’s some spectacularly bad advice here ((sigh)) but listen to prh47bridge and EduCated, who (unlike some others) know what they’re talking about.

Join waiting lists for any schools you’d be willing to accept. To appeal for your preferred school, you’ll need to identify aspects of its provision - curriculum, extra-curricular activities or whatever - that would benefit your child and aren’t available elsewhere. An appeal based on the offered school’s religious character is highly unlikely to succeed (and bear in mind that panel members might have children at the offered school, so disparaging it will get your appeal off to a bad start).

PrancerFeet · 13/03/2022 13:57

@Hellocatshome

Bollocks. Of course she can appeal Yes of course she can but she needs to appeal for what the other school can give her child not what she doesnt like about the one allocated.

Well yes, but that's not the same as "OP needs to move on from the idea of appealing, because she has absolutely no grounds to appeal whatsoever,"

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