Senior school admissions

[Ladyflip]

My DS has been offered his second choice school which we expected, but has said that he would still like us to try and get him into his first choice. I have no idea where to start. The letter that accompanied the offer from the LEA wasn't any help. Do I accept the place from the offered school (as it isn't terrible and if we do fail at getting him into his preferred place it would be acceptable) whilst pursuing the first choice? Or do we have to turn it down to pursue the first option? Help?!

Hi - one of the experts will be along shortly no doubt but I think the general advice would be

• accept place offered (if you refuse the LA no longer has a duty to you) *confirm in your own mind there were no errors with your application - i.e. you weren't placed in the wrong category, or your address/distance is incorrect.
• ask to go on the waiting list for the first choice school (and find out where you are on the waiting list) and indeed any other wait lists you want to join *find out about appeal process and deadlines and remember in making an appeal you are making the case for why the detriment to your child not going to his preferred school would be greater than for the school to admit him - so concentrate on what the preferred school offers that best meets his skills - a particular language or musical proficiency for example rather than running down his allocated school (which to be fair you do say the allocated school would be acceptable.)

But hopefully one of the experts will be along to help more effectively!

Myrtle’s right. You need to accept the offered place, to be sure your child has somewhere to go in September (unless you intend to go private or home-educate). To stand any chance of winning an appeal, you need to pinpoint things about the preferred school that make it the best fit for your child - the fact that he wants to go there isn’t, on its own, enough. There are several threads at the moment which will tell you what the appeal panel will be looking for, assuming there’s been no mistake on the LEA’s part - curriculum provision, extra-curriculum activities, pastoral care, adaptations for pupils with disabilities and so on.

Agree with the previous posters.

Personally, I would recommend accepting the offered place even if you intend to go private or home educate. Appeal panels occasionally come across parents who try to blackmail them into giving the preferred school by rejecting all other offers. They don't like parents like that. You don't want the panel to think you are one of those parents.

Our letter says you can decline and we will hold your child on the list. Just let them know when you get another school. They also say to let them know because it is an oversubscribed school and they need to offer the place to someone else. Bit confusing.
So we will accept and see how the appeal goes. I am in virtually the same position as OP.

Very true, prh!