y8 application

[stressedi]

My son has started his sec school which was not our choice and we would like to apply for place in y8.

Q: When should we start applying? Do we have to wait until he is in y8 or can we start now as school is oversubscride. Any chance at appeal in y8?

We have previously failed our appeal for that school

Depends on local rules, you won't get much joy asking here coz your rules may vary.
I think I would phone the school & ask about procedure, which probably means applying thru LEA. School should be able to advise.

Around here you have to apply about 7 weeks before the end of term to start the next term, iyswim, and you apply to LEA. So I think I applied in late May for DS to start y8 in September.

Look for information regarding "in year admissions" on the school or LA website.

To start in year 8 you could join the waiting list now. As far as I know you have to fill in a common application form (similar to year 7) and the LA get back to you in a couple of weeks.

If there are no places you can opt for the waiting list and yes you can appeal. If you have already applied unsuccessfully in year 7 and appealed, I think you have to wait a year to appeal again.

I think the school or LA contact you every so often to see if you want to remain on the waiting list.

No, it doesn't depend on local rules. The rules are set nationally. You can apply through your LA for any school at any time. If there is a place available they have to offer it to you. If there are no places available you will go on the waiting list (if there is one - they don't have to operate a waiting list for Y8) and can appeal. You can only appeal once for each academic year so if you appealed for Y7 you can appeal for Y8, however your chances of success are unlikely to be much better.

Suppose OP's desired school has no waiting list, Can OP not appeal each decision but instead keep putting in fresh applications, say fortnightly? Why not?

If the rules are set nationally (I presume nationally means England not devolved areas), does every school have the same deadlines for when you have to apply by in order to enter the next term? Does every (state) school insist on new pupil entering only at the start of term if one already lives in the LEA, but allow for immediate entry if only just moved into the LEA? And does every (state) school have same admissions criteria, which can affect where one gets placed on waiting list?

I would have thought all of those assertions were false, but I stand to be corrected. Perhaps rules have changed since May or DS school+LEA lied about procedure, Lord knows they made fair chaos of him transferring otherwise.

That is helpful for future reference, here is my LEA guidance, you can see why I thought as I did. Sound like OP will have to be ready to roll up sleeves & manipulate the LEA & their rules back, if necessary, to get what she wants.

However, for instance, our LEA says that they only consider applications after each half term. Does OP have right to insist that they consider her application any quicker? How could she force them to do that?

tiggy, ph47: do you have links to the official national guidance, somewhere on a govt. website? I might be in a similar position to OP some time in future. Thx.