Didn't get into any of the chosen schools!!! Advice needed please! xx

[summerlulu]

Morning all,

Well, we had the news this morning that my daughter hasn't got into any of our 3 choices of infant school. All three were 10 minutes walk away but not our catchment school. We have been allocated our catchment school which is awful. The vast majority of children come from problem families from the estate it is on. We have said point blank that we are not willing to send our daughter there.

Is there any point in appealing the decision if the schools we chose are out of catchment and the reason for us wanting her to go to the other schools are that they are better schools??? Would we have a leg to stand on? Are there any better reasons I could list?

If worst comes to worst we will try and defer her until January and put her on waiting lists.

I am so devastated. My daughter is painfully shy and lacks confidence and the fact that she might have to wait until a place becomes available is worrying me as all the children would have 'buddied up' by then.

Gutted does not describe how I feel right now.

I am sorry, I did not want to leave your post unanswered.

I think that you should put her name down on the waiting lists. Friendships are very fluid in younger children, so I would not worry about this too much.

FWIW, I think that you should send your dd to the catchment school in September, and then take her out if and when a place comes up for her at a preferred school. A child with no school will not be placed higher up a waiting list than a child who is in a school. Waiting lists tend to be ranked on proximity to the school, or church attendence combined with proximity (if a faith school).

I know that you are determined not to send your dd to this school, but you will probably find that four year old children are pretty much the same, whatever their background. I certainly think that you should book an appointment to look around the school after the Easter break. Chat to the head and the reception teacher. Your child's academic chances are determined far more by her family than her school, particularly in the early years.

You will be able to find out where you are on the waiting lists soon. If you are very low, then you will need to consider moving house if you are determined to get into another school. If you are quite high, then the you may get a place for your dd. I'm not sure what your chances of appeal are. I do know that there are people here that have sent their children to schools that they have not been pleased with, and have been pleasantly surprised by the care that they received.

Summerlulu, I have just posted on the other thread about not getting allocated choice - just wanted to add that I wasn't going to appeal, but I know that even if it seems pretty futile, if I don't I'll never know what could have been.
And I understand exactly how gutted you must feel - it's crap but I have now moved on from sad, and am FWIW!!

OP I agree with good posts frommadsometimes and minthumbug.

Your view of the allocated school is not relevant for an appeal. You need to show that the chosen school is better for yr DD (eg for faith reasons, siblings at school etc - I realise these don't apply here but this is the kind of thing appeals look at).

If indeed there is a class or classes of 30 then you are less likely to get a place. Some schools tho have an intake of eg 45 or (in case of our school) 80 so we have 3 classes of 27-28 - making an extra child not such an issue (ie doesn't take numbers above 30).

Have you looked at yr catchment school? Would it be so terrible to send DD there until a place elsewhere comes up? You may find it excellent in terms of teaching and resources.

Excellent advice here already.

Disparaging the other school or the children who attend it is irrelevant to your appeal. You need to focus on why (in your view) your child should have got a place at your preferred school. If this is an infant class size appeal, the scope for a successful appeal is very limited.

There are several recent threads about appeals for places in reception. Look at those and at the admissions appeal code, which is on the DCSF website.

The best thing you can do in the short term is accept the place offered, so that you know that you have a place. I say this because it is the local school and if you do not accept it and places do not materialise at your preferred schools then you will be offered a place at a school which could equally as bad and a lot further away.

Go to the local authority and get your name on the waiting list for all three schools that you preferred and any others that you would be happy with. The LA cannot refuse you as many waiting lists as you want to.

You then need to decide what to do about appeals. Establish what the intake is for the school, if it is 15, 30, 45 then it will almost for sure be an infant class size case. It could be with other admission numbers as well, but less likely. If it is an infant class size then the only opportunity to win an appeal is if a mistake has been made. I suspect from your posts that this is not the case, as you have admitted that you have preferred schools that are not your nearest school.

If it is not an infant class size appeal, I would advise you to appeal and to then demonstrate why this particular school is appropriate - anything but "its a better school" is allowable, but you do need to understand that everybody else who is applying will be saying the same kind of things, so research carefully what the school talsk about on their website and prospectus as being important.

We had this situation ourselves. Actually, our son didn't have a place at ANY school, not even a crappy one. It may well work out in the wash. Find out about the waiting lists, talk to the admissions department about whether it's better to hold off accepting the place until later in the year - ie. is there a waiting list at crappy school? - and you know more about the schools you want.

It worked out for us in the end - they had to put bubble classes on 3 schools in the end and open a new school 2010 to accommodate the massive oversubscription.