Reconciling to bad news re Secondary School.

[JC4PMPLZ]

DS got his 6th preference, which I included because I did not want to be sent to an equally poor school further away. I am really unhappy. Worst school in borough. We are in the 100s and 200s on waiting lists....do seems unlikely. What is best way of coming to terms with this? Anyone got good endings from a similar situation. Do we just wait for year 8 transfer? Not going to move!

[JC4PMPLZ]

Alone, that is a great post! Thank you - really made me smile.

[HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone]

I am More Worried about bullying and bad influences than academic results

Bullying and bad influences are not solely present at so called 'shit' schools. A child could encounter both at any school no matter how good the OFSTED, results and parental opinion. I wouldn't think that would be a case for an appeal?

[prh47bridge]

Perhaps you don't know a school that does it

I don't know a school that does it because it is illegal. The law on the subject is quite clear. The waiting list must be held in the order decided by the admission criteria.

It may be that your school uses random allocation. In that case, you never really had a position on the waiting list. Whenever a place becomes available the school must redraw to determine who gets the place. So you may have been 200th in the draw when the initial allocation was made, but you weren't 200th on the waiting list. Equally, it may be that when a place became available you were the 10th person out of the hat, but you weren't 10th on the waiting list. When the next place became available there would have been a new draw.

If your school does not use random allocation it absolutely cannot reshuffle the waiting list. That is the law.

[namechanger0064]

I have a different story to tell unfort.

My daughter didn't get into any of our choices and was allocated a shit local school. I appealed to the other schools but shouldn't have wasted my time.

I got her extra tuition (£95 per hour here in London) as she was already an outstanding student and I was worried. She got very good grades but the teachers were more hell bent on making her life hell BECAUSE SHE WAS SMART. It was so utterly weird. They'd wait for her outside school in the morning and send her home for too tight school uniform, not the right black shoes etc when other student swanned by in trainers and tracksuits!!!

It broke her, every day she was inconsolable and I should have moved her. I was too scared it would be disruptive. But in the end she did the research and found another school that would take her and I let her move.

When she finally got her A's the idiot school wrote to me to ask me to confirm her result (even though she wasn't attending anymore!) so they could recognise her scores!

So glad it's over. It was completely traumatising for us all.

[MaidaVala2000]

My DS didn't get any of his 6 choices and we've been allocated a school that we will not accept (GCSE pass rate is 29%, very rough school with poor reputation). We seem to have missed out on one of our choices by literally a few metres as friends on the next street got their daughter in. I called the local counsel (Haringey) and they won't disclose our position on the waiting list. Has anyone else had this?

[HalleLouja]

Don’t reject your place as they don’t have to get you another school place. Appeal and go on waiting lists.

[NicoAndTheNiners]

Dd went to an awful comp with terrible results. She got As and Bs in her GCSEs. While part of me thinks with a better education she may have got A*s she did well enough to get into a better sixth form where she's predicted Bs for her a levels.

She's had 4 unconditional offers for university, for good courses.

I remember crying when I found out what school she had got. Obviously not in front of her. You mustn't let your ds know how you feel. We appealed but didn't tell dd we were even appealing.

[HappySonHappyMum]

My son got his 5th choice school - shit school and continued to be shit all the way through. Had a pass rate of 28% for level 4 and above in Maths and English. He survived - just. Wish I'd have moved him before he started his GCSEs it was horrible. He's doing well at sixth form college now - but I feel he's lost out because of it.

[Popuppippa]

The most academically successful child I know attended our local comp.

He was best friends with one of my children and they parted ways at 11, DS to a very sought after independent school and his best friend to the local comp.

He has the best A' Level results of any child I know including my own (expensively but not necessarily better-educated) children! He achieved a string of A* grades in a combination of the most difficult, demanding subjects. He is now at Cambridge studying a course that is one of the most difficult to get into. I honestly feel vicariously proud of him because he shows what can be achieved with effort, perseverance and sheer determination. It can be done but it's not an easy ride.

[HotpotLawyer]

But Popup, ‘local comps’ turn out A* students all the time. It really isn’t a miracle, it’s a normal result for a bright hardworking child in state education.

The reason people get stressed is that their local comp is not a normal ordinary comp but an underperforming comp, or one that has a demography that the parent is not happy with.

But you are right, even in those schools a motivated student can fulfill their own potential, at whatever level that might be, and not get drawn into nonsense.

[BertrandRussell]

“I honestly feel vicariously proud of him because he shows what can be achieved with effort, perseverance and sheer determination. It can be done but it's not an easy ride”
No- going to the “local
comp” is such a struggle......

[stopfuckingshoutingatme]

I think there is a difference between shit comp and local comp

I have local comp . Don’t want it and want better . But I can clearly see that it’s not a failing school

The big issue is I went to a rough London state and was badly bullied . Most schools stream from year 7 and had they done that my Life would have been easier

It’s just fucking hard seeing their peers Swan off to an ofsted outstanding on the basis of a few km

But I agree DC doesn’t know I am appealing and never will probably

[BertrandRussell]

“I think there is a difference between shit comp and local comp ”

Not on Mumsnet there isn’t. It really pisses me off. Comprehensives are either shit, or leafy.

[JC4PMPLZ]

Not for me. I really want a slightly further away local comp. Just my local comp has crappy results! DDs go to another girl's local comp. But I do see the over-representation of private and grammar sector on here.

[ljny]

MaidaVale please accept the offer. You'll be screwed if you don't. Go on waiting lists. Also Haringey is notoriously disorganised and un-informative. Realistically, you'll get more information from them mid-spring (bitter experience). If you remember from primary, this is a bulge year. Catchments have shrunk considerably from last year. A few kms does mean the odds are in your favour, unless it's APS. Good luck!

[MaidaVala2000]

Thanks Ljny. It's not APS! I would have zero hope it if was.

[Zinnia]

@JC4PMPLZ have you checked with the council where you are on the various waiting lists? You can also ask them about the last distance admitted (as opposed to offered on 1st March) for Sept '18 intake (I did this for our 1st pref school). It obviously varies enormously from year to year but might give you a rough idea. If you email the admissions address on the website they answer fairly quickly, it's a nightmare getting through by phone as you may already know!

[stopfuckingshoutingatme]

My council
Won’t talk about waiting lists they said I had to contact schools direct
Then the schools vary . Some reply and some were rude . Not sure on the legality here

[Zinnia]

It's complicated in areas where you have lots of academies or free schools which act as their own admissions authority. Sometimes the council handles admissions on their behalf, sometimes not. Some of these schools administer their own waiting lists, some don't.

A friend who works in a secondary school office told me this week has been insane with parents ringing up about their waiting list... and they don't even have it, all admissions in my borough are handled by the council.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be standard practice in this area so councils/schools can apparently set their own rules on what information they give to parents and when. There is of course legislation on how waiting lists have to operate, so it should be the same outcome, regardless of who administers the lists.

[Popuppippa]

Oh Christ, there's always someone who's determined to misinterpret what you've written.

The point I am making is exactly that exceptionally bright children succeed at comps all the time (shit, leafy, local or otherwise). The school I'm thinking of has been through some rocky times and has a really wide demographic. Lots of people wouldn't send their kids and yet every single year there are extremely successful outcomes across the board.

Lost in the obsession over averaged out results is the fact that most children achieve what they will and it's more dependent on their commitment and support at home than anything else.

The inverse of this is parents who think that sending a child to any independent school guarantees an Oxbridge place. It doesn't.

[Popuppippa]

@BertrandRussell ' No- going to the “local
comp” is such a struggle......'

Nope. Just meant he strolled to school 10 minutes away rather than schlep across London to a much further away school.

This is a really high birth rate year with many children (especially London) either offered a school they did not list or who currently have no place offered. All the advice I've heard is if you don't have something you're happy with to accept, go on waiting lists and await the next big shift in places on 15th March/acceptance date.