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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

We didn't get any of our primary choices...

40 replies

Pinchypants · 01/03/2010 10:20

I can't be the only parent in this position this morning - heard on Saturday that Surrey CC have offered DD a place at a primary school that wasn't any of our 3 choices. It's technically our nearest school but because of lots of stuff like it not feeling right when we went round, not warming to the head, huge focus on special needs, behavioural difficulties and poor language skills, bad reputation, well below average maths and English results and dodgy Ofsted, I abandoned my liberal pre-child pontificating about going to one's local school in favour of panicking about precious DD like some Boden-wearing Surrey yummy mummy mumsnetter or something.

I know we don't have any grounds for appeal and we're on the waiting list for all three, so you never know.

Anyone else out there not got one of their choices? Anyone got in to a primary they liked better than the offer on a waiting list? Anyone reassure me that DD will be fine wherever she goes? She's already so excited about going to school this Sept as they are starting to step up letter and number work at pre-school, and I certainly don't want to take the edge off her exciting new adventure with any negative vibes from the grown-ups. Ta!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Rebeccaj · 01/03/2010 10:49

We missed the admissions round in Surrey because we moved too late last year, and DD only got her place at the school of our first choice (and walkable from our house) a month into term. She did one month at another school first then transferred when she got a place at our preferred school. There is a lot of movement between allocation and starting school, so don't despair - do you know where you are on the waiting lists?

Original poster

Pinchypants · 01/03/2010 10:53

Thanks Rebecca! No, not sure where we are on the waiting lists - will phone council and try and find out. I expect things will shift a bit after all the acceptances are in on March 16 anyway.

OP posts:

PrettyCandles · 01/03/2010 10:56

Ds1 got turned down for the only school in our catchemtn area, which was also our prefered school, and for 2 more of the 4 schools to which had applied. The one he was offered a place in was the furthest away from us and had the worst reputation. Before the end of the summer holidays he had been offered a place in all 3, and ended up going to our prefered school.

But stressful waiting.

We didn't tell hime anything about which school he was going to, just that it would be one of several and we would know nearer the time.

I knew someone in a similar situation in another borough, who had a phone call on the morning of the first day of term, and that day her child went to the school they had originally wanted, dressed in the uniform of the only other school that had offered them a place!

helencw77 · 01/03/2010 11:34

Hello, I had this problem last year with ds and didn't get any of our choices, two of them were about 0.5 miles away, 1 was a bit further - our neighbours had got into our first choice school the previous year. I waited for ages for the waiting lists, then found out that ds was 21st on our first school list (!!!), there were hundreds of siblings, it was a total nightmare.

In fact I heard on the "grapevine", that an infant school about 5 miles (15 minute drive) was undersubscribed and had 5 places, and we ended up having to write to Surrey CC and request that we swap a choice on our list for this school, which we were obviously subsequently offered a place at. The school is small, but has a good Ofsted and we are happy with it. Location wise it is not ideal, but not a total nightmare, and we have now applied for (and been offered) and been offered a place of dd in September. I'm not sure what we will do at 7, it does link to a Junior school along with another school but am not sure as it is further still, and not such a good reputation, I suspect that is why the infant school is undersubscribed.

So, I would suggest waiting, finding out where you are on the waiting list, but keeping your eyes open for any good, undersubscribed schools that you might be able to swap for - they do exist !!

For information ds' school is in Guildford, although we live about 5 miles outside.

Original poster

Pinchypants · 01/03/2010 11:35

Gosh PrettyCandles - that's what I call last minute! Waiting lists not available until mid-April because things will twizzle around so much before then anyway, so we shall see.

A friend suggested I 'pull the home ed card' because apparently the council hate that, but a) that's not very authentic because I run a business and I do actually want my children to go to school and b) just had a chat with guy at admissions office and he was quite matter of fact about us needing to tell them if we decide to reject offer and go private (not an option) or home ed.

In the meantime I am also not mentioning anything to DD about where she will go to school, until we know for sure.

OP posts:

NewLeaseofLife · 01/03/2010 11:46

Just checked local council web site and found this!? Am I reading this right? DOes this mean that I wont find out until May??? Is this normal?

School Admissions - Question detail

Question: When do I find out what primary school I have been offered for my child?

Answer: Letters will be posted to parents by first class post on 26 April 2010.

Original poster

Pinchypants · 01/03/2010 11:55

Hi NewLeaseofLife,
Sounds a little late but each council is different, some sort this out earlier, others later. I think Surrey time it so they are dealing with primary and secondary admissions at the same time (today is secondary letter day, I think). So you'll find out on 27 April where you've been offered a place.

We could check online from 7am on the day after the letters were posted (our post doesn't arrive until lunchtime so at least we were put out of our misery early). Good luck!

OP posts:

NewLeaseofLife · 01/03/2010 11:59

Hi Pinchy,
Thanks for that. I think I will just call and check its not a miss print or something, you can never be too sure with my council.

Good luck to everyone that will hear today.

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 01/03/2010 13:19

Our letters get sent out this Friday (5t March). AFAIK they don't have anything on their website

I hope Royal Mail are up to speed atm as I'd love to get the letter on Saturday and not be waiting all weekend!

Rollergirl1 · 01/03/2010 13:22

Pinchypants: Sorry to hear you didn't get any of your 3 choices. What a nightmare! I have heard of this happening a lot and was really nervous about this as our closest school is dreadful and was not one of our choices. Luckily we got our first choice for DD (is a faith school) and I have spoken to 3 other mums from my ante-natal that also got their 1st choices too.

But as others have said it may well work out allright with people moving out of the area or going private and not taking up school places.

Hope it works out for you.

ninamag · 01/03/2010 13:29

I was in the same position this time last year. I drove myself insane with waiting lists and even got her a place at a private school. She was 28th at our first choice, 25th on the 2nd and 18th on our 3rd. On the day before the term started she got offered all three. They added an extra class in all three. We whistled away the first terms fees and it was possibly the most stressful time of my life. In between March and September I had so many arguements with the council and was offered no alternatives. It was hell. All I can say with hindsight is keep calm and keep telling yourself that it will work ok in the end.

allaboutme · 01/03/2010 13:38

New lease of life - my council dont send out school results to the parents until late April either - we are in Suffolk.
Think they all do it at diferent times as said above.
I am dying to find out!

MrsJohnDeere · 01/03/2010 13:39

newleaseoflife - 29th of April here (Herts)

NewLeaseofLife · 01/03/2010 16:05

Glad its not just me then! Sorry for any bad news people have had.

Sunshinemummy · 01/03/2010 16:22

19th of March here in Wandsworth. Am very nervous...

1Littleboy1Bigboy · 02/03/2010 17:01

think northampton is end march? anyone know for sure

Cosette · 02/03/2010 17:24

The situation in Surrey is exacerbated this year by fewer people going private. As there's quite a high proportion that do go private (22% at secondary level I think I read somewhere recently, and a bit less at primary), it only takes a small % change to cause problems in the state system with places.

Also again because there are a relatively high proportion that go private, some hedge their bets by requesting state places in case they need them, and then decline them when offered and they are sure they can go private. This always seems to result in places being freed up as you get closer to term, and I know of at least 2 children who have changed schools in the first week of term as places became available.

Your best bet is to keep on the waiting lists of your preferred schools, and regularly check where you are..

good luck!

Itsjustafleshwound · 02/03/2010 17:39

We live in Surrey and my DD didn't get her 1st choice of school, and were offered a place at a school further away.

As others have said, the schools are awaiting the results of whether or not the place offered is going to be taken up and then compile the waiting lists.

We were offered our 1st choice in the end, but we felt the 2nd choice was better ...

It is not a good feeling at all and I think with the pinch on, school placings at the good schools are high in demand.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you ...

londonone · 02/03/2010 17:42

which school was it that you were offered?

sarah293 · 02/03/2010 17:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Hippygirl · 02/03/2010 18:54

We were late applying due to moving house and have been told by Surrey we have to wait for all appeals to be heard first. We have not been given a place at any 3 of our schools. DH commutes so we only have one car which I use as I start work at 7:30am. All 3 of our choices were the nearest schools to us. Not sure what we will do if nothing becomes available. Good to hear other people have been in this situation with a happy outcome in the end though :-)

admission · 02/03/2010 23:45

Hippygirl,
You are potentially being given wrong information. As a late applicant you will not be in the initial round of placements. However after this you should be treated the same as everybody else and if places become available they should be filled in admission criteria order, inlcuding your applications. This is not dependant on the appeals to the independant appeal panel being carried out first.
It is possible that Surrey have an initial internal appeal process so that they can right any obvious wrongs that have happened in the placements. However it does not say anything about such a system on the website, so it is more likely that you have been given poor information.
I would check with the Local Authority that you are on the waiting lists for all three schools, what your position is on the waiting lists (if they will tell you) and that you appeal all three schools.

Hippygirl · 03/03/2010 17:55

Thanks Admission. They did say we are on the waiting list for all three but until all on time applications have been returned they can't tell us where we are on the list. Is this right? Last year our nearest school (0.2miles) had 197 applications for only 60 places. They have told me we will know by mid April but the waiting is terrible. I'm wishing we hadn't moved.

helencw77 · 03/03/2010 20:45

Hi, we had to wait six weeks last year to find out where we were on the waiting list. As people decline places, allocations to the next in line will be done and by the middle of April they will be able to tell you if you've got in during this period, or failing that, where you are on the list. If you are a late applicant who lives really close to one of your choices then you stand a good chance and may not even have to sit on a waiting list for weeks. We waited, and then found out we were 21st, but as I said, by then we had found an undersubscribed school we liked.

herbgarden · 03/03/2010 21:14

We're waiting here too.

We straddle two counties so are able to apply to both of them. They send out results a month apart. Our nearest school is one the one we find out about in about 4 weeks time.

My biggest nightmare is that if we don't find out about our preferred school in the first round then I also can't sort out my after school care and if we're waiting until August September time then what do I do about organising childcare ?? Our preferred school doesn't have an after school club either and even if it did it would probably be full by then....I'm finding it really stressful already. I've looked into private too - they have places and after school care......at a cost .......

I'd also like to be able to start to tell DS where he's going and get him excited about it. We know a lot of children who would potentially go to our catchment school so it would be nice for him to be able to talk to them about it...it's quite unsettling for them too.

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