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.

None of this explains why my dd didn't get any of her choices at all. We put 4 schools all of which she was happy to go too and she didn't get any of them.

Some areas are very oversubscribed.

There’s a town near me (Middlesbrough) where 100 children have been offered no secondary school at all because all the secondary schools in the town are completely full.

If you are only a small distance from the furthest allocated place you stand a good chance if you go on the waiting list. There's always a bit of movement due to successful applicants taking up independent places, grammar places, moving out of area etc.

There’s a town near me (Middlesbrough) where 100 children have been offered no secondary school at all because all the secondary schools in the town are completely full.
Good grief, that's shocking.
I thought councils had an asset officer and part of the job was to predict number of pupils wanting a place at school. There was a thing a few years ago about Bulge classrooms when there was too many children for places.
What is the councils duty to the pupil if there are no school places?

1. Remember that the application process invites you to express a preference, not make a choice.

1. Accept the place you are offered, unless you intend to home educate or have a guaranteed place at a private school. The LA only has to offer one place, which it has done.

1. Make sure you are on the waiting list for every school, whether you applied for it or not, that you would be prepared to accept over the one you have been given.

Pupils move house, get accepted for private school places, get places at their higher preference schools, so a place may become available. (Places are allocated according to the admissions criteria not how long you have been waiting - so a child in a higher admissions category or in the same category but living closer who joins the waiting list later would be given a place first).

1. If a mistake has been made in the admissions procedure or new information comes to light that would have affected the decision then you can appeal. e.g. a medical need not taken into account or twins being given split school allocation.

Obviously this is rare, so very few appeals are successful as most should be dealt with via the waiting list process.

1. As parents, you have the greatest influence on how well your child succeeds at school, not the presence of a handful of looked-after children or unhelpful comments from other people. If the one you have been offered turns out to be your child's school, you need to work together positively if you want the best for your child.

Remember, you did the right thing by putting the "banker" school on your list and your brother is talking rubbish.

There is likely to be a lot of movement still, I know several kids who are now turning down highly sought after schools having gotten into a public school. Lots of people use the LA schools as insurance option in case the kids don't get into the school they want.

@Tissunnyupnorth what she said ! Could have been way worse !

Technically that's correct, yes, but the reality is that it's very, very difficult to win an appeal on this basis

Last year 23.4% of secondary school appeals were successful, the vast majority of them being on this basis (i.e. balance of prejudice). So I wouldn't class it as "very, very difficult".

Re the article about Middlesbrough: it's not that 100 children there didn't get an offer, they have been offered schools outside M'borough (eg in Redcar) because the local schools are oversubscribed. It's still very hard on them but they do have places.

Also time perhaps for my regular complaint that it would be a darn sight easier for councils to fulfil their obligations to provide school places if they were allowed to set up schools themselves .

From what I heard, the affected children in Middlesbrough haven’t been offered places yet - they’ve been advised to apply for school places outside Middlesbrough, in neighbouring LAs.

Hopefully the secondary schools in the neighbouring LAs will be able to take them all.

And I totally agree that councils should be able to set up schools themselves. They clearly need more school places in Middlesbrough .
The secondary school I went to didn’t have much more than 100 pupils in each year group.

Just wanted to say I’ve done almost the same thing, except I put my 3rd choice which I wasn’t keen on to avoid getting one I really disliked, and I also got my 3rd choice. No real grounds for appeal so having to go on wait lists, also feel gutted. DS being brave but I’m so annoyed that all his friends for their 1st choice!!!

What is the councils duty to the pupil if there are no school places?

They have to find them a school place. If neighbouring authorities are under capacity then some children will be offered places there. They’ll also look and see which schools have the physical space to admit either a few more children over the PAN or to take an extra ‘bulge class’.

it would be a darn sight easier for councils to fulfil their obligations to provide school places if they were allowed to set up schools themselves

That isn't entirely true. There is a presumption in favour of free schools so an LA wanting to set up a new school must first seek free school proposals. But there are circumstances under which they can still set up a new community school.

Can they still permanently increase the size of a school prh?

My understanding is that they can but only if that school is rated outstanding. This has happened in my area where the council's only option was to expand a nearby primary school to accommodate the increase in birth rate... which has since evaporated and the expanded school has reduced its PAN by half the expansion no. as it wasn't filling. I live in an area with very few academies or free schools.

Can they still permanently increase the size of a school prh

For some types of school, yes. And no, the school doesn't have to be rated outstanding. The LA can increase the admission number of any community or VC school after consulting with the governors. They can pressure other schools to increase their admission number but cannot force them to do so.

Happy to stand corrected, @prh47bridge!

So potentially the move to convert as many schools as possible to academies is going to be an issue. Once you’ve ruled out the academies/VA schools, and those without space to expand then the options for finding an extra 100 places a year for a few years might be a bit limited.

Yes indeed, @RafaIsTheKingOfClay, that is very much one of the problems with the system. School populations have always fluctuated with the birth rate but in previous decades LAs have had more power to accommodate those changes. Not always done it well, obviously, but at least the option was there!

@Ratatouille76 you accept the place, then go on the waiting list for any other schools you want to apply for. Meanwhile, you can appeal for a place at a school on prejudice grounds if no mistakes have been made.

Are you in a position to homeschool?
Do you know that if you decline the offered place the LEA have no obligation to find you anther school?

If it's more than 3 miles, the LA have to provide free transport. If you decline the place, the LA don't have to offer you anything else, even if you later change your mind and the place at the school you were offered is then full (they would if they had one, but if they didn't have any places anywhere, they wouldn't be obliged to try and find one), so be very sure that you want to decline.

Prejudice grounds just means that your DD needs to attend the school you want more than the school would suffer a hardship by having to squeeze her in, essentially.