Primary school disappointment

[Bobskeleton]

Not really looking for anything other then to vent a bit.

Our daughter was offered our 4th choice.

It's not a bad school but quite a way from where we live and difficult for public transport.

Came as a bit of a shock with a big heap of feeling deflated. Especially when the LA managed to place 96% in their 1st or 2nd places.

Will see what the the waiting lists are like in a few weeks.

Suppose I'm just offering up a place for anyone else to have a little moan. If anyone else has any similar uplifting stories I'm all ears.

At the end of the day I know everything will be ok.

You could appeal on grounds of transport? Nothing to lose (except some time).

There will be some movement before they start, so make sure you are on a waiting list. Or lists if that’s possible in your area.

Did you apply for your catchment school?

We were in this position last year. Fourth choice. I was gutted.We got up to first place on the waiting list with our third choice but just kept getting pushed down the list. So frustrating!

My child is now halfway through reception and thriving! The school has exceeded my expectations. I hope it's the case with you too. I well remember the disappointment, and the envy towards friends who got their first or second choice. It's so tough! But it turns out that they are just as happy / frustrated with their schools as we are with ours. Even the ones at our first choice school. Turns out it wasn't any better than the one we ended up with!

I hope it turns out for the absolute best for you and your child!

No idea if the OP will do this, but just to flag, transport is not usually considered as a reasonable ground for appeal - esp not for an ICS appeal, which this probably would be.

It might be for secondary, if you could show great detriment to the child from travelling to the allocated school (for example, high levels of anxiety/ND relating to public transport, backed up my medics).

For primary tho your child is expected to walk up to two miles to school as long as there is a safe route. If you listed your nearest schools and did not get a place there, LA has to provide transport if distance allocated is over 2 miles. Hope it all works out OP.

So sorry you're disappointed. Definitely vent away on here.
I'd just say try to stay positive in front of your child (even when you think they are out of earshot) as they pick up on your worries.

And as others have said it may all work out for the best. We got our first choice (a couple of years ago) and while I love the school community and the fact I can walk there I have not been as impressed with some of the policies and teaching decisions and comparing them to our 3rd choice school I often wonder if that would have been better for our child.

Because of Infant Class Size rules, the only grounds to appeal is if the LA has made an error when processing the application based on the published over subscription eligibility criteria which are usually

• looked after children
• siblings
• school is named on an EHCP plan
• distance from school

If the only one of the above that applies to someone is distance from school, then the family would have to show that the school gave places to children from further away who also only fit in the distance from school category.

Just to note that infant class size rules don't apply to all appeals for Reception. Most schools are operating up to the class size limit, but some are not. My local primary school, for example, has a PAN of 50 and operates two classes in each year of infants (Reception, Y1 and Y2), so infant class size rules should not apply to appeals.

Very frustrating. DC1 is now uni but we had this (obviously many years ago). We applied for all the nearest schools but the trouble was that we were far away from all of them. Anyway, at the last minute DC1 did get a place at 1st choice school. That also meant that DC2 got a place there too.

Yes indeed @prh47bridge, and also why I said probably ICS - local to me there is a school which takes 45 in a year, split across 1.5/2 classes; and in fact my DCs' old school has a PAN of 80 - sometimes three classes of 26-27 but sometimes 2.5 classes mixed with another year group.

Thank you for all the kind words. Has lifted my mood.

I'm unsure if I would appeal. But will definitely be looking at the waiting lists.

As someone also said I will definitely hide any negative thoughts I have from DD as I would not want to negativity influence in any way.

I know whatever way the coin falls she will be fine :)

@Autumn1990 yes as much as we could. We live in a village with no obvious catchment but we put our closest 3 schools as the top 3 options. The option we got is about 3 miles away.

The catchment areas are usually on the local authority website.
It might be worth looking at the school transport policy as you may get funded transport depending on distance.
In our LA you are guaranteed to get catchment if you put it as first choice because if you don’t get it they have to bus you to the next nearest due to unsafe walking routes. If they don’t give you the catchment school they then have to provide transportation to the next nearest school

Sorry you're feeling disappointed. I am too but we were offered our 2nd option. It's a good school but I just had a feeling about the other one & felt so excited for DC to go there.
I hope you manage to get the school you want 🤞🏽

Disappointed / deflated here too 🙋🏻‍♀️
We got our third choice, it's no awful but our first and second choice schools are just miles apart in terms of facilities and outside space.

Especially disappointed as people seemed to get into our first choice school in previous years living further away and without having applied / put first. I can only think it is due to a neighbouring village school being downgraded to 'requires improvement' last year so has pushed lots of those people into our first choice.

Does anyone know how you can find out where you are on the waiting list? I don't want to bother the schools but would like to know if we have a chance before letting DC know.

Good luck with the waiting lists everyone!

Is there a primary school in your village? Did you apply to that school? Are you very close to a local authority border, I.e. are your closest schools over the border in another LA? If you don’t gain a place via the waiting lists, you are likely to qualify for home to school transport if you have named the closest schools in your LA and the allocated school is over 2 miles from your home.

I see you're in villages so perhaps very different but in London quite a few of my kid's friends didn't initially get in for primary but still had a place by September. It's worth seeing your position on the list. Around us there's still movement through reception year too. Do explore your options. Good luck.

@dotdotdot22 our waiting lists open in 3 weeks I think. I may try my luck and call the school to see if they will let us know where DD is.

@LadyLapsang no there is no school in the village, and we don't sit near any boarders.

Thank you to those for the info regarding transport. I will look into that if this is where DD is definitely placed. It is not walkable at all. And public transport only gets us half way.

Painful. The child will enjoy whichever school they get. They don't know any different.
But 3 miles and having to drive is a pain so pursue wait lists

i was in your position last year! We got our 3rd choice and were so disappointed (I even posted on here looking for positive stories!) - all of my sons friends got in and we were the only ones who didn’t and we were well within catchment area (there were 25 siblings last year)

In our area, there are 2 runs of the continued interest list, one in May and June i think - you won’t know where you are on the list until the 2nd run- at least we didn’t find out until the 2nd run

We didn’t get a place in the first or 2nd run but ended up getting a call in July offering us a place (when we’d given up all hope!!)

I just wanted to give you a positive story as that’s what i really wanted to hear last year 😊

This gives me hope! Thank you 😊

No harm in trying an appeal but the OP should be realistic about the fact it won’t work.

Our reception child was given a school 14 miles away from his elder sister last year and there wasn’t space for the elder sister to move to his school. My wife taught at my daughters school as well. Cambs education service just washed their hands of it and said it was our problem.

Sorry not to be more positive!

If I remember correctly @Ruralparents your case was quite different and more complex than OP’s as she has applied to her nearest school and there is no sibling or parental employment issues in the mix.

Yes quite different and I’m all for the OP venting but I wouldn’t want her to get the idea that an appeal has much chance!