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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

My My neighbour has told me her DS has been offered a place at a presigious free school.

18 replies

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 18/04/2016 22:12

I have to say I was chuffed to bits for both her and her son.
I mentioned this to my friend at my evening class and she asked me to repeat what I had said.
She explained that she had applied to said school for her daughter but was turned down even though she lives about 1/4 mile away.
I told her that my friends DS lives about the same distance from her.
According to my friend the criteria for admission to this "free" school ( formerly private) is not based on distance but several other factors.
I've checked this out ,as I was pondering on whether to apply for my DD.
Turns out that priority is given to orphaned children, families' of servicemen and a few other criteria's,
My neighbour does not tick any of he boxes.
I'm not put out because there are lots of great schools in the area ,but I'm questioning how her DS has been accepted.
Must add that her DC's were previously removed from another school ( primary) because it was discovered she was ling about where they lived.
I'm not going to tell on her, but I would like to know if anyone has ever come across this kind of thing before?

OP posts:

GooseberryRoolz · 18/04/2016 22:44

Yarboosucks · 19/04/2016 00:22

I suppose that it would be difficult to populate a school solely with orphans and service personnel children, so the must admit some other children. But I think that that is not what you actually want you want or are hoping to hear…

ReallyTired · 19/04/2016 00:26

400 metres is not far from the school and it maybe possible that she has applied for the school honestly and got a place. If she was punished for admissions cheating then I would be surprised if she made the same mistake more than once.

golfball · 20/04/2016 20:28

What are the "few other criteria's"? Normally the final one is distance from the school. Just because person A lives "about the same distance" away as person B doesn't mean they will both get a place - it's the exact distance that matters.

e.g. If person A lives 250m away and gets the last place, then person B who lives 250.1m away obviously won't get a place.

BertrandRussell · 21/04/2016 07:16

Interested in "prestigious" free school- I thought most of them were distinctly average.

Being an orphan does seem an odd admissions criterion. One would hope that not many children qualify?

golfball · 21/04/2016 07:41

Presumably she means "Looked after children or previously looked after children" but re-phrased it.

meditrina · 21/04/2016 07:42

OP said it was an independent school converter, so such prestige as it has may stem from that or from having rolling acres or something like that.

It is OK to give priority to children of Forces personnel under the Admissions Code (they receive pupil premium too). Orphans per se no, but bereaved children, especially if the bereavement is recent, could be a group who can apply for consideration under the exceptional social need criteria (which I think all schools should have, though not all choose to).

eddiemairswife · 21/04/2016 09:24

It sounds like a school in my LA which is converting to a free school. As part of the admission criteria it mentions children who have a parent killed on active service. If it is the same school 'orphanage' was in the original title. Also in the school I'm thinking of the funding has not been definitely finalised.

SisterMoonshine · 21/04/2016 09:28

It could be anything. A free school near us stop taking 'catchment area' children when they get to a certain percent (might be 40 or 60, can't remember) then they do a sort of lottery/raffle for out of catchment.

Bluelilies · 21/04/2016 09:57

You can look online at your LA's webpages to see who they admitted under what criteria, and up to what distance within each criteria. If your two friends live "about the same distance" it's quite possible the one that got in was slightly closer than the other one.

Jumphigherandhigher · 21/04/2016 10:21

My daughter got in one of the best schools in the area. It's a church school that admits small number from nearby church and remaining few places go to various disadvantaged categories and then distance. Everyone and their goat puts that school down as their first choice,so we did too. No one from our side of the main road has ever gotten in.
So I was shocked to see my daughter getting in. I guess many would question how this happened but no one will ever know.

Lookingagain · 21/04/2016 10:33

I think every school has to give priority to "looked after" children, so nothing special there. Unless you live near a military base there aren't likely to be many children of members of the armed forces either.

If you fancy the school have a go, you have nothing to lose.

Bluelilies · 21/04/2016 11:05

I guess many would question how this happened but no one will ever know. - you and they can find out perfectly easily how it happened by looking at the admission statistics. They will presumably show that this year they admitted X number of children under criteria Y (which is about distance to the school, not church affilication), and up to Z miles away, which is slightly over the distance to your house. These things don't have to be a mystery :)

BertrandRussell · 21/04/2016 13:35

"I guess many would question how this happened but no one will ever know."

Well, if it wasn't under the transparent published admissions criteria, then into hope people do question it......................

BertrandRussell · 21/04/2016 13:37

I do hope, not into hope.

DropYourSword · 21/04/2016 13:44

I'm not put out because there are lots of great schools in the area ,but I'm questioning how her DS has been accepted.

Whereas I'm questioning why you think this has anything to do with you. Do you really think you know every minute detail about her?

You're not going to "tell on her". How very noble. Seeing as how, for a start, you have no idea if she's actually done anything wrong

golfball · 21/04/2016 15:46

I read a report recently that said admission authorities have a lot of cases of parents wanting to know how X got into a certain school when it turns out they were " previously looked after" or have some other special circumstance. It raises privacy issues. Some parents might be wary of exercising their access rights under those clauses if it exposes their children to scrutiny from their neighbours.

We live in strange times!

Original poster

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 22/04/2016 21:20

Sorry if I have not returned to this thread.
I can assure you this child has not been looked after by anyone else but their parents. I might add that the parents in question have no " issues", the children are extremely well cared for in every respect.
I suspect that there has been a few " tweaks" in the application for said school.
I don't personally rate this school above other local schools, but neighbour thinks kudos ranks above everything else.
I do think that if she has done anything underhand she will be caught out.
At her children's previous school she was followed by a disgruntled parent who was desperate for their child to get a place at the school, and succeeded in finding out where she actually lived.

OP posts:

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