rejected from all 4 choices - help!

[cnaik]

Southwark council has emailed us the brilliant news that my little boy has not got into any of our schools of choice.
Have been allocated a school that is miles away where he (a very shy boy) would know no-one and it is bottom of league tables.
Feel devastated
Want to employ expert to advise and appeal - can anyone make a recommendation and/or give advice/reassurance?
thank you so much

this conversation is getting more and more cryptic! And I am sort of local (one stop further up the line from ED - so on the other side of ED from you). is "B" short for "BG"?

re the contact a mumsnetter thing, I think that if you go into "my mumsnet" (blue toolbar at top) and change your options to allow yourself to receive emails from other mumsnetters, then anyone who has paid the fee (I have) can then email you.

Let me know if you want to discuss the option of selling bodyparts - guess where DS (who, for the record, is also a very shy/reserved child) is at school? (actually, if your DS is at all interested in Star Wars or model aircraft, perhaps we should organise a meet up.....)

Ah, the joys of ED. Someone has actually written a tongue in cheek novel about the competition to get into St Anthony's - which is apparently even more difficult to do!

Thank you for posting the link but to be honest I'm not sure that I can make head nor tail of it (I'm very easily blinded by numbers!)Perhaps I should try to concentrate on one thing at a time work or mumsnet not both, I'll have another look tonight. The stats I looked out appeared to be for sat scores - maybe they were out of date.
Anyway my issue isn't quality of school - although I think we would all like a quality school for our kids - but accesibility;
tfl journey planner estimates that walking time from my house to that school is 35 mins - presumably that is at average adult walking pace. Further that I would like him to know at least one person at school - given that all my neighbours go to my first choice school - and not all of them faith places - rather thought it seemed like a good idea to go there too - what a fool!!
Will def do some homework on Ivydale - I've heard of it but dont know it - thanks for the tip.
legalalien - his father is slowly indoctrinating him into the power of the force but he's still a bit freaked by darth vader. How does your ds feel about ben10?

Are you sort of near Goose Green?

Agree with Annie to look at I and H in Nunhead. My kids are at H and it's not so bad.

ah, we only have Clone Wars. The force is still with Darth / Anakin.

We haven't seen Ben 10, but he does a good line in "four arm man" who I understand is a villain. And has an encyclopedic knowledge of Dr Who baddies...

actually, if neither you nor anniemac is doing anything on Sat 9th, we could have a lunchtime school talkfest here. DH is out of London that weekend so I am at a relatively loose end.....

I can only say I feel your pain as in exactly the same boat. I have started similar threads but I must say this has been the most positive so far.

DamonetcI have been following you post with interest. Having a positive day today - this WILL work out!
legalalien - I am going to work out this CAT thing tonight if get chance between putting kids down, apprentice, prep work for tomorrow and drafting appeal then will be in touch, keen to hear more of dcps assessment.
This weekend has some potential for me
try to avoid Ben10 - once bitten all consuming (4arms is one of the good guys btw!)

apprentice tonight? yuppie! something to take my mind off this bloody school thing.
if you've read my threads then you know that I fely exactly like you when you say 'feel like a fool for not hedging my bets with private and will now be going to the local privates on hands and knees - of course if you get into a good state school you can be smug and sniffy about private but if your only option is a sink school miles away from where you live where you are no part of the community and know no one then it's a different kettle of fish - how could I have done this to my boy?!

I'm sure we'll be allright. i had a similar weekend to your the one before. It's quite evil that you get to find out on the friday as well. It means that for two days you live inside your own head and cry all the time. Then monday comes and you get some info and practical help and it's not so bad.

shame I'm not your side of london otherwise I'd have loved a meet up drinking wine and cursing the education system.

will keep an eye on the thread then (i.e. bring the laptop into the lounge while I'm watching the Apprentice) (ponders whether use of word lounge is an indicator of legalalien's foreign, working class roots and goes to consult "Watching the English"...

four arm man being a goodie does help explain the workings of the Ben 10 watch that I purchased in a weak moment.

• oh, and if you can't work out CAT, you can email me on [email protected], an address I set up a couple of years ago for exactly this purpose. And don't usually check very often.

Multitasking.
are we allowed to go off topic?
id sack them all

oh that Ben should have gone!

Yes- tis a hard one, Annie. I don't think there is any way to objectively judge a school until you have tried it, so many people go for ones where they perceive that there are a high proportion of "people like them" as a kind of short cut and then, if it's adequate to good, the school gets an ok reputation amongst that demographic. Maybe! Anyway, I sent mine to H knowing little about it because it was 2 secs down the road and had 2 places available at the time we moved here. I stealed myself to repent at leisure but have found that the boys are fine there, which is v good. Glad you have found nice school for your daughter too. Let's hope cnaik also will be similarly lucky in due course.

Thank you everyone for your well wishes

I dont feel that I have to do so but I would like to make clear that I'm not a snob and couldnt really define what "people like me" would be. I'm not complaining that my post may be percived as this but am a bit super sensitive and emotional at the mo!

However I do want my shy little boy who has struggled with his speech and language development to go to a school where he knows someone - or failing that - where he and I can nurture friendships for him. I work full time and wouldnt be able to pick up and drop off and dont know anyone in the area or the area itself where his allocated school is. If it was 2 minutes away that would be a different story

I am all up for the thought that a determined band of parents can turn a nearby school around but that just wouldnt be feasible in my particular scenario.

I guess we know or hope we know what's best for our children I just think it's really sad that he cant go to school with his mates on his road!

Anyway I'm not having a moan and have really appreciated evryones advice and thoughts

I would have thought you have good grounds for appeal. Not on the crapness of the school you got into (don't think those sort of appeals work) but on the basis of distance and all the studying time that will be lost on the long journey to and fro school how it will affect your child's performance if they have to spend that much time out of their day travelling.

cnaik- you absolutely totally don't come across as any sort of snob. Hope I didn't give the impression that i thought so. I would be gutted in your situation- everyone should be offered a local school, imo- and I can completely see why you are very upset. Honestly. I was just speculating generally in answer to Annie's q rather than commenting on your situation specifically, I promise.

cnaik, have you spoken to the admissions office and found out whereabouts your ds is on any of the waiting lists? once places are offered, ime there can be a lot of shuffling around. dd was number 9 on the waiting list for our preferred school, and was finally offered a place in the july before starting.

I think cnaik sounds nice and should be encouraged to sell body parts and come and stand in the school queue with me