So where are the Surrey Mums stressing about school place allocations.....

[CarGirl]

midnight tonight we can log on and find out.......

We should have a forgone sibling place conclusion but there is always that deep fear that the processing went wrong!

as predicted none of the three the shit one nobody wants. great.

We got the first in our list!!! Yay

we got our first choice too. can hardly dare to believe it is true!!!

congratulations, glad to hear it!

xfabba that is very kind of you as your news not so good. thank you.

xfabba sorry your news is not what you wanted. Hope your appeal goes well.

thanks guys - I am genuinely glad to hear that the system does at least work sometimes. We knew this would happen tbh but it just annoys me that my beautiful bright little boy is allocated a school that he physically cannot walk or cycle to (he loves scooting) in an area that he has no links to whatsoever and would be completely separated from our community - when we live within walking distance of three school that we would have been overjoyed for him to go to. Something is not right about the system in this country.

I really don't want my children to be privately educated. the only saving grace is that the junior school that the ones we wanted feed into is a stones throw from us so we could potentially move him into there at 7 when all the other children would all be moving too.

Off to print out my pre-prepared "keep us on the waiting list" letters and then bed - got a lot of reading up on appeals to do tommorow night. Night all.

xfabba - really sorry to read your news. Don't give up hope though as some people may be holding places in state and private and go private, and others will move. A lot can change between now and September.

I am still waiting for postie but DD should get place as she is a sibling.

I will pop off the thread now as my quick check has revealed that Croydon isn't tellin g anyone for another 3 weeks. Best of luck to you all.

I'm currently in tears...

Will have to wait for that blasted letter before we can make our next move.

Sorry to but in, this system sounds terrible! DS is only 15 months but we have already decided to go indepedant at 11 years old. The system seems madness! Poor you. What a total nightmare.

We've just had our post but no letter. AArgh - anyone else in Surrey had theirs? Have we been forgotten... Help!!

our letter arrived in the post this morning

We have just had the letter and DD has a sibling place. Feeling very relieved. Hope yours will arrive on Monday hairymaclary and oatcake. (apparently the information is available online, but only if your original application was online).

We didn't get our first choice. Have now been allocated school that we will have to drive to. This is despite living so close to our first choice that we can't get out of our driveway in the morning due to the number of cars dropping off children who live within walking distance of the school we have been allocated.
Absolute madness.
I am so livid I can barely type.

That's sad for all of dd got in as expected.

I was very interested to see that now you have to take a council tax statement & birth certificate to the school office to accept the place, you didn't have to do that 2 years ago! That is good though as anyone who has tried to defraud system is more likely to get found out.

Last year my eldest did end up being offered her 1st choice secondary in the June time after having been on the waiting list, although again it was a lower birth rate year in this area.

ds1 got his sibling place

sympathy to all of you with not so good news - dd1 got into the same school from the waiting list before term started though, so there is hope for all of you xxx

We got our place too. I'm so sorry (and good luck with the decision making) for those whose DCs didn't get their place. Stupid system.

Didn't get our first choice - so upset ... going to have to bang some heads and see what transpires ...

When big housing developments go in, do any of the developers or council actually think about things like schools ???

Itsjustafleshwound - there was uproar around here about 2 years ago.

Surrey wanted to close one of the infant schools because of a surplus of places and sell the land for housing. However the birth rate was much higher in the current pre-school years, there is planning in the immediate area for 350 family homes and I think the same again in flats.

When the schools went from borough to county control all the land was convented so that it could not be sold.

Surrey laughed at all of the objections to do with the increase in demand, they had shut another infant school nearby - that was actually in the top 10 state infant schools in the country and sold the land for housing. There is now a shortage of places in that area and children are having to travel miles to other schools.

In the end Surrey made a mistake in their consultation process and only because of that did it have to go to independent adjuticator (the mistake lengthened the process which meant it went past a certain date all school closures now have to go to this independent thing). Anyway she saw through it and told them they couldn't close.

It's all about cost cutting, Surrey don't are if parents have to travel 2 or 3 miles to school - it fills up the less popular schools.

I think in Elmbridge (next area to us) there is a shortage of over 100 reception places for September!

I have been telling everyone I know to ensure that they apply for their nearest school or risk not getting a place. Of course these parents whose children are most affected were not ever consulted.....

I applied for our 3 nearest schools in order and didnt get any of them - got 4th nearest which is a failing school which will merge with ajunior school this september to bring it up. Stupid, stupid system. You are right, all they care about is trying to force people to fill up the less well regarded schools - but there is a reason they are less well regared. Makes a mockery of their parental choice bullshit.

So we got our letter which doesnt make much sense as it says sorry we had to give you this school and not one that was ranked higher up your preferences - we didnt apply for it at all. So we will decline it and therefore have o school place. What will they do then - will they offer us another one? Dont they have to ensure legally all rising 5's have a place?

They have offered you a replace therefore they have fulfilled their obligation to give you a place.

Get in touch with the other 3 schools and go on their waiting lists. You could also look further afield to see if there are other schools with places that you would be prepared to send your dc to.

Personally I think if you move whilst your dc is at school say perhaps more than half a mile further away from the school then you should lose your right to a sibling place. I strongly believe in places for local children so more people can walk to school easily.

They have offered you a replace therefore they have fulfilled their obligation to give you a place.

Get in touch with the other 3 schools and go on their waiting lists. You could also look further afield to see if there are other schools with places that you would be prepared to send your dc to.

Personally I think if you move whilst your dc is at school say perhaps more than half a mile further away from the school then you should lose your right to a sibling place. I strongly believe in places for local children so more people can walk to school easily.