does anyone know if people do get places in their preferred school in the end anxious mum!!!!

[Col12345]

hi. my son didnt get any of our preferred schools.... i am frantic with worry. can anyone offer any kind of reassurance that we may get a place on a waiting list or is this a needle in a haystack? and do we still accept the place even though we dont want it?

I think the advice is to accept the place - if you refuse it the LEA have already fulfilled their legal obligations in allocating a school, and are not required to find you another place if you do not get one on the waiting lists of your preferred schools.

As to whether you will get in on the wait list, that really depends on where you are on the wait list, and what sort of movement there is in your area - some areas have very little movement, others have lots of spaces freed up as people choose to go private.

And there is always a chance of you successfully appealing to get a preferred school, depending on your case.

People do get places on waiting lists, but there is no way of knowing if your son will or how long it will take.

I heard yesterday of someone getting their preferred secondary school in the middle of year 8 and they are going to move, because they aren't really happy with the school she was going to.

I know someone else, who got into a highly regarded grammar school during the May half-term. Others get a place during the Summer holidays.

Yes, you should accept the place you have been offered. Accepting it doesn't affect your place on waiting lists, but at least you have somewhere for him to go. In London you automatically go on the waiting list for higher preference schools. You'll need to check what happens where you are.

Do you know where you are on the waitlists?

The advice is always to accept the place offered, as you could end up with no school otherwise. And rejecting the place will not move you up the waitlist at all.

See if you can find one of the other threads about this - there will be some really useful information for you.

Are you in London?

Well obviously not everyone does, or can, get the school that they want or else some schools would end up with 1,500 kids in Yr 7. Which is why it is a good idea to have a 'fall back' position if the majority of your top choices are highly popular oversubscribed schools and you aren't at the very top of the admissions criteria.

It sounds as if you do have a good option open to you, and if a waiting list miracle occurs, so much the better!

Oops, really sorry OP, I got mixed up half way through my post with the person who applied to oversubscribed Catholic, CoE and 'league table' schools all over London.

If you love quite close to your nearest community school, there is usually a lot of movement over the summer. I know people who got in having been 20th on a waiting list, though not until Sepember.

Did you apply to your nearest school?

Get on the waiting lists for all schools you would be interested in.

Waiting lists are held in order of admission criteria so if you are on a list for a popular school miles away or a local faith school for which you do not qualify on faith grounds your chances remain slim .

Good luck! For a nearby community school, lots get in. The first round of new offers will be after the Mar 16th acceptance date, when they re-allocate all the refused places .

Col12345, We were in similar situation a few years ago. We accepted the place offered by the LA (at a satisfactory school we didn't apply for) but had our DS's name on TWO waiting lists of schools we had listed as preference in our original application. Five months later we got the school place DS really wanted.
Best not to panic yet and wait (+ add your child's name to a waiting list at a school you really want for your child) as some parents will decide to decline the place offered on Offer Day & accept an independent or faith school place; therefore, further school places will be released & allocated to people on waiting lists. Good luck.