Nervous about Secondary School allocations out this week!

[PinotLover]

Just another to thing to stress about but it's for my PFB so never been through it before. We find out on the 1st March, am being a silly stress head on here rather than in real life. Any one else? We are in the same postcode as the school we prefer, so it's a big deal if it goes wrong!

[riceuten]

[quote Psychobobble]@indie123
My LA has said:
Places declined by 15/3 and LA notified by school
LA checks all declines and reorders wait list with late entry preferences (people who missed deadline back in October)
Then new round of offers around April 16.

Not sure it's the same everywhere.[/quote]
It isn't. You can imagine that a big LA like a shire county operates on a different scale to a small LA like Camden with secondaries in single figures.

The thing that most parents don't know and don't understand is that "lates" are treated as "on time" for priority. And that a "waiting list" is a complete misnomer. You are not ordered in the time you applied, but how you meet the original criteria. So if someone applies late and is closer to the school, they will go in front of you. Many a formal complaint and referral to the LGO would be avoided if people understood this.

[Cariocbirello]

I’ve read on other threads that it’s possible to find out which criteria your child was considered under (eg distance or faith). Who would I contact for this info at this stage - local authority or school? Thanks

(Also posted this question on my other thread)

[PanelChair]

Start by asking the LEA (although they may refer you to the school if, say, it’s an academy)

[riceuten]

@Cariocbirello

I’ve read on other threads that it’s possible to find out which criteria your child was considered under (eg distance or faith). Who would I contact for this info at this stage - local authority or school? Thanks

(Also posted this question on my other thread)

Check with the Admissions Authority (school if it's an Academy, Free School, Foundation, or VA School, LA if it's a Community or VC School). If it's a faith school, then it's the school doing the admissions in the main (unless it's a voluntary controlled school).

If it's a C of E school they will occasionally admit heathens by splitting the intake by religious and non-religious place (and fill up for the former with the latter if the uptake wasn't big). This is rare with Catholic Schools.

[FairfaxHigh]

@Cariocbirello - we received a letter from the LA today confirming which category we were placed in for our 1st choice (which we didn't get) together with info about how to appeal - not going to bother as happy with the second choice we received. As they got nowhere near our category before using the tie break there was no more info, but I know from parents who did get into the last category used but still missed out that they had confirmation of the distance from their home to school as well. All the allocation info for the oversubscribed schools is on the LA website including furthest distance offered so they can check whether there seems to have been a mistake.

[Cariocbirello]

Thanks FairfaxHigh do you mind letting me know which LA you are under? We are in Essex & I have contacted the school & LA to see if I could get this info, but only had standard acknowledgement email responses so far.

[FairfaxHigh]

Ah, I'm in the North West so nowhere near you! Seems like it varies so much from area to area -our offer was on the portal literally at midnight on 1st March, but could see on here that lots of other places didn't release them until the evening. Would have thought that everywhere would have to provide this info somehow though. Did it say anything with your offer notification about them getting in touch re waiting lists/appeals?

[Cariocbirello]

Thanks FairfaxHigh - I think waiting list info will be available online here from 17 March.

[FairfaxHigh]

We only get waiting list place confirmation 15th March (just had general info in letter today about how system works) so might still be possible to find out the category you were in beforehand.