Choosing a school when all are "unacceptable"

[askeptical1]

OFSTED recently blitzed our area with every secondary school being inspected last month (most think its part of a political conspiracy) but the main problem is that all 11 secondary schools are now rated grade 4 - unsatisfactory.
Our main problem now is what do we do?
As we live quite rural and the schools all within a 20 mile radius of the house we really have no options about going further afield.
Would like some advice please as to whether we just put our ds1 into one of the failing schools or do something dramatic like going private (something we have never considered).
Does anyone have any experience of sending their dc to unsatisfactory schools?

I suggest calling your LA. we decided to change options for DDs application, and they agreed to remove the school we no longer wanted before 1 March, which effectively put us in a position to be offered one we wanted on offer day. But other LAs may be different.

Thanks Classicsgirl. Will do this tomorrow. Out of interest, did you get the school of your choice going down this route?

Thank you tiggytape

We rang the LA and they've removed the schools we don't want from our application. Its an undersubscribed school so we don't have to worry about needing a second and third choice. In the last 5 years anyone who applied as their first choice has got it and they still have places to spare.
They are sending us a letter saying that our application was a change and not a late application so will not be treated as a late application.
Hopefully everything is going in the right direction now.

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone.
Couldn't have done the right thing without all the advice.

Really glad you got it sorted and hope your DS likes his new school.

We have just been brought out of SM, so hopefully a bit more teaching and a bit less paperwork can occur.