After get told your reception place - what do you need to do to go on waiting list for preferences you didn't get?

[xfabba]

We get our allocation on Friday for Reception in September - Surrey LEA. We have been told by LEA there is a good chance we won't get any of our 3 preferences "choices". I would like my son to stay on the waiting list for any or all of the three we don't get right up to September and beyond (and will also go to appeal if this is the case). Does anyone know if I need to take any specific action to make sure he is kept on the waiting lists?

Your allocation letter/email should provide details of how to go on waiting lists and appeals.

We don't get ours until the beginning of April.

Not sure what you need to do but I think there is only a certain amount of time you have to accept the place or they assume you don't want it.

we get told online on the friday night - then the letters go out the following week so I suppose we will get them wednesday. I am just wondering whether it is ok to wait until then or whether I need to do anything over the weekend for Monday - writing letters or anything?

we don't get told until may! think we're the latest. I think with the decision letter is asks you if you would like to be on the waiting list. It should also outline the appeals process. Although I have no direct experience. It my first time applying.

Hi

You need to check out your LEA's website for their specific information. Usually you will go onto the wait list for your preferences but you need to understand what happens now. Where I live the LEA has the right to send an unallocated child, aged 4, to any school within 3 miles walking distance of their home. Just getting onto a wait list means almost nothing as you go up and down the wait list depending on who moves into and out of the catchment.

I went through this last year.

In terms of any appeal, there is a ground called "infant classsize prejudice" which is a catch all and means that, in effect, the class is full. This is very difficult to appeal unless you can demonstrate that the LEA has somehow failed in its process.

I would strongly urge you to read up as much as you can now to completely understand the applications process in Surrey and look at the grounds on which you can appeal. Don't wait until you are in the process as it's hard to be objective by then. Points such as you go to work (if you do) or having to buy a second car etc are irrelevant. It's solely down to due process.

Good luck.

hi. i am surrey too. i think the letters get posted first class on friday so you might get it on saturday. it depends whether your schools are community schools or voluntary aided or foundation aided. surrey can put you automatically on the waiting lists for community ones but the ones with independent funding i think you need to contact the schools directly and so a letter waiting will probably be right. you could contact the schools on thurs or friday to see what the story is for them. and by the way waiting list places dont work in a first come first served way but in the same criteria way as the allocation of places. although i guess there must be some element of people in a similar situation so getting in quickly might not be a bad thing to do. We are on tenterhooks for friday night too!

nowwearefour is correct about the difference in voluntary aided and community. They will also have different approaches to appeal but process in applying the criteria correctly stands. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to fall foul e.g. some LEAs make catchment a priority and therefore, if renting, the tenancy agreement at the time of applying has to take you through to date your child starts school and you must be able to prove this on demand. It is not sufficient for the agreement to run until the date of notification of a place. As part of an appeal you can ask the LEA whether they have done this checking of all of the successful applications to ensure that all of them a) live in catchment and b) will remain there at least until the first day in school.

Don't worry if you are in surrey and don't hear till Monday. Our school posted our letter second class a few years ago. Luckily I got first choice so am not sure what would happen if you didn't get either of the 3. I expect you would be offered an alternative school. It is maybe then a case of phoning the original 3 and any others that would be feasible to get to and putting yourself on waiting lists (if you don't like the allocated school).

Hope you will get one of your choices, preferably number 1!

Thanks all that's intereesting. I phoned first choice school today (community) which is our closest (0.8m) but massively oversubscribed and they wouldn't give me time of day just said "it will all be in the pack". Preference 2 is 0.9m away and also massively oversubscribed and is a church schhol and we are applying for heathen place (have to give a few) so maybe I will prepare a letter for them. School 3 is a bot too far away from us (1.2m) and is only 2 form entry and one form is confirmed as being full with siblings (will probably be same with others too). So we are likely to get either the failing school that noone wants which is also 0.8m away or a.n other random one not in our town.

So what is my plan of action:
deliver letters saying keep him on waiting list to each school on Saturday
start the appeals process - I realise this is very unlikely to succeed. My only hope is going for a technicality as they sent me a confirmation letter after I first applied with naming the crap school as the one as my first choice preference.

Anything else I can do? Not much more info on their website.

For appeals - baffledmum did you go it alone or can you hire someone that knows what they are doing?

It's hard isn't it, I've put 6 schools on my list. my choice is oversubscribed community school which is 0.4 km away. 2nd choice is church school with 'good' ofsted and is literally next door to me.
3rd is church school 0.9 km.
futhest which is choice 6 is 1.6km.

There is another school which is 0.1km from me but it isn't a good school. I'm worried dd will get put there!

Surely you will get one of the 6 or there really is something wrong with the system! we can only put 3. it's crap!

Hi Xfabba

Just in case you take a peep at this link again....

I did the prep on my own and built a strong case around failure to follow due process. It's no good putting in the literature that they "reserve the right to check addresses" if when push comes to shove the LEA doesn't bother. The LEA initially held out that they hadn't checked and that therefore everyone had been treated equally but I countered that in not checking they had been unfair to everyone. I could prove that I lived in the catchment and I expected them to prove that the other children ahead of my child were also legitimate.

FYI - there is no hort time limit at the moment in identifying a fraudulent application. So, even though your child might start school and you discover 2 years down the line that someone cheated, you can notify the LEA and ask for them to investigate.

thanks bm - that is really useful as i have just got our appeal forms as, sure enough, got none of our three and got allocated a failing school in an area out of our community that we cannot walk or cycle to as the only access road from our house is an unlit, unpaved road where 4 people have been killed this year.

Anyway, am going to appeal as we too have a few technical issues with the way the distance was measured etc. Do you think it is doable on your own - I am worried I will fold on the day so am thinkng of using the schools appeals guy recomended on MN a lot.

Thanks for the info.