my son has not been offered a place in any of the schools requested

[vahidjr1360]

Dear all
My son has not been offered any of our three school choices and we are going to reject the one, which has been offered and is awful. I understand that my son's name has automatically added to the first three choices' waiting lists. I am wondering can I just call other schools that I think are good and ask if they have available places? Would they just tell us to register if they have a place? What if we could not get any school and my son continues to go to nursery for another year? Can we apply for the next year for year-1, or is the application only for the reception? Many thanks for your replies.

Is the reputation of the school based on what people have said about it or based on evidence? I say because if a school has a bad name by reputation, you may find it isn't that bad. I've just said on another thread that we picked a school in a rough area, weaker exam results and average Ofsted. It became a brilliant school during the time we were there and my kids loved it. Yes there were some iffy families but there are in every school. We had neighbours in our nice middle class enclave who made money form running brothels & distributing cannabis. Only found out when the police raided their house.

Don't decline the place. Go & visit the school, talk to the headteacher about your concerns. You might be pleasantly surprised. Easy to put yourself on a waiting list for other schools. Just phone them. I have a friend who was given a non choice school, put her child's name down for her preferred school, but by the time a place was offered in August, her daughter had gone to all the welcome days & made friends. She's still at that school & shes now ten years old.

Thank you all for your comments. I am pretty sure about the school offered being bad, this is in all reviews as well as our neighbors and friends who have recently moved their children from that school because of those reasons. In addition, the ofsted, being inadequate (the worst rate) justifies that the school is not good.
Our house is slightly out of catchment area of all three choices but not more than a mile. Unfortunately we are not within the catchment area. My son’s fourth birthday is next week the 22nd.

Sorry you haven't got a school you wanted. We were in the same position but with secondary schools. Going private and home ed weren't an option so we accepted and got put on the waiting lists for the other schools.
We've just been offered a place in our first choice school.
Unless you are 100% committed to being able to home educate or can afford private for the next 7 years I would accept the place and go on waiting lists. I would give your LEA a call and ask if you can go on waiting lists for other schools too, it's possible spaces will come up.

My dc go to an outstanding small village school with is always over subscribed. The past few years there has been movement after allocation day, so even the best schools have spaces turned down due to changes in circumstances.

You need to look on YOUR local authority’s website for details of how they manage waiting lists etc. Different authorities do it differently.

Don’t reject the place you’ve been offered yet; but DO go on as many waiting lists as they will let you. Start with the schools nearest you, unless you hate them.

You could also ask the council for details of any schools that are under subscribed and see if you would accept any of those. You would have to transport your child there though.

Many thanks for all of your comments. The school I’m talking about is really bad, one of my friends just moved his child from this school because of those reasons, one of our neighbors also did the same. The school has also got a lot of bad reviewers on the Internet. In addition, the ofsted being “inadequate” justifies that.
My son’s fourth birthday is next week on the 22nd.
Our house is slightly (less than a mile) out of all of the three choices catchment areas, unfortunately.
Regarding moving house I meant we really move to a house close to the schools.

Moving closer would increase your place on the waiting list, assuming distance is used one of the criteria, but you would still need a place to become available (ie another child leaves), or more likely a number of places unless you moved close enough to be top of the list.

I don’t believe any school can be really bad in reception. I too would suggest you accept the place first.

Your ds is “ summer born” so you could request to defer reception until Sept 2020. You would still get 30 hours for nursery until then.

Whatever you do, don’t reject the place you’ve been offered. If you do that, you can be given any place left in literally any school in the sre

If you reject your offered school that ends the councils obligation and they don’t have to offer you an alternative at all. Only reject it if you are able to home school indefinitely until a place comes up.

You applied for 3 out of catchment schools? Didn’t you apply for your catchment school at all? No wonder you didn’t get a place as catchment kids will have priority.

Waiting lists are held in order of how you meet the criteria, usually distance, so this who live nearest are highest up the list.

Accepting a place will not disadvantage you in getting a waiting list place, and neither will they prioritise you for waiting list places because you have no accepted offer.

Find out where you are in the waiting list for your preferred schools.

Ask the LA if they have any other schools with spaces. Visit those schools.

Get yourself on the waiting list of any schools nearer to you than the ones you applied to.

If you were planning to move house it wouldn’t hurt to move on to the doorstep of a school you like. Big schools have more places become free than small schools. But LAs are usually very strict. You have to show proof of address and if you own a house in the same area but give a rental address they will use the address of the house you own.

From now on you can stay on waiting lists and get a place when one comes up. It is called an ‘in year’ application or place once this Primary Admissions process finishes, after September.

Do you live in an area where people move about s lot? In London places often move fast because the population is so mobile, but that isn’t the same everywhere.

I do wish you well.

Reallyanotherone if the OP’s neighbours have just moved a child from the offered school, the offered school probably is the local ‘catchment’ school.

Hotpotlowyer, are you sure about what you are talking about renting house. Anyone can have many houses. I can have my own house somewhere but living in another property. I can even let my own house and rent another one.

Some LAs will not accept a rental address if you also own a property within the same or adjacent area. You would need to demonstrate that you have legitimately moved there, not just for short-term. Which is your nearest school, many areas do not have fixed catchments . Are any schools you overlooked or ranked lower undersubscribed and therefore could immediately offer you an alternative, more acceptable , place?

Hotpotlawyer, is likely to be right about which house is used for address purposes for admissions. It is up to the LA to state what their policy is in terms of addresses but many LAs do say if you own a house then they will use that address. You would have to prove to the satisfaction of the LA that you are living elsewhere. That would normally be proving you are in rented accommodation with twelve months left on the lease and that your owned house is in the same situation with a tenant in place with at least twelve months to run on the lease. That does not sound like the situation you are in from your posts.
Your best course of action is to be on all appropriate waiting lists and also appeal for all schools that you want but at the end of the day you may only have the option of going to the "inadequate" school or home educating, which is why you should accept the offer made, even if you do not want it.

vahidjr, about renting:

Scroll down this page and read the Distance Measurement section. This is typical of what many other LAs say. www.merton.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/admissions/primary/primary-school-admissions-criteria#commcrit

Also read these links:

www.theschoolrun.com/moving-house-for-school-places

metro.co.uk/2018/03/09/wrong-rent-home-good-schools-catchment-area-7375043/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34014556

Kids were pulled out of a playground in Southwark a couple of years ago.

(P.S I am not a lawyer)

'Which is your nearest school, many areas do not have fixed catchments'

Some schools do not have catchments.

But those that do have thenpm fixed (even if they,change, it can only be done after public consultation and must be clearly published by the start of the applications round, so parents know which category they are in). OP has said she is out of catchment, so is therefore behind all catchment siblings, other catchment children,and out-of-catchment siblings.

Moving - a genuine move - might be the best bet if she hates her catchment school and the one offered (not sure if that's one or two schools).

But OP it does have to be a complete and genuine move. If you own two properties within easy travelling of each other, which one of those is considered your valid address for school admissions will be determined by the LEA (not you) and it is utterly standard for it to be the original address. That is why you need to sell up from one completely - something which I guess you wouid be prepared to do, given your strength of feeling on this

Due to a change in circumstances, we moved after the date you could change your school choice.

We were not allowed to choose schools in the area we were moving to until we had completed the move and had provided four forms of proof of our new address.

Two of our 3 catchment schools are over subscribed. They wouldn't even let us look round. Our nearest school is undersubscribed and even then we are still waiting to hear if my son has a place.

You must accept the school place you have been offered. You can then go onto the continued interest lists for other schools and as it's primary, you may well get offered a place at one. But I don't think moving at this late stage will be advantageous in anyway as the LA are all over people trying to get into popular schools this way.

I presume that this is actually about primary schools, not secondary.

I understand that you don't want to send your son to the school you have been offered. However, if you reject the school the LA is not under any obligation to come up with another offer. If they do, it is likely to be at another unpopular school even further from home. Your son must be in full time education by the start of term following his fifth birthday so you need to have a plan.

As your son is not yet 5 you can defer entry for a full year. The LA may allow you to defer and apply for Reception next year but it is quite likely that they will insist on him going straight into Y1, missing out on Reception completely. Even if they do allow you to apply for Reception, there is no guarantee that the situation will be any different next year. You may still end up with an offer you don't want.

You can enquire about other schools with places and apply for them if you want. However, if other people are doing the same you may not get a place and the LA may insist that you come off the waiting list for your preferred schools if you want to apply to other schools.

If you move closer to one of the schools it will move you up the waiting list provided it is a genuine permanent move. If you own the property you currently live in, the LA is likely to continue using that as your address even if you rent near your preferred school. Yes, you can have many houses but the LA is entitled to decide which address to use for your application. If you own and rent most will go for the house you own.

You can look at other schools and you can hope to get a place at one of your preferred schools through the waiting list. You can also appeal for your preferred schools, although the chances of success at appeal are generally low as most cases are heard under infant class size rules.

As others have said, you should accept the school that has been offered. Rejecting it will not improve your chances of getting a school you want. It will simply leave you without a school for your son.

People do move house, if you do genuinely move, then you will then go on the waiting list at the place based on your new address, so even if other people have been on the list first, if you are closer, you'll go higher on the list.

Research if you can get the LEA to count a rental property if you own elsewhere - you might need to get tenants for your home to cover that.

You could sell your house and have time to rent by next year.

Every year this happens! People apply for schools they haven’t got a hope of getting into and are shocked when they get one the don’t want. Does this mean the LEA information isn’t clear enough? Is there an argument for some sort of public information campaign?

Even if the OP makes a genuine move it's likely that the school she moves near will be full, so she'll still be waiting for someone or some people to leave. So as well as moving, she needs to understand the mobility rate in the school she is interested in.
Go and look at the school you have been offered. You may be pleasantly surprised and as others have said it woild be unusual for their to be racism and violence in a Reception class. How long ago was the Ofsted? Schools that get bad Ofsted ratings often make great efforts to improve and can quickly become good schools. This should definitely be something you ask the head about. Try not to listen to hearsay but make your own mind up.

So as well as moving, she needs to understand the mobility rate in the school she is interested in

This. We have been on wait lists for 3 local schools for 4 years. Fortunately the school we were allocated, while being a pita to get to, is reasonable.

Go see it though. Lots of people warned is off our allocated school but we had no choice. Turns out it was on the way up and 2 years later was oversubscribed.

Many thanks for all your useful comments. I am still thinking what to do. Probably accept the offered school for reception only and wait to see if we get one of the schools we are in their waiting lists. If not, private schools would be the only option as I need my child to interact with other children and be social. Home Ed wouldn’t be an option for me.