My son has no school ... Please help me... Appeal

[eire90]

We applied to finchley catholic and St. James and cardinal vaughan and my son was not accepted in to any of them even though he meets all criteria for CVMS he has been ranked 41 and I do not know how they have put him so far on the list ... we didn't get in the other 2 schools due to distance ... I need all the help to appeal these schools pleas e help me my son is devastated HELP HELP..........

Weren't you offered any alternative school?

did you put your nearest community (not religious) school at all? have you not been offered a place anywhere?

if you really haven't been offered a place anywhere then contact the local authority and ask what they plan to do to find a place for your child- they are obliged to do so. when you are offered a place, accept that and go on the waiting list for any other schools that you would accept as a better fit for your child.

if the school allocated is above a certain distance then you should be provided with free transport.

good luck and keep us posted.

CVMS admissions are complex and rigorous; which category do you think your son should have fallen into? Check he was assessed correctly, and also check you provided all the necessary proof.

CVMS is always very oversubscribed and didn't take any boys from after category B3 last year.

The LEA have to give your son a place somewhere, but it won't necessarily be in a school of your choice and you can't insist on a catholic school.

I can see that this is very upsetting for your DS, but lots can happen over the next few months - tell your DS that thousands of children who happily go to school in September did not know where they were going at this point.

Did you only put down 3 schools? I thought you could list 6 preferences in London? Do you not have any schools closer that you would have stood a good chance of getting into?

How far away are you from the Finchley and St James' schools? What was the distance admitted last year? You might get a place on the waiting list.

1. Make sure you are on the waiting lists for all the schools you applied to
2. Check that CVMS did have all the right material and evidence and considered your application under the correct category
3. Look at other schools locally, ones that you might get into on distance and get on the waiting list. At this stage, or shortly after the first round of allocations, you can go on as many waiting lists as you like and for schools you didn't apply to. Waiting lists are held in order of how you met the criteria so if you are close to a community school you will go to near the top of the list.
4. Consider any grounds for appeal to your preferred schools - special factors that mean the school is particularly suited to your DS and he will lose out if he goes elsewhere. Factors that will not count, or not count much are religion, academic prestige of the school. Factors that might count are if the school has good facilities or capacity to meet any special interest or talent your DS has - e.g music, sport, science - and these can be best supported at this school.
5. If the LA offer you a place, any place, accept it. They are only obliged to find you a school place, not the school place of your dreams. Accepting the place will not in any way disadvantage any of the above tactics, (you can still wait and appeal for other places - the fact that you have an accepted offer will not influence the outcome at all) whereas if you turn down an offered place the LA has no further obligation to you.

Good luck - and don't despair - waiting lists move a lot over the summer, right up until the first week of term.