not happy with the school place given

[123mon]

hi im really upset about my daughter not been accepted to the first school that i choose for her and i really don't want send her where she has been accepted (apparentely not good school at all), does anyone know what i can do to change the decision? really worry for my daughter education and im sure sending her to that school will make it worse...

As others have said you can appeal for a place at your preferred school. To win you will either need to show that a mistake has been made or that this is the right school for your daughter. That must be based on things it offers that the allocated school does not. Ofsted ratings, league table position, local reputation and the like will not help you. Appeal panels are not allowed to consider them.

You should also make sure you are on the waiting list for your preferred school and see if there are any other schools with places. I would also recommend visiting the offered school. A school that was awful in the past will often continue to have that reputation locally for some time after it has improved.

I would recommend accepting the place that has been offered. If you reject it the LA is not under any obligation to come up with an alternative. If they do make another offer you may find it is an even worse school. Accepting the offer will not damage your chances at appeal.

Excellent comprehensive advice bridge

I logged in to County Council website at midnight and saw our allocation.
I then received an allocation email at 1:20am.
Then at about 11:00 am the post arrived with an allocation letter dated today!

yes it was my second choice, and i beleve is in the catchment area, but i spoke to all the parents and pupil that they go to that school and everyone told me that the school is rubbish. I will put my daughter in the waiting list, and see what happends

why did you put it as second choice if you don't want it?

Why is this a controversial topic?

It's a common one and generally people have sympathy, and either express horror that things have been handled so badly, or sympathy that the Op is unlikely to win at appeal.

Op, I'd stay on the waiting list, and look at other schools nearby that you'd be happy with and either apply or go on the waiting lists of those. But also go and look at the "dreadful" school because sometimes reputations are not correct. It could be the perfect one for your dd when you look at it.

Prhbridge has given you excellent advice on how to appeal. Unfortunately, you did not help yourself when applying by putting down as your first choice a school which you were not in catchment for and at which you therefore did not have a realistic chance of getting a place. If you are so unhappy with the school offered and already believed it to be a poor school, why put it as your second choice? It would have been better to choose another school which, while not your preferred, was still more acceptable to you. However, that's all by-the-by now.

There is nothing to stop you from going on the waiting list of your first choice school or any others in which you are interested. There can be a lot of movement on waiting lists so there is nothing to say that you won't end up with the place you want. DO accept the place you have been offered, turning it down will not help your chances at appeal, the LA have fulfilled their obligation to provide you with a place and are under obliged to find you another place whcih you prefer. you cna always turn it down later if you do get another place.

Where we are if you put your catchment school anywhere in your list it will be your fall back guaranteed option. We decided to put it third on our list of three.
Some friends put it first as it was their first choice school. You are recommended to include it somewhere in your choices.

You say 'apparently not good' - go and look, talk to the head and staff rather than listen to what others say. Many schools are making big changes these days - Ofsted is requiring that so information based on even 3 years ago could be out of date

This thread is useful too
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/1695774-For-those-of-you-waiting-for-places-or-unhappy-with-the-place-youve-been-given-can-I-share-my-experience-of-last-year

prh47 - can I ask you a question? You have listed some aspects that panels are not allowed to consider, are the statistics for expected progress, AV etc allowed ?
I'm asking way in advance as DS1 only Y5!
Only 1 school in catchment and we do not think it suitable. Another school 10 min walk from this one is suitable, but we are not in catchment. If you could show that a school has not been able to show acceptable/average progression for a particular sub group, and your DC was in that sub group, but the alternative school showed that adequate progression was made, could that be used?

I would have thought that was just the sort of thing you'd want to show auntevil (though am not 100% sure)

Ooh interesting tiggytape - it's all quite subtle isn't it ?
And feel like you need a PhD or insider Mumsnet knowledge to have a chance of jumping through these hoops.

So even if the statistics show that the school offered does not meet the educational targets for a specific sub group, the panel have to assume that the school is equally as good as a school thats statistics show that it provides an education where the same sub group make expected progress?
But if I can show that the preferred school runs a programme to help with this sub group that the offered school does not (hence why the results are as they are) that would be accepted as evidence by a panel?

Auntevil - I can't add much to what tiggytape has said, but things like Ofsted ratings, SATs scores and progression are not the basis for a winnable appeal.

As a rule, you would need good evidence to show that your child actually needs the specialist input too - in most cases, that would be a Statement of SEN, ie, something which 'states' what 'special educational need' your child has, that any good school could offer. {The panel has to assume all schools are equal, as Tiggy says}. So one school running a particular support group, wouldn't generally be seen as a good reason, as the LA would argue, the other school could run it too.

So can I very naively ask, for whose benefit these new progression data tables are for? I thought that it was a good indicator of which school was a good fit for your DC

I know that Tiggy - I was answering the poster whose dc is in Yr5, so they need to get the application right, rather than the appeal of the original OP .
A school having more music groups would be a reason for a parent to express a preference for that school in my LA, but wouldn't allow you to leapfrog over others who are further up than you in the published admissions criteria. My point is, that an appeal can only be won if the admission criteria hasn't been followed, not just because a parent is disappointed.