Secondary school places - tips for making the best of it

[HolyShet]

Allocation Day today

A few of us on the other thread didn't get the places we wanted.

DD got third preference of three (our safety net option). It just doesn't feel right for her. Lots of people happy with it, but feels too small, curriculum and world view a bit limited. And it's a faith school where we have none. We will stay on waiting lists but in the meantime need to be positive

Thought I would shout out for any good examples of where it all turned out for the best.

and ways to support DD really.

Miss Frost, please accept the place you have been given. I know several parents who didn't and ended up without a school place altogether.

My eldest is in Lower Sixth, so his secondary allocation is a long time ago. We got our 6th choice. I was devastated.
But - it was a perfectly good school. DS changed for Sixth Form (purely due to A level subject choice) and is now at an extremely sought after school, which he enjoys, but he still misses his old school.
Teaching was great, some teachers were brilliant, others not so good (just like in most schools), he made some great friends, headmaster was passionate about the school. Admittedly, there were a lot of kids from poor families, but so what. OK, DS didn't get invited to ski holidays or holiday homes, but he is very aware of the value of money.
I was terribly stressed as all other parents were very snobby about the school we got. I tried an appeal for the school we really wanted, but to no avail.
In all honesty, all our 6 choices were either good or outstanding and I wish I hadn't worried so much.
We are in London and I feel that most schools here are pretty good.
I realised, in many cases, in our old primary, secondary school places were very much seen as a status symbol. Under the guise of "I just want the best for my child". (I'm sure the parents did, but status was just as important).
Be positive and all the best

I've just got home to a letter from our Council, stating vague reasons for missing out on the first choice school and giving us two options:- accept the school we've been offered or accept the school we've been offered AND go on a waiting list - if a place at the first school comes up then we lose the place at the second school and don't get to choose. So I'm happy to give my DD a little time to think about it.

A few years ago, my DS got his 2nd choice school. One thing that really helped was having a look at his allocated school's website and finding things on it that he liked the look of, so after school clubs and just nice pics of smiling kids having fun. Definitely worth doing that, as most schools have reasonable websites these days.

My DS is in year 9 now and hugely happy - in fact he's glad he didn't get his 1st choice, so things can work out for the best. I hope they do for all of your DC.

CotswoldStrife,
Whilst it is no surprise what your LA is saying, they are actually technically wrong in saying that if a place comes up at the first preference school then you will automatically be given that place and loose the place you have at the second preference school. By law they need to offer you the place at the first preference school, you accept and then they withdraw the second preference school place. It is quite often the case that parents and pupils make a decision that the second preference school offered actually is the one they want to keep.
Some LAs do now seem to be applying their own version of the law rather than what is actually the case.

Folllowing. We got our third preference, bit gutted that we will have to fork out £££ to get the bus past our walking distance 'good' local school to go to an inadequate one several miles further out. Have accepted the place and gone on waiting lists for 1 & 2. Most of our friends got their first preference. I don't have any idea on timescales where second round places might be offered, it's unsettling for DS not to be able to know where he is going and having to be very positive about school 3 whilst inwardly groaning.

Milo I presume you have looked into school transport and whether you qualify for free provision, if your offer was several miles away?

Shattered That does sound rough. I think from the other thread you hopefully have a reasonable chance on the waiting list? Really hoping it all works out for you.

Not yet educated. There is a bus from near us, 10 min walk then school bus, but it's quite expensive. First choice would be a public bus ride which is much cheaper, second choice is our closest school which is easily walkable. There's no public transport to school three ( or not without multiple changes) so it's school bus or nothing. I'll look into it.

You qualify if you live 'more than three miles away, provided there aren't three or more suitable schools closer'. School 3 is 4.5 miles away, but I would think there are more than three closer that we were not offered places at, option 1 is 4 miles but on a bus route, option 2 is our closest school at 1 mile, there will be other schools we did not put as options between 1 and 4.5 mile radius.

Ok so mixed feelings 're today. Place accepted and all that.

Just after opinions now for waiting list purposes. How far afield us to far? How long a journey is too long?

We got second choice for DS. Actually (he's doing GCSEs now) it turned out to be a better option than the school he thought he preferred.
It took a while for him to settle but he's thriving and we are really pleased.
What are the positives of the school you have been allocated?
What extra curricular or subject options are there that are exciting?

Positives are, it's walkable or she can cycle. So no bus fares. Nothing really as far as I know 're after school stuff but that was the same everywhere really.

Not a great school but could he worse I guess.

Someone on another thread articulated my worry about the school much better than I did - "lack of an academic peer group".

On the positives

• its 2 mins from the primary, where her brother will still be so can get a lift with him
• won't have to get up early and get train
• can walk or cycle if she wants
• English and music specialism, great music dept and resources
• loads of amazing extracurricular drama
• it's not an exam sausage factory, she'll be treated like an individual, pref 1 always felt a bit conform or die
• in principle I think there is a lot to be said for going to school in your own community

She's adamant she won't go though

Thanks for clarifying that admission, really helpful. Let's hope I've interpreted their wording wrongly rather than them trying to pull a fast one

DD still thinking about the wait list, I have contacted the bus company for allocated school just in case! Need to book a place on the privately-run bus service if she goes there. There is someone else in her class who has the same school and would probably go on the bus too so that is a plus.

Why has your DD turned against this school so much? It seems to have advantages which you have now articulated. What proportion of high achievers does it actually have? Hardly any school has no high achievers! See if it does have a decent number for her to work with and be positive about that.

I think you need to work with her existing school to get over this. Her teacher may be able to help with transition and have good reports from past pupils maybe?

Your DD needs to understand that there is not an absolute choice over this and she is mature enough to understand that. Bigging up the schools she didn’t get into has to be put out of everyone’s mind. Clearly this school isn’t awful and your DD cannot stay at home. She will get to understand this. Is there nothing there that will give her cloud a silver lining?

It is interesting that the concept of “choice” and “preference” brings all this angst. We had no choice in my day. You knew where you were going and that was that. No one gave it much thought!

"Someone on another thread articulated my worry about the school much better than I did - "lack of an academic peer group". than was probably me! Is your dd a high achiever? What % of high achievers does the school have?

Oh I agree, Bubbles, I thought the same about primary - "choice" is a red herring and really divisive.

So my positives were me really playing Pollyanna. I have been nothing but positive about it to DD.

The negatives are still true.
Currently very low % of high achievers and curriculum reflects that. There are only 4 forms. The school historically was empty/hard to fill (70 in one year), the place where kids whose parents didn't even bother to apply for places got sent. Recent head has started turning this around in past 3 years. Intake skewed by 2 large catholic schools - one outstanding - and 2 local independents - all in walking distance. Friend of a friend says it's like crowd control rather than teaching working there. (former head of dept)

DD is considered v. high achieving, especially in English.

Joining the thread to get advice.
We've been offered our 3rd choice school, which wasn't a choice really but a last resort as we can't home school.

Schools in this area aren't great anyway but the school we've been offered is 2nd worst in the borough, in the bottom 12% in the country and only 17% of the kids got the equivalent of a C in English & Maths. DD is bright, but as others have said, she wouldn't have the academic peers around her.

1st choice is a school about 3 miles away (the next closest school to us.) A school bus goes past the end of our road as kids further away but in feeder schools will go there. It does better results wise (couldn't do worst really) but more importantly it offers the emotional support DD needs.

DD is very shy, low self esteem, anxious Primary school are amazing and have had her in nurture groups every afternoon for 3 terms which has improved everything massively, but she could so easily be set back. She's still very young for her age compared with the other girls in her year. I know senior schools won't give her the support she has had at primary (most primary schools don't) but she needs something.
1st choice school has lots of awards for the support she needs and spoke lots about it generally so it's obviously a strong focus of the school.
Allocated school I know from experience are terrible! I also met a very honest and lovely teacher who just kept repeating "We offer that support for children who have educational needs" even when I explained DD would most likely be in the top sets.

Allocated school is on our estate, about a 3 minute walk away. Her "friends" are either going there, or the boys school. She's only really made friends in this last year since the school have been putting in he additional support. There will be other people she'll know at the other school and a fresh start away from kids who don't know her as the quiet, shy loner could do her the world of good.

She never stood a chance of getting into 2nd choice school (best in the area) and we didn't put any others down as she couldn't have coped with catching various buses to get there.

I'm still waiting for the letter to say how we appeal. If I read it right we automatically go on waiting lists for the other 2 schools.

At the appeal what kind of information can we provide other than telling our point of view. Do they take into account information from schools? The schools agree out allocated school wouldn't be the best place for her either.

Just to add DD is being very pragmatic about it all and is okay about the allocated school, as she knows most people from her year will be there, but she'd rather go to the 1st choice school. (I had to spend a lot of time praising the local school as I knew this could happen and all her classmates would be there. She HATED it initially!)

Ds1 goes to a school 9 miles away. He got in on appeal despite the waiting list being huge. Always worth appealing

Annie I think it sounds like you have a good potential case there about the school meeting your DDs social needs (the nurture base stuff is evidence of recognised need) I would start a new thread with appeal in the title tiggy says she will look out for them and advise.

Our case for appeal is much weaker but we may still do it and just not tell DD.

I've spent too long tonight reading all the local admission and appeal arrangements.
I've even found a way to draw a radius on google maps of the furthest distance children have been allocated places.
It ends ON my house! Seriously!
I'm wondering if the person across from us who was the only other person from our primary to apply got in.

I also can't work out how according to the information people who put it down as 2nd, 3rd, or "Other" choice got in, then we didn't when it was our first choice. It doesn't seem fair.

Hopefully though all of that means we stand a chance of getting a place from the waiting list. The waiting list figures here aren't published until mid-April.

Oh, do they not do waiting lists until after appeals then? I bet you could ring them and be told where you are on it. If the cut off distance is just on your house you sound in with a great chance.