Was I daft to put in a second choice?

[Kardelen]

Unfortunately we have not been given our first choice of primary school ( Reception).

They have offered the second place, and said we will be on the waiting list for our first choice.

Im not happy with the second choice, as it’s further away and have no connections and no one can collect my child apart from me.

i am a working mum, and my husbands health declined since I had applied so he cannot do the schools. I also have a daughter who will be starting nursery in another place so it will be a mission

i hadn’t even applied because I wanted the second choice, but it was merely because I didn’t want to be placed somewhere even further away. This was the second closest school to us.

Now, my neighbours right next to us have applied and got their first choice ( they didn’t put down a second choice). So now I feel extremely daft!

is it true in your experience that if I never had put down another school name I would have got my first choice?!

I will be appealing, has anyone else appealed and got their first choice?

The neighbour also suggested I don’t accept the second offer, as then they may prioritise me for my first choice. is this true in your experiences? Did anyone decline the offer and get prioritised?

or how long was the wait if you did accept the second choice ?

Surely they are obligated to find you a place somewhere even if the school is far away. If the second place school was also full. I’d assume that was grounds for an appeal on the basis that you need a place somewhere.

Is your neighbour closer to the school?

They do have to find you a place somewhere, yes, but if you didn’t get into any of your preferences it will just be the nearest school that still has places, which could be miles away. If you reject this place, then they have fulfilled their duty in offering you a school and don’t have to offer you anything else. Rejecting your offered place would definitely not help at an appeal at all.

You’d think so, but they were not offered a school at all as they only put 1 choice. They then had to go on waiting lists, didn’t get a place until 4 months into the school year!

What are your grounds for appeal @Kardelen?

You have to be offered A school

Did your neighbour put the same school down?
what size are the classes as that will determine the type of appeal route you can use.

waiting lists are really variable down to locality and don’t forget you can do down the waiting list as well as up.

The LA have fulfilled their statutory obligations for offering you a school place. I would suggest reading on the Council website the criteria for school admissions in your area to help you understand why you haven’t been offered a place at your chosen school. The information you received from the LA offering you a school place should have given you some information about why you didn’t get a place. If you still want more information, you can email or phone the admissions team who will explain it to you. As others have said you can go on the waiting list, but you might wait ages for a place. In some schools, depending on how transient the population is or isn’t, how long the waiting list is, and where your child is on it, you might never be offered a place at the school you want.

You are not daft, your unhelpful neighbour is. They don't know what they are talking about so please don't listen to their terrible advice! They are wrongly feeling smug that they got their first choice, thinking it's down to something they did. It isn't. That's not how it works at all. They just got lucky, that's all.

Putting something as first preference does not give you priority and only putting one choice certainly doesn't mean you'll get it.

You missed out on the admission criteria for your first choice (likely on distance). You would have missed out on it whether you applied for one, two or three schools (or more, depending on how many your area allows). Your friend met the criteria ahead of you. They would have done so whether they applied for one school, two or more.

You would be mad to reject the space, as you'll lose it and may end up even further away. You will most certainly not be given a priority on the waiting list for your first choice if you turn this one down. That's not how it works. Your neighbour seriously needs to read up on this before issuing 'advice' to people. Excuse my language, but they are talking absolute 60ll0cks!

You will not win an appeal unless you can prove the admissions criteria was applied incorrectly (highly unlikely). I'm sorry, but your childcare issues are not the responsibility of admissions to sort out. You have 4 months to work something out. Does the allocated school have wrap around care? Could you get a childminder? Change your work hours? I wouldn't waste your time and energy appealing as you definitely wouldn't win on this. I'd be looking into solutions instead.

@Kardelen The school should have its admissions policy on its web site. That should link to a catchment map. Or the LA will have the map. My LA has a school finder by post code. It tells you what school you are catchment for. So start having a look at web sites but confirm the place you have been given.

The catchment will be different every year, it will depend of birth rate and how many apply etc. if a lot of children apply one year, you may need to be within 1 mile to get a place for example, whereas another year if there are less applying you may only need to live within 2 miles. If your next door neighbour has got in and you haven’t there may have been another admission criteria they have that you don’t (distance is often one of the last criteria) so for example the child may be baptised into the faith of the school, or have a special need etc that is higher in the criteria list than distance

You’re referring to the last distance offered rather than the catchment. Some areas have a set catchment area for each school, which gets priority before children outside of the catchment area are ranked by distance. My LA uses set catchments, and the maps for these are available online. Other areas are like you describe, and just use the distance to the school.

Your neighbour is chatting rubbish and thinks she’s beaten the system- she hasn’t. Reducing the number of choices just gives the authority to dump your child in any school in the borough. Best of luck OP

you need to look at your Education Authorities website . There will be a table detailing the PAN for the School, how far off it they have been in previous years, furthest distance (its normally worked out as the crow flies rather than following streets) - it will likely answer all your questions. Your neighbours child may be a looked after child, parent in armed forces, pupil premium etc etc.

Accept the place you've been given and go on the wait list for your favoured school.

The Authority should be able to give you some idea of how many are in front of you (they have to follow the admissions criteria for those on the wait list as well).

Hide any disappointment you might be feeling from your DC.

EDIT: Your neighbour is talking out of her hat.

Ah ok, must be different depending where you are applying then, we don’t have catchments here. The way it was described to me when we were applying (this year) is they go through the set criteria in order first, which was things like if the child has special needs, has a sibling in the school etc. then once they have admitted based on those criteria they will fill the rest by distance, so closest will get the next place and the circle just expands out until all places are full. That was for schools that just went by LA criteria and didn’t use their own specific ones, faith schools etc

Go on the admissions page of the school you want. It will list their criteria and the different bands eg band 1 will be looked after children within the local education authority, band 2 might be feeder schools/ baptised children / those with siblings or parents who are staff members etc. The catchment will be on there

Did your neighbour apply for the same school as your first choice? If so, you are likely to be high on the waiting list.

As others have said, DO NOT listen to your neighbour. You did the right thing putting a 2nd choice, and could be in a worse position if you hadn't. I hope the waiting list works out for you.

No as you'd have got literally anywhere op

You will automatically be put on the waitlist for first choice, but you can still ask to be put on the waitlist for other schools you had past second choice ?

Please don’t listen to your neighbour, she’s completely misinformed (wrong). Not putting a second choice wouldn’t have meant you got your first choice… it wouldn’t have magicked you up a space. You didn’t get a space because, based on the admissions criteria, other people were more eligible for those spaces.

If your next door neighbour put the same first choice school down as you then presumably you'll be pretty much first on the waiting list?

I won’t repeat what others have said but your neighbour is talking rubbish and should not be listened to.
The thing is, you did put a second choice down and you got it.
you obviously chose it for a reason.
Why not give it a go, be enthusiastic about it for your dd’s sake and see what it’s like.
you can always stay on the waiting list of the school you prefer and make your mind up when you get offered a place.

In terms of an appeal, what grounds do you have?
Just appealing because you didn’t get what you wanted probably won’t get you very far.

My oldest DC got third choice Secondary school, now they both go there and love it…things can work out!

No. Your neighbour has qualified for another reason which you may or may not know about. Child is a care leaver / has an EHCP that names that school / has a sibling already attending the school or, simply, the cut-off for distance was between your houses and they live marginally closer than you do.

Not having a second choice wouldn’t have meant you being given a place; you still wouldn’t have qualified for your first choice and would instead have been allocated another available school
which may have been the one you put as your second choice, or if that was oversubscribed, it could have been one further away.

You have no grounds to appeal.

Honestly the idea of choice is a bit of a myth. In most local authorities, there is so much demand on school places, the most likely outcome is you will be put in the nearest school with a place if your first choice is over subscribed. Putting second and third realistic options is the best thing you can do. I would advise people to really think about their options and the likelihood of getting into their preferred schools. I have seen several children unfortunately end up with no
school place or an offer miles away because their parents thought it was clever to only put one choice.