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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

National Offer Day - 1st March. Anybody else anxious?

286 replies

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 15:22

I feel like a woman on the edge. Am unbelievably anxious about 1st March. Made my peace a long time ago with the fact DD won't get a place at our nearest secondary (within easy walking distance) because it's so oversubscribed. All her friends and most other children from her school will go there. We live a tiny bit further away and just won't get in, particularly as I understand it's a big birth year.

Would be happy with either our 2nd or 3rd choice schools. They're further away and not as popular but we'd have got a place at them in previous years as we're in catchment and just within the distance they usually offer.

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed. I'm worried that we now won't get a place at the schools that would previously have been 'bankers'. Our other preferences are too far away. We won't get a place at them. Just put them down because there was nowhere else.

There are a couple of hugely undersubscribed and really poorly performing schools in neighbouring towns within the borough. From everything I've read and from looking at Y6 leavers destination info from previous years, I'm absolutely convinced we'll be allocated one of them. They're the schools people get allocated when they only put one choice down and don't get it.

I'm so anxious about it. Can't think about anything else and am driving DH mad. Am managing to hide it from DD but know she'll fall apart on Tuesday. She's prepared to go to school without her friends but not to a completely unknown school in another area.

It's going to be a long few days...

OP posts:
PatriciaHolm · 04/03/2022 16:39

Phew! Glad it's all sorted for you.

Bibadoabo · 02/03/2025 21:42

Tick tock… 😬🙏🤮🧐😅

drspouse · 02/03/2025 21:51

I'm waiting to hear but DD is adopted so should get first choice but we adopted from overseas and her older brother didn't get first choice of primary school 9 years ago so I'm still a bit nervous. But more about the LEA not knowing what they are doing than us not sorting it out in the end

drspouse · 02/03/2025 21:54

... I didn't realise this was old but I guess this year's wait is on!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/03/2025 22:39

drspouse · 02/03/2025 21:51

I'm waiting to hear but DD is adopted so should get first choice but we adopted from overseas and her older brother didn't get first choice of primary school 9 years ago so I'm still a bit nervous. But more about the LEA not knowing what they are doing than us not sorting it out in the end

The Admissions Code specifically includes children who were adopted from overseas care (it was updated in 2021). If you provided evidence of this, there's no issue.

Anxietyqueeen · 03/03/2025 09:06

We didn't get first choice :(

drspouse · 03/03/2025 12:13

Sorry to hear that. Is second choice ok?

@NeverDropYourMooncup what the LEA is supposed to do and what they actually do are not always the same thing...

We did, but then so did DD's friend whose family live miles from the school in question which is heavily scored on church attendance and they don't attend AFAIK. Maybe I've missed them becoming devout Christians or him getting an EHCP or maybe our area is benefitting from lower birth rate this year.

So no hassling the LEA at least.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 03/03/2025 13:39

drspouse · 03/03/2025 12:13

Sorry to hear that. Is second choice ok?

@NeverDropYourMooncup what the LEA is supposed to do and what they actually do are not always the same thing...

We did, but then so did DD's friend whose family live miles from the school in question which is heavily scored on church attendance and they don't attend AFAIK. Maybe I've missed them becoming devout Christians or him getting an EHCP or maybe our area is benefitting from lower birth rate this year.

So no hassling the LEA at least.

True. But most if not all secondary schools are their own admissions authorities in some areas now, so what the LEA do isn't as relevant now, especially when it's done electronically so the selections you made, boxes ticked and evidence uploaded is accessible to the school.

drspouse · 03/03/2025 14:57

I have a feeling the school (which is an academy of one, and in a neighbouring LEA) would be even LESS likely to understand the concept of "adopted from overseas" but might be more efficient (could hardly be less efficient than our LEA, the primary school is a community school so it was all their fault).

PanelChair · 03/03/2025 16:27

Anyone with questions about appeals or other aspects of school admissions would do best to start their own thread, with some key words in the title. Threads with broad titles like “secondary school appeal” often become a tangle of overlapping conversations about different children in different circumstances - much better to have a separate thread for each.

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