My girls are 8th and 9th on waiting list for first choice - do I still go ahead with appeal process?

[sandyballs]

Council finally told me this today after ringing for days. I'm now reasonably hopeful they'll get in but would you still go ahead with the appeal just in case?

What have you got to lose? What if someone else does an appeal, and gets a place, leaving you still on the waiting list?

Yes, especially if you have a good case.

I would say yes as I actually moved on the list but in the wrong direction!

Absolutely go to appeal. There is always movement from now through till September but you need to take every opportunity to get your child into the school of preference.
I have had cases where we have actually started the appeal and the LA representative has got a phone message to say a place has just become available do they want it - that was a happy bunny that went home from the appeal

I think I was 17th then 18th by about July - so wasn't going to be lucky anyway, SchoolsNightmare.

For the school we particularly wanted, we qualified under a lottery - so we were never going to get that either, in all likelihood.

Appeal was our only chance.

It should only happen if it is a coincidence as you say. If the LA do "find" a place they could face problems at other appeals (if, for example, your child has leapfrogged others on the waiting list) or get into trouble with the LGO.

It was absolutely because they were top of the waiting list and it was just a happy coincidence.
I remember it well because there were actually two appeals for the school and the clerk had to have a very difficult conversation with the other appellant who of course then had to go through the appeal process knowing the other appellant had just been offered this place. We ended up adjourning the hearing for 30 minutes to allow them to compose themselves as it was so distressing.

Definitely appeal now - my DD was 1st on the waiting list for our first choice primary last year. By the end of the summer she was 4th and 2 people lower down the waiting list appealed and got in over PAN. Now she is 6th but settled in our 2nd choice of school!

SchoolsNIghtmare, agree with you, it is about the strength of the case that the panel has to make the decision on.
We however also have to be careful that we did not put ourselves as a panel in the situation where an appellant can say that they were so disturbed by the situation that they were not treated fairly. In all these situations it is not what necessarily happened but how it could be perceived. Hence by having a 30 minute adjournment it meant that we had covered ourselves against any potential recriminations.
Whilst I don't believe in this case anything would have been said, I have sat on too many panels where parents have subsequently tried to twist an innocent situation into something else. That is why panels are told to ask at the end of the appeal, whether the parents have had the opportunity to say everything that they want to. That is recorded by the clerk and hopefully reduces the opportunity of parents to come back saying they were not allowed to say ....... Regrettably not all parents are totally honest when it comes to twisting situations to their advantage.

We were 5th on the list at our first choice school and never got in, despite staying on the list for the whole first year.

Schoolsnightmare, you poor thing, this must be so stressful and upsetting.

Not an expert, but the thing that struck me when reading your post is whether you are on every possible waiting list? Because if your friends are getting their 2nd choices, they will be relinquishing their sixth choice, freeing up a space there, so if you are on that list you will move up one. But maybe their sixth choice is the wrong gender or faith or something for you.

You probably also have this covered but I think you said before you live in London? We do, and in a bit of a hole for secondaries, and the advantage London gives is that within, say, an hour's travel, and considering all the different forms of transport, there are a lot of schools, perhaps including some where distance is not the main criterion. Children from near where I live routinely go to schools in the three closest boroughs and probably another four on top of that, less commonly. I know it is clutching at straws. Around here, local councillors seem to pitch in sometimes (not to make a place come free, but to make sure families in this position are given access to the people in the LA that really know what happens, that sort of thing I think).

Fingers crossed for you and your boy.

Remember that, in your example, the child who now has a place at their 2nd choice school no longer needs the place at their 6th choice so that will go to someone else. Either that will be someone who doesn't yet have a place or it will create a vacancy at another school. All movement eventually means that someone who hasn't got a place gets admitted.

There isn't much more you can do at this stage. If you still don't have a place by the time of the appeal hearing it will put you in a strong position for the appeal.

I am, however, concerned if the LA has said that "all schools are either full or filling up". The Admissions Code says they must offer a place to everyone who applies unless there are no places available. If some of the schools were not full at the time they made offers but some parents didn't get an offer they have broken the Admissions Code, although they may be able to get away with it if the vacant places are a long way from the children without places. If you don't win your appeal I would refer the case to the LGO and mention this.

I feel very, very sorry for your ds, how on earth is a little boy supposed to understand this process, and this bizarre outcome? It is terribly unfair, and I can see made even worse for him by it being just him in this position. Very very good luck to you and I hope he can maybe push it to the back of his mind over the school holiday.

(I'm sure your original six were realistic and so on - I was just asking because my understanding is that you can now go on as many waiting lists as you like, being as unrealistic as you like, and some schools have lotteries for example).

Yes you must. Otherwise successful appeals will overtake you in the list and it means that you might still not get a place.

Sorry not to answer sooner. Yes 5th on list for large secondary. Siblings got in on appeal, so the list never changed.

I did get asked at the end of year 7 if I wanted to stay on the list. Definitely appeal, because I know a sibling who was 1st on the list, so her parents didn't bother to appeal and her place was taken by other siblings lower down the list appealing.

That is the horrible thing - the children feel like failures when actually it is the adult world that has failed them. Good luck with the appeals, and I am glad you are getting the advice you need.