How do you appeal primary school place

[babakeri]

Hello, we got offered a school that was not even on out list of 6 school choices.Please can anyone advise how to appeal or how joing waiting list? I am clueless but I want to do something about it.

Please check that you entered your address correctly. Even transposing a couple of letters of your postcode could have made a huge difference, and is easy to do by mistake. It does seem odd that you were not offered any of your six preferences.

Agree waiting lists.
Appeals only work in my area is there's a system error.

The only way I can understand this is in London in a weird spot where your not that close to many schools and you didn't like to ones nearest so didn't put them down at all. Looking at locrating for our house there's only 3 schools we're in the green for and one I fundamentally wouldn't pick and the other two were meh.

Unless there was a mistake I think you're going to have to go on a waiting list and hope that some places free up with people declining at your preferred schools. I know several people who will be doing this as they're going private/independent or will home educate so there's hope!

You won't win an appeal unless a mistake was made somewhere, so waiting lists. Also look at if there's any school that didn't make your 6 that you'd prefer and go on that list. We're your choices realistic?
It's rare though not unheard of not to get any ( we scraped catchment for one but not far from where I live is a schools black hole if you're not religious) but with the falling birth rate seems surprising.

I would strongly advise against using a school appeal company. Many of them really don't know what they are doing. I have come across cases far too many cases where their involvement has hindered the parents rather than helped them, including cases where incorrect advice led to parents losing appeals they should have won. You will get good advice from the experts on Mumsnet and it is free.

Since people are repeating the mantra that you will only win if a mistake was made, can I remind people that isn't necessarily true. If it is an infant class size appeal then yes, you should only win if a mistake has cost your child a place. However, some appeals are not infant class size cases. These can be won even if there was no mistake.

What would be the basis of your appeal?

Do you actually live in the catchment of any of the 6 schools you listed? I've never heard of this happening to anyone who submitted a sensible set of preferences.

Hello, what I did, I added all the top schools rated outstanding within 10-15mins drive from home and ignored all the local schools which are only rated good and I was hoping for the best to get at least one place at one of the 6 top schools. I don't mind travelling more just to get my kid to the best school in town, but got disappointed to get allocated a place at the local school I didn't particularly like. It seems that council has another plan...I'm surprised that all 6 schools are fully allocated though, some schools are big 4 entry, is it possible to have that many kids!

it seems the council have another plan?

no the council are following their policy!

you method of choice was bizarre. The fact you are a 10-15 minute drive away means you live nowhere near the schools you listed and the fact they are outstanding will mean anyone who lived near them would have put them as first choice. You have been quite foolish, and a good school is just that. You got allocated a school you don’t like as you didn’t make 1 sensible decision on your list.

your only option is to go on waiting lists for your preferred schools but note that just because they are outstanding now doesn’t mean they will stay that way if reassessed.

my child goes to a school rated ‘good’ and I think it is outstanding! The teaching, pastoral care are all fabulous. Don’t base everything on the ofsted report

Also your waiting list chance will be low as again the council follows a policy and anyone waiting who lives closer to the school than you will be given priority over you. And the distance you describe means that could be many many children

Yes, of course it is possible to have that many kids. Outstanding schools are generally heavily oversubscribed. The vast majority of schools use distance as a tie breaker so, unless your child is in a higher admission category (looked after/formerly looked after child, sibling, etc.), you will always lose out to people who live nearer the school.

You chose to name six schools where you had little to no chance of getting a place. You didn't get any of those, so you were allocated a place at the nearest school with places available. Nothing to do with the council "having another plan". That is the way the system works everywhere in England.

If the appeals for these schools are infant class size, your chances of success are minimal. Given the distance to these schools, it is highly unlikely that a mistake cost you a place at any of them. It is also highly unlikely that you will get a place at any of them through the waiting list.

If you really want your child to go to one of these schools, you need to move much closer to one of them. That would move you up the waiting list for that school, giving you a chance of getting a place that way. But, even if you did that, there are no guarantees a place would come up before September.

That is madness, we put our first choice as an outstanding school out of catchment, just as a punt really, we also included our catchment 'good' school as a banker. (It's a great school but 4 form entry which was bigger than I would've liked). We were wait listed automatically for the outstanding school. You've not chosen any schools your child actually had much of a chance of getting into. You should've put five then your catchment. You need to call your local authority.

Op it was really daft to only choose schools marked outstanding. For starters their last inspections could have been years ago so it’s almost irrelevant

it doesn’t sound like you will have grounds to appeal if none of them were closeby

did you visit any schools?

I’d be calling up the school closest to you, as long as it’s reasonable, and asking to be put on the waiting list. As there only people I have known to be successful on a waiting list as people living pretty close to a school. Def not ones who make a punt on a well rated school miles away.

ps a quick search on the internet (too early for stats for this year but you’d find them on council websites for previous years) would show you how many kids out of catchment (like yours) got places at the schools you chose. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was zero.

Suggest you accept your local "good" school. Did you visit the local ones before applying further away? If they are full under ICS you stand minimal chance, if any, on appeal as no error was made. Waiting lists are ordered by the same criteria as applications so you are likely to be placed low down due to distance.

You are lucky its a Good school. Many people who play that game end up with a failing school miles away or no school at all.

Did you look at any results, what the schools are like, or just rely on an arbitrary opinion that could be years old? Have you seen any of the recent Ofsted controversy?

Wanting a school miles away as you think its better isn't grounds for appeal.

So you thought you could somehow play the system in some way and lost.

Would love to know your grounds for appeal...

Based on the information given- waitlist- ridiculous tactic OP that backfired. Outstanding schools are in demand, people move onto the same streets to get in. I know it’s a shock but you aren’t the only parent concerned about their child’s education.

The chances you’re going to get into any of your choices is minimal, it always was.

I suggest you look at the schools closest to you, pick two or three and ask to join their waiting list and hope for the best.

And when it comes to secondary, read the council information properly.

What an utterly bizarre thing to do op. You applied for 6 schools miles away just because of an outstanding review, that could have been made years ago, and could change at next review. A school rated good, is just that good, and it could be outstanding on next inspection, who knows. You were foolish to only apply to these schools and it's no wonder you didn't get in. I would accept the nearer school to be honest.

Schools are about so much more than ofsted reports. Instead of focusing on an appeal that will fail focus on being positive about the school you have a place in.

We got our first choice school by the skin of our teeth, and we are in catchment and it is only rated good, not outstanding. The school is so over subscribed that my next door neighbours didn't get in last year. So in my opinion, applying for out of catchment outstanding schools, was a HUGE gamble. They are always ridiculously oversubscribed! Also, don't be fooled by Ofsted, having an outstanding rating doesn't mean it's the best school for your child. My 10 year old has been at 3 different local primaries, two of which had a great reputation, but were absolutely clueless about how to even refer him for an assessment when we suspected SEN, and even less clueless about how to help him. His current school, which does not have the same reputation, have been wonderful from the second he walked through the doors. My brother went to an outstanding primary, and my parents had to pull him out and send him private because he couldn't even write his name by the age of 7, and despite having a 'gifted' programme for 'bright' children, they failed to intervene and recognise he had dyslexia, which is baffling to me.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise? I wouldn't bother appealing on the grounds that you want an outstanding school though, join the club on that one, it's why house prices in outstanding catchment areas are driven so high! I would think that waiting list would be your only option, but just as an FYI, someone in my road is on a waitlist for the school my daughter got in to, and was told there are 30 people ahead of her, and she's catchment!

I wanted my DD to go to our local (& not catchment) primary school...
They had an intake of 60 children/ year.

I didn't get it and she went to one a 15 minute drive away. Obviously placed her on a waiting list... only to find out a few years later that something like 50 odd places went to siblings and the rest was allocated by "needs" and how close they lived to the school! So we had no chance from the outset of getting a place.

Well, you were very foolish, but very very lucky that you still got a local good school. Accept that as you have zero chance of your choices.

A neighbour I know who did what you did, didn't get our local good school which wasn't on her list (she only put the one school she wanted on in the next town wrongly believing that would 'force' the council to give her a place) but instead a failing school at the other end of town.

Did you actually do any research on how school place allocation works before coming up with this crazy idea?! Did you look at how far out places have been allocated in the schools you did put down in the past 5 years? The only schools we would get a place at that is 15+ min drive away are those which are under subscribed, all others tend to be filled within 1-1.5 mile radius.

Have a look at those you have a realistic chance of getting a place at - if there is one you prefer over what you have been allocated, request to be put on the waiting list

Don't put all your emphasis on Ofsted either - have a look at the school itself, the children there and the report to see when it was actually inspected. Some haven't been inspected since 2010 - anything could have changed since then!