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Original poster

ACCEPT THE OFFERED PLACE EVEN IF YOU HATE IT

86 replies

TeenDivided · 17/04/2023 07:12

End of public service announcement. Smile

The only reason not to accept would be if you can genuine home school for the next 3 years (until infant class size are in the past), or you confirm a private school place.

Go on waiting lists.
Appeal (but in ICS situations there are few reasons that will win)

But accept the offered place

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FloatingBean · 18/04/2023 17:41

EmilyGilmoresSass · 18/04/2023 17:28

I'm in Northern Ireland, not England. The actual amendment meeting took place before that date but the decision about school and amended statement hasn't yet been received.

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Even in NI and with a Statement of SEN the phase transfer Statement of SEN should still have been finalised by now.

FluffMagnet · 18/04/2023 17:45

Babyboomtastic · 17/04/2023 22:59

I don't get your logic.

We have a similar situation - the nice school and not nice school are the same distance from us. We used up the three choices - the nice school, and other further away schools that are usually undersubscribed. That way, if we didnt get nice school, wed have definitely got 2 or 3, and would never be offered not nice school.

If you didnt get nice school, and you had no other choices, the likelihood is you'd be offered not nice school, as its more likely to have space and is near you.

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We filled all 3 options, and included our catchment as first preference. Didn't get a single one - got allocated worst school in the area.

Babyboomtastic · 18/04/2023 18:31

FluffMagnet · 18/04/2023 17:45

We filled all 3 options, and included our catchment as first preference. Didn't get a single one - got allocated worst school in the area.

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Did you check the previous few years allocations first?

We weren't practically guaranteed to get one of the three because we put down three, but because we ensured at least one school was chronically undersubscribed...

If your catchment school is v oversubscribed then you may not get it, even in catchment. For the others, you'd be do far down the priority list that you'd only get it if they literally had spaces spare.

I think thr admissions process needs to be more widely published as so many people think that catchment = a place 😢

FluffMagnet · 18/04/2023 20:55

@Babyboomtastic no we didn't, but we are in a rural area so we don't have other options (one of our choices was in the next village and we would have no chance further afield, but frankly the area is inadequately serviced with schools) and all the schools were telling parents this year that it is a low birth rate cohort - all our friends in the nearby town have indeed managed to get into schools they were never have normally got. Annoyingly the infrastructure so desperately needed around us is there - our catchment school is new and built for a two-form entry, but the LA will not sign off on the second form yet.

Marchsnowstorms · 19/04/2023 08:33

@Waitingforsummertocome in our LA I remember a friend having to submit paperwork for a LAC place & details of adoption etc. Does that ring any bells?
@FluffMagnet if you didn't get any of your preferences it's just because too many people were ahead in priority.
You get offered the nearest one with spaces after that.

Waitingforsummertocome · 20/04/2023 13:35

Thank you so much to those who go advised me about DD having priority as an adopted child. The LA have admitted it was their error and given her a place at her first preference as an additional child.

tadpolecity · 20/04/2023 13:40

What lovely news

Original poster
TeenDivided · 20/04/2023 13:43

Waitingforsummertocome · 20/04/2023 13:35

Thank you so much to those who go advised me about DD having priority as an adopted child. The LA have admitted it was their error and given her a place at her first preference as an additional child.

That is good news.

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prh47bridge · 20/04/2023 13:54

@Waitingforsummertocome That's great. Glad they didn't make you go through an appeal.

HappiDaze · 20/04/2023 15:54

Waitingforsummertocome · 20/04/2023 13:35

Thank you so much to those who go advised me about DD having priority as an adopted child. The LA have admitted it was their error and given her a place at her first preference as an additional child.

Do the same for secondary school too

Original poster
TeenDivided · 20/04/2023 16:01

@Waitingforsummertocome As an adopted child, your DD not only gets priority in school allocations but also comes to the school with additional money, enhanced Pupils premium (or Pupil Premium Plus - PPP). Unlike normal PP which is pooled for the good of the cohort, PPP is meant to be ring fenced for your child to help overcome the disadvantage to them from having needed to be in care. This might not always be needed, and can go on e.g. part funding a TA who gives interventions in maths & English, or who gives emotional support, but it is worth knowing about it. Schools have to have on their website how their PP money is spent.
You may know all this already of course. Smile

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