Didn't get the primary school place we wanted

[K1621]

Hello,

For our sons school place we listed 4 preferences and only got the 4th choice due to others being oversubscribed and are now on the waitlist for the other 3. We only put the 4th choice down as a back up as it is our closest local school and if we didn't get any we wanted we didn't want to be given a school further afield we hadn't seen yet.

My son has been on some transition visits to the school but has struggled as there is a nursery attached to the school so the majority of the kids all know each other and have pre-established friendships. He has been quite sad about it asking why other friends from nursery are going to the same school together but nobody from nursery is going to his school so he will be on his own and why can't he go to the school of x friend.

I guess I just want to know:

-Do you have any success stories of getting in off a waitlist, what place were you and when did this happen?
-Anything else I should be doing to support getting a different school?
-Any sucess stories where your child didn't know anyone starting school with how this went

Thankyou

Both my dc went to school out of county and knew no one starting reception although others had gone to nursery together. It wasn't a problem at all! Please don't worry.

Our situation might be different from yours as we were making a cross-country move. You can only apply for a new school place once you have a confirmed address in the local area so we had quite a nervous wait between moving into our new house, obtaining proof of address, and having the school place confirmed! We had to move without a school place but we made sure to move to a town with quite a few places in our child's year group (you can call the schools to ask) and then kept our fingers firmly crossed that those places wouldn't disappear before we could move and get proof of address! Luckily all worked out. As soon as we had the school place confirmed we officially "left" the old school, although in reality we'd already left.

In your case it sounds like you would still be in the local area? If a new address would give you a better chance of being in catchment / proximity, then I guess you'd move house while you're on the waiting list (so you don't lose your place) and then reapply with new proof of address, although you'd absolutely need to check that as I have no experience in this area.

All the best of luck! I well remember the crushing disappointment of initially finding out and then the school turning out to be just as bad as I'd feared. I hope it all works out well for you 🧡

Yes, this was how the original whatsaop group was formed at our school. If your are has local facebook groups parents/mums etc or just general Facebook groups for the town/area, they are generally pretty good for this kind of thing. Also check whether the PTA have set anything up.