No school place offered, did your waiting list child receive a place?

[Rabstar]

Help! My child has not been offered a school place at all despite being in catchment! (high school).We have simply been told to make late application for other schools that have places.
Full disclosure, there is one school in catchment that has places but was put in special measures in May and does not have the most glowing follow up visit in December.They are struggling to get teachers to turn up let alone the children, so the thought of my child going there is making me feel sick with worry.
My child is no genius , does well and is growing in maturity, but needs a nurturing and encouraging environment that this other school will not be able to provide.
Here is my issue I know at appeal I can't use this school is bad as my reason and have to demonstrate why my child needs to go our preferred school because they offer something the other school doesn't provide, apparently evidence of poor teaching standards and leadership isn't a reason .
I feel so pessimistic right now as I can't think of any appeal reasons, nothing medical, any help appreciated.
My child is 7th and 4th on the other school's list , but I just can't see other parents declining places? can anyone share their experiences of being on waiting list, if they did get a place how long before you heard etc ?

7th and 4th isn't bad at all for secondary, we were 25th for a 180 per year school outstanding rated superselective and got offered in July - first 10 places offered in March. Never any guarantees but think you should be OK - there's people declining places as gone private, people swapping schools, people moving area etc. Good luck! Comp in now waiting list went down one a week, 165 entry. Does vary by school area but they do move.

I'm slightly puzzled by your post. If you have a catchment school with places, have you not been offered a place there? Or do you mean you jhaven'tust been offered a place at your 2 preferences (the ones you are on the waiting list for?). Because if you haven't been offered any place the LEA are obliged to find you one.
re waiting lists there is a fair bit of movement round here as it's an area of fairly high mobility and lots of people move out of area between applying and starting school. But this is very area dependent, so you probably need a local viewpoint.

I should add we are in a relatively small town, just 4 schools , 35 is the highest number on the wait-list. thanks

nope all 3 places applied for no offer, we just received a letter with all the schools in the county (Leicestershire) that still have places and told to make a late application. There are 5 children in total at my sons school that are in the same position.

So have you been offered a place at the school you don't want OP? I thought they would offer a place if there was space in a school in catchment

Sorry x-post

sorry, to be clear, when I spoke to the council they said that i should apply to the school that has places (thats in special measures) as that is the only one in catchment or even close to where we live.

We are in a village now with 3 schools, all outstanding rated and lists moved one place a week for 165 entry on average. You could try your MN local board or LA to see if they could give a more local estimate. How big is school per year? Other school I referred to was in London. Also people are often on multiple waiting lists, its 4 here, 6 in old area.

one school 160, the other 170, the third school we don't know yet as is a faith school so the LEA don't have access to their info.

Thanks fir the tip , didn't realise there was a MN local board

For an appeal, look at what your preferred school offers that is missing from the school with places. Look at what subjects they offer, extracurricular clubs and so on. If you can find things that are particularly relevant to your child you can build a case around that.

Is the reason that you haven't been offered anything at the moment because you didn't put the school with places down on your list? So they now provide a list with places and you have to choose one of them, so they don't just give you a random school

Is the reason that you haven't been offered anything at the moment because you didn't put the school with places down on your list? So they now provide a list with places and you have to choose one of them, so they don't just give you a random school
Yes

Prh47:thanks, that sounds like something, they specialise around sports and also have a special,focus on Maths, which he does well in, he wants to do something to do with engineering, and was inspired from the open evening on that, so looking at that as well

Sounds like a good start. There are no guarantees with appeals but, if you put a decent case together, you will have a chance.

Thanks Prh47

Good luck OP. It must be a horrible situation to be.