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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Getting a place at a secondary school

16 replies

slakin01 · 04/06/2018 12:25

hi there - I am new to mumsnet but thought I would put it out there.
I applied for 5 schools and didn't get any of my preferences in the Hammersmith & Fulham borough. I turned down the school offered to me as it would not have suited my sons needs. Fulham Boys was my first preference and my local school and I have since found out that my son is the only child who didn't get offered a place from his school (who applied) and that has made things twice as bad as the kids at school talk about it all the time. He is feeling increasingly stressed and I fear this had an effect on his SATS too. I am trying to keep a calm persona and tell him not to worry and that I will get him in, but as time goes by this is looking less likely. I feel pretty upset as we have lived in the same flat for over 20 years and never thought it would come to the point where we think we may have to leave.

If anyone has any advise, other than writing to my MP, contacting the council and the school on a weekly basis, then please let me know as I am fast running out of ideas and have explored most angles. I would not consider any of the other schools that were not one of my 5 preferences and have explored this at great depth already. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

OP posts:
RedSkyAtNight · 04/06/2018 13:40

I presume you are appealing/have appealed for all 5 schools? (There are various posters on here that can give appeal advice, if you can provide more details).
When making your appeal case, you need to include the reasons why that school is the specific one that to support his needs? Does he have an EHCP? Do you have (e.g.) a doctor's note to support this?

Finally, are you aware that in turning down the place you were offered, the council is not obliged to offer you another one? What is your "Plan B" if you can't get in any of the schools you deem suitable?

PatriciaHolm · 04/06/2018 14:25

In reality, if you are on the waiting list, then your only other option is to appeal. Have you done so?

AlexanderHamilton · 04/06/2018 14:34

I understand your problem. I was adamant my son wasn;t going to our local catchment school but when he was turned down for a different school I was able to send him to a private school for a couple of years then, when it became obviosu they were unwilling to meet his needs I was able to send him to a different school aged 13 in an adjoining area with the middle school system.

Writing to your MP will not help. Schools allocate places according to published criteria. Everyone wants the "best schools". If your son has particular health or social reasons (SEN) to need one school over another you need to go down that route but if its anything like my area you need to be virtually non functioning to get an EHCP these days.

Your only viable alternatives are:

  1. Stay on waiting lists and hope a place comes up
  2. Appeal on the grounds that it would be unreasonable to refuse your son a place and the reasons over-ride the school going over capacity.
  3. Be in the position to be able to pay for private education
  4. Home educate.

I'm sorry I can't be more positive than that. incidentally the school ds was turnd down for did offer him a place in the October half term so sometimes it depends on how long you ar prepared to wait.

Original poster
slakin01 · 04/06/2018 14:47

Thank you. This has been really helpful.

OP posts:
Growingboys · 04/06/2018 17:43

I would also advise staying in very close touch with the school. If I were you I would write a personal letter to both the head and the registrar and deliver them in person. I would set out what your son and family would bring to the school (if he's clever/good at sport, say so), and why you so desperately want FBS.

I would bother them both every single week without fail.

You would be amazed what you can achieve this way. I know so many stories of people in your borough who have done this.

Good luck, and remember it's a transient area so there will be many people who have places now who will drop out before September for various reasons.

Hang on in there.

TeenTimesTwo · 04/06/2018 18:34

I don't see how that would help Growing ? For state schools, if there is a space they have to admit from the top of the waiting list. If there isn't a space then it is up to the appeals panel to decide how many extra, and who, will be admitted. They aren't allowed to 'magic' a space just because they think the child will be an asset.

Thehogfather · 04/06/2018 18:40

That's a myth growing. If anyone got offered a place after doing so it was pure coincidence. There are a million and one similar stories about people who managed to

Littletreefrog · 04/06/2018 18:41

Growing that sounds like a sure fire way to piss people off and achieve nothing.

Thehogfather · 04/06/2018 18:42

Pressed post too soon.

Managed to dodge admissions rules and none of them are true.

EduCated · 04/06/2018 18:44

If it is a state school, please don’t hassle them with weekly calls and personal letters. It cannot and will not help, as Teen says.

There are other posters more knowledgable than me, but the local authority is only obliged to make you one offer. As you’ve turned that down, in theory they don’t actually have to make you another, as I understand it.

They aren’t going to be able to magically create places. You will either have to hope that you get in from the waiting list, or appeal. Do you know what position you are on the waiting list?

DontThinkTwice1 · 04/06/2018 18:45

Teen from what I believe, being at the front of a waiting list doesn't mean you're next, at least in some areas it doesn't. It works on how far up on the admissions criteria you are so if an adopted child joined the waiting list after someone who was applying on distance for instance, if a place come up then the adopted child would jump ahead. Might not be in all areas but mine is like that.

EduCated · 04/06/2018 18:49

DontThink You are sort of right - waiting lists aren’t first-come-first-served, but held in accordance with the admissions criteria. Therefore you can move down as well as up, and someone who joined the list after you might be in a higher position. However the list is held in that order, so any available space would always be offered to the person at the top.

PatriciaHolm · 04/06/2018 18:51

A waiting list will indeed have to be ordered using the admissions criteria, so your position on it can move - if someone who falls into a higher criteria applies, you can move down, as well as up. Whoever is on the top of the list when a place becomes available gets it.

I agree that bugging the school won't help. If you have turned down a place, then no the LA doesn't have to offer another - you need to make sure you are on all the waiting lists of schools you will accept. And appeal.

EduCated · 04/06/2018 18:56

As others have said, you do also need to plan for the very real possibility that you won’t get any of your preferred schools by September. Are you in a position to go private or home educate indefinitely?

Walkingdeadfangirl · 04/06/2018 20:15

Whoever is on the top of the list when a place becomes available gets it. That's not true either many schools have quotas on several admissions category's. So it might depend on what sort of place has been freed up, as to who on the list gets it.

TeenTimesTwo · 04/06/2018 20:30

By 'Top' I meant something like 'is due to get the place according to the admission criteria'. I kind of assumed everyone knows that it is not a 'who has been on the list longest' situation. I admit I hadn't thought about quota systems, but it is still 'top' as opposed to 'parent who is being the biggest pain to the admissions people'.

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