Made a stupid mistake

[Adizzy]

I made a stupid mistake and put a school I didnt on want on my preferred choices.

I’m such an idiot. I’ve been upset all night over it.
I tried calling admissions to remove it after I spotted but it was after the deadline and the lady said it would be treated as a late application.
I thought it would be better to let it go through and hopefully I would get in my other choices.
We didn’t get our other choices.
Now we have been offered the school I put down as a mistake. It’s a school that’s not got a good reputation and even his teacher told me not to apply for that school. He is the only one in his clas going to the school.

I feel gutted and I’ve let my son down. He’s upset.
How can I have made such a stupid mistake? I just feel I’ve made such a mess.
I’m going to have to go through the waiting list process. I can’t appeal as I put it as my preferred choice.
I’m just so upset and beating myself up about it and feel ashamed to even admit to anyone what I did. I wasn’t paying attention and paid the price for it.

Where was this school on your list? You can appeal for your preferred schools at which your son didn’t get a place.

You can appeal for the other schools you’d prefer.

You appeal FOR the school you want.
NOT against the school you don’t want.

Sorry, are you saying you put a school you really didnt want in your no. 1 slot? Just how?

So you put a school you didn't want as first choice by mistake? How??

Sorry, I listed 3 schools. The 3rd school is the one I didn't want which I put down.

They have offered me that school. I made a mistake by putting a school I didn't want as my 3rd choice. I wanted my first or second choice I'd of been happy with.

You can ask if there are any spaces at other schools which may yet be preferable to 3. Meanwhile go on waiting lists for other 2. Even had you left 3 off it may have been the one offered if 1 and 2 were filled ahead of your ds and it was nearest alternative.

My brother said I should of only put 2 choices down and not put that school down at all. But I'm thinking now does that make a difference as the other 2 schools i put in my choices are popular schools (outstanding)
and most likely oversubscribed.

The awful school is closest to us. So even if I didn't put it down would I have still been like to have been offered it?

Let's say if I put another school in it's place, again will I still have been offered it?

I just feel I've made a mistake by including it in my choices....

I just feel I've made a mistake by including it in my choices....

Well you have. I can't see why you would do this. You mention your choices a lot in your posts, did your DC not have any input here?

It would have made no difference to you gaining a place at your first or second choice school, by putting a school you didn’t want as your third choice. In fact, if you had not put it down, as you didn’t qualify for for your first and second choice, you could have been allocated a worse school much further away or your third choice anyway. Your focus needs to be why you didn’t qualify for your first two choices and to double check you have been placed on their waiting lists. As I said, by placing that school third, it would have had no impact whatsoever on why you were not offered your higher ranking schools.

Depends whether he would have faced the same situation as 1 and 2 at another choice.

From what you say there is a very good chance that you would have been offered it anyway, unless your son would have scored highly enough to get into a different third choice school elsewhere. Putting it third certainly didnt effect your ds' chances if getting into your first or second choice school. And if you hadnt put it third he might have been awarded a place at a less good school miles away.

Thankyou LIZS

I just wanted to clarify if this may have been the case as I'm really beating myself up for including it.

The other kids in his class have got in to schools we applied for. My son is the only one going to awful school.

Needthisthread

I know I've made a stupid mistake by putting it. But I don't need to be made to feel any worse I recognise what I did now. Very careless.

I'd you'd have only put down 2 choices he still probably wouldn't have got them - they were full hence why he's not on list. Hence why he got 3rd choice.

If you hadn't put 3rd choice they'd have allocated him another school - either that one anyway or another one further away.

It sounds like you actually did the right thing - 2 choices that you liked and the nearest school as a banker. Exactly what all the admissions experts on MN would advise.

Now you need to get on waiting lists for schools 1 and 2, and if possible any other schools you like the look of.

Your brother, btw, is talking rubbish.

Was there a hypothetical option 4 or 5 that you wish you had put down? If not you haven't made things worse.

Whatever you do, don't decline a school place. I can't stress this enough. The LA is only obliged to offer you one place. Accept the place, even if it's not what you want and go about putting name on waiting lists etc. Do not decline the offer!!!

What's your problem Needthisthread? OP is looking for support not a kicking.
OP it's done now and of course you can appeal the decision for 1st & 2nd choice schools. You also join waiting lists for schools you didn't apply to.
Look in some areas there are no/ little choices, and you have to put something 3rd.

Focus on getting on waiting lists now and getting your appeals organised. There are lots of threads to read on here with brilliant advice.
You will have to accept the offered school though, that is the 1st rule of Mumsnet- otherwise unless your LA will discharge their duty to find a school. Accepting won't prejudice your appeals or waiting lists. Don't worry, just get organised.

And your brother is talking rubbish btw

Unless there was another school that was your genuine third preference and that he would have been sure to get into, you haven’t made a mistake. You have (perhaps inadvertently) done the sensible thing of including a nearby and reliable, if not especially desirable, third option in case - as in fact happened - he didn’t get into preferences 1 and 2.

Your brother’s advice was to say, effectively, to the LA “If he doesn’t get into School 1 or School 2, I don’t care where you allocate him”. You were wise not to do that.

There’s still a decent chance you can get him into a higher preference school either through the waiting lists or the appeals process.

Ok Thankyou. No matter what. We in this situation and I can only move forward

What's your problem Needthisthread? OP is looking for support not a kicking.

I wasn't 'kicking' OP. I literally agreed with what they said and asked if the DC had any input.

If the OP is so flaky that someone agreeing with them on their own thread is so bad, perhaps this isn't the place for them?

You did the right thing. Get on the waiting list for first 2 choices. You wouldn't have been offered them even without your 3rd choice and could have been offered a dreadful school 15 miles away (like someone near me).

I know I've made a stupid mistake by putting it. But I don't need to be made to feel any worse I recognise what I did now. Very careless.

I didn't mean to make you feel anything, let alone worse. All I did was agree with your comment and then ask about your DC's involvement.