Secondary School place unsuccessful

[Mstiva]

i good evening all we’ve had the dreaded news that our secondary school choices have been unsuccessful and have been giving our closest available school which is appalling and very undersubscribed. We are currently living with in-laws as sold our property (opposite sex children sharing same bedroom) and couldn’t secure a property in the school catchment area during Covid. We missed out by 0.1 miles for preferred school of choice and I’ve been told we are currently 7th on the waiting list. We are aware of children in our current location attending the school we were hoping for. My child is the only 1 in his current class to miss out on a place at desired school also.

We will look to appeal as the school offered doesn’t offer the curriculum we wanted for our child. No music, business studies, design technology, health and social care, art, IT or the German language. The PE qualification offered is also not a GCSE but a form of certificate. My son currently studies some of these subjects at primary school but now won’t be able to as they not on the curriculum of the school offered.

I’ve looked into the PAN numbers of our preferred school over the previous years and the school has breached this number twice once by 30 pupils and the other by 9, the school is still running at almost 90 pupils under net capacity(depending where you look as I’ve found 3 different figures on the local government website) I’m just wondering if anybody has been in a similar situation and think We have good grounds for an appeal?

Thanks for your time and any help/advice will be appreciated.

Have you joined the waiting list?
We are in a similar situation - all children in our dc class got a place, many are siblings so higher priority than us. We live less than 10m further away from last child offered a place so I’m hopeful we will be high on the waiting list. We have no grounds to appeal that I can see - the school we’ve been offered (choice 5!) does offer a good range of subjects and our dc has no exceptional skills we could say need to be nurtured by choice 1. We can find out our position on the waiting list on 16th March.

How can those subjects not be taught - they are on the national curriculum. That really doesn't sound right.
Is the PE a Btec? That's a GCSE equivalent and hardly 'just a certificate'.

@Ilovemaisie

How can those subjects not be taught - they are on the national curriculum. That really doesn't sound right. Is the PE a Btec? That's a GCSE equivalent and hardly 'just a certificate'.

This was what I was thinking, too.

We are in a similar position. None of our 6 preferences successful and allocated a school which i am very disappointed with. As far as i know her classmates received something on their list at least. I have obtained our WL positions and we are number 1 for one school however with late applicants this ofc can change.
I also put in a late application request for a school i didn't apply for but 100% prefer over what we currently have. 7th is a good position so hopefully you will end up getting a place, in the meantime though i would look at any other options for late application as a back up

I'm calling bullshit on not teaching those national curriculum subjects. They absolutely have to. As for a Btec v gcse a lot can change in 4 years at any school to add gcse at this one or remove gcse in favour of Btec at another.
Also your son can't possibly study all of the subjects listed at gcse. They usually get one or two options only.
If you are going to appeal you need to have your facts straight. Appeals panel won't appreciate exaggerations of the truth.

Hi yeah information available on the school website shows subjects offered and they are maths, English, Science, RE, french, history,Geography and PE which is a Cambridge certificate not GCSE all information is facts and available from the school website

I would imagine it’s that some subjects are taught from y7 but not available at GCSE due to uptake?

Unless it is a specialist school - we have engineering or STEM ones locally which focus on those subjects more.

I think you should report the school to the Local Authority then as it is not following the National Curriculum.

I’m just going on the facts found on the school website now just waiting on reply’s back from school personnel backing up the information on the website. The school has PAN number of around 150 pupils and only receives 40-50.

Are you sure that it doesn't mean those subjects are the compulsory ones for GCSE and then they get a choice of other subjects to add to it.
It sounds very odd. I have only known a school do a very limited curriculum if they are a specialist school - and they usually start at age 14 (Yr 10) not Yr 7 and you usually have to apply specifically for that school and take a test or audition (for example the performing arts school The Brit School).

I’ve emailed the school over the weekend asking them to confirm the subjects offered as all I have to go on at the moment is the schools website which I assume to be true. I’ve looked on the compare school performance on government website and the only extra subject I could find are Art and Computer science but this is dated 2018 so unsure of the accuracy Thanks

Im going to focus on what you asked. In my experience waiting lists do move. So at number 7 you may well get in. Although I don't know if this is the case in your area.
You can go down a list too though which surprised us.
There's lots of information on MN about appealling. There's also opportunity to join schools mid year as folk move about So all is not lost.

If they only have 40-50 children in a year group, then they aren't going to be able to offer the full range of subjects at GCSE (though agree with other posters that some of these are mandatory in KS3).

If you want to appeal remember you are appealing for the school you want, not against the one you have. So things like not offering IT might be a good reason, if your son has particular interest in this subject. German would be a good reason if your child had particularly links to the language so a reason for wanting to study it particularly. You can't argue that he wants to do all the subjects on your list at GCSE. They are all offered at my DC's school (except German) but I think it would be impossible for a child to select more than 2 and many will select 1 or 0 due to the way timetabling works, as they are not core choices.

I would think at waiting list place of 7 you would get in.

I could got into one school from a wait list place of 47! I turned it down as too late in the process but wouldn't have had I not been happy with other choice

It is certainly unusual to offer only 9 GCSEs plus PE with no choice (and even that’s assuming that Science is offered as three subjects).

If you intend to appeal, you need to highlight aspects of the preferred school that make it the best one for your child. You can certainly mention that it has a broader curriculum, and mention any subjects that your child particularly wants (eg they play a musical instrument at Grade 6 and want to study music GCSE) but don’t overdo it by suggesting your child has a burning desire to study every subject you’ve mentioned, unless you can evidence that. The school previously going over PAN by 9 helps you, because it shows that they can absorb additional pupils (schools often argue that they can’t do it because (say) there are only 30 workstations in the science lab); going over by 90 slightly less so, because that was presumably a bulge class.

Hi op, some good advice here.

I agree, you need to focus on what your son is interested in. As others say, it would be impossible to study all those subjects at GCSE, and business and health and social would only be picked up at KS4.

Not offering German is sadly common (😭 it's my subject) and if your ds has, for example, studied it at primary or has a relative who speaks it, then that is a good argument for him going to a school that offers it.

Similarly if for example he shows a talent for DT or art (harder to prove but not impossible) tho I am genuinely surprised if a secondary school does not offer any art provision at KS3. Music would also be a good shout (again, surprised it is not offered) if he plays an instrument, for example. It may be that the school offers music at KS3 but not GCSE due to low take up.

The PE being a certificate is irrelevant, more and more schools IME offer different qualifications for PE.

I would definitely check the curriculum with the offered school tho.

As clary says, increasingly few state schools now offer German, OP. This is quite an interesting article on the decline of language teaching and it was written in 2019. Things have deteriorated since then:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47334374

Hi I’ve had email back from school and they offer music and art at key stage 4. I’m still going to appeal on limited subject choice as the school we applied for often taking more than PAN numbers and still running undersubscribed. Does anybody have success with appeals I’m hoping it doesn’t come to this and place gets offered before an appeal