Is it worth me appealing for school place at schools with already full intake, infant classes of 30 etc?

[littleducks]

I had applied for three school, didnt get offered a place at any..not a huge surprise am going on waiting list.

As i Except i havent i have been offered a place at a school 2 miles away (a very poor school) when there are still places available at a poor school very close to me (in fact closer than school i applied for). So if i had been allocated my nearest school with places it should have been the close school 'E'

I was going to appeal pointing out there must have been a mistake in allocations as i have been given such a far away school.

But am worried about the stress of it all if they turn around and say that the schools are full.

There are schools with vacancies that are marginally better than the one i have been offered, but if i want a place at these i have to apply again and will loose the right to be on the waiting list of my 3 'preferred schools'

What on earth do i do?

should read:

I had applied for three school, didnt get offered a place at any..not a huge surprise am going on waiting list.

As i wasnt allocated a preferred school, i should then have been offered the nearest school wioth vacancies after all preferences had been considered.

Except i havent, i have been offered a place at a school 2 miles away (a very poor school) when there are still places available at a poor school very close to me (in fact closer than school i applied for). So if i had been allocated my nearest school with places it should have been the close school 'E'

I was going to appeal pointing out there must have been a mistake in allocations as i have been given such a far away school.

But am worried about the stress of it all if they turn around and say that the schools are full.

There are schools with vacancies that are marginally better than the one i have been offered, but if i want a place at these i have to apply again and will loose the right to be on the waiting list of my 3 'preferred schools'

What on earth do i do?

Hmmm. it's tricky, because if you would rather have the place at the closer school with places, you could just have it, couldn't you?

If you are not in the cathment, don't have anohter child at the school, etc, there isn't much point apealing...just hole tight on the waiting list...places do come up.

But then again, what do you have to lose by apealing?

I could have a place at the school with places, but then loose out on being on the waiting lists of the schools i wanted.

I was just wondering if they had made a mistake with my distance when allocating a school if they could have with others....they wont tell me anything about the actual allocation though, how distance was calculated or anything.

Are you sure that you lose the place on hte waiting list if you apply for another school? You definitely wouldn't in our area. I would check that out. You should be able to be on waiting list and apply to new one.

Thats the info the admission team told me, i am only allowed three preferences, and can only go on waiting list for a school that you 'prefered' more than you allocated one, so i would need to change one o0f my prefered schools to the school with places

Can you ask them if you can gave a place at the poor school which is nearer to you and still stay on the waiting lists for your preferred schools? Personally I'm not sure that an appeal is worth it if it is simply a case of the Preferred school being oversubscribed. But it is definitely worth finding out why they have offered you a place at the school which is further away when there are still spaces at the nearer one (it's not a faith school is it?). Perhaps they have made a mistake..

They have made a mistake, they think school 2 miles is closer to me than school less than half a mile from me

Neither are faith schools

If i get a place at a school i have named, i can only go on two waiting lists. That is non negotiable, i have asked.

Is it worth doing that then - changing one if your preferred schools (say the one that you are least likely to get a place at) to the "poor" school near you that has places?

The advice you've been given by the admissions people sounds wrong to me. I can't see anything in the school admissions code 2010 to suggest that there are any limits on how many waiting lists you can go on (see para 3.19). In our LEA - and I thought this was universal - you can go on as many waiting lists as you choose, even for schools you didn't originally apply for. Making a fresh application for the schools with vacancies would not affect that.

You could contact the Advisory Centre for Education for advice on tactics and options here. If (as I suspect) the advice you've been given is not right, you could then ask the LEA under what part of admissions code these requirements are being imposed.

I'll go further than TrowelAndError - the advice you've been given by the admissions people is wrong. You are entitled to apply for admission to any school at any time. You are entitled to go on the waiting list for any school at any time. You can take up a place at the poor school nearer you and still be on the waiting list for your preferred schools. If they try to take you off the waiting lists, insist that you stay on the lists. If necessary lodge a formal complaint and threaten to take them to the Local Government Ombudsman. I would also ask them why you haven't already been allocated a place at the nearest school with places.

Regarding appealing, you have nothing to lose by lodging an appeal. From what you say it would be an infant class size appeal so your chances of success would be poor. The fact that the LA haven't allocated you to the nearest school with places is odd but doesn't really help - you need to show that a mistake has been made and, but for that mistake, you would have got a place at the school for which you are appealing. It may still be worth appealing even if you can't show that kind of mistake - appeal panels have been known to admit a child when, on the evidence, they shouldn't.

I agree, you are being given bad advice by the LA. You should formaly complain in writing to the Admissions Manager that the advice you are getting is incorrect and is materially affecting you chances of getting a school place that is acceptable to you. You should mention that you want a written reply within 7 days about this or you will complain to the LGO. Do not be fobbed of with a phone call, make them put it in writing.

In the same letter I would formally ask for confirmation that you are on the waiting list for your three preferred schools and that you wish to appeal for all three schools. As PRH says you probably only have a very slim chance of winning at appeal, but there is no harm in pushing as hard as possible now. Maybe the LA have made mistakes and a strongly worded letter may just make them think positively about your situation.

As far as getting a place at a school, I would always favour the local one, so formally ask for a place at that school, given that you are aware that there are places. The LA cannot refuse you the place if the school is not full in that year group.

Do not feel that this is too much, that it is stressing you out etc, it is your right and more especially your child's right to expect a reasonable service of your LA. They can't necessarily magic up a place at one of your preferred schools but they can do their job correctly as a minimum.