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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Online application for secondary school failed to submit

157 replies

NH78 · 08/01/2023 20:42

Hello

I am unbelievably stressed and any advice would be greatly received.

We completed and submitted our application form for DS secondary school on 28 October - three days before the deadline.

On 14 December I accidentally logged into the e-admissions website instead of DS school to check his dinner money account. Once logged in, to my absolute horror, I saw “application not submitted”. I could not believe it!

I immediately re-submitted the application and emailed the LA e-admission team and explained what had happened - their response was simply that the application is late and will not be looked at until after 1 March (National Offer Day) when all on time applications are processed.

I emailed the Headteacher at DS school, who emailed the head of admission’s and asked that under the circumstances our application could be considered as “late with good reason” but this was refused.

There are three decent schools near us and one bad one, which always has spaces left. As our application will not be looked at until after 1 March, it is inevitable he will be offered a place at the bad school.

I am distraught. I haven’t spoken to DS about this - he is going to be crushed!

We will obviously appeal but not sure on what grounds.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Many thanks,

NH78

OP posts:
LightSpeeds · 08/01/2023 20:50

Really sorry to hear this. I've got no advice I'm afraid...

Angiemum24 · 08/01/2023 20:53

Contact the council

Chatrattoria · 08/01/2023 20:53

Have you received an email confirmation to say you had actually submitted in October? Or did you just think you’d applied but accidentally hadn’t completed the process?

Ihatethenewlook · 08/01/2023 20:53

What a horrible situation. I don’t think there are any grounds for appeal though. There will be a lot of people appealing with very good reasons why their children may need to go to that school. Unfortunately I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with failing to submit an application in the first place.

Waterlooville · 08/01/2023 20:55

You could ask your local councillor if they would consider advocating for you?

Ihatethenewlook · 08/01/2023 20:55

Chatrattoria · 08/01/2023 20:53

Have you received an email confirmation to say you had actually submitted in October? Or did you just think you’d applied but accidentally hadn’t completed the process?

I didn’t want to put blame on the op but I was thinking the same. There must have been some sort of confirmation email following a page confirming the application. I’m not sure how it’s not gone through with no one noticing.

PinkFrogss · 08/01/2023 20:57

You’ll have to start building appeals for the other schools and keep your fingers crossed. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying

RoseslnTheHospital · 08/01/2023 21:00

I have a confirmation email showing the preferences I selected which was sent to me after submitting the application. Do you have the same OP? Or did you just think you'd submitted it, but there's no evidence that you did?

LizzieVereker · 08/01/2023 21:00

I am sorry you find yourself in this situation. Assuming your DS doesn’t get a place at your preferred school, to appeal you need to show that the detriment to your DS not going to that school is greater than the detriment to the school of him being added when they are full.
If you think he has an additional learning, medical or psychological need that would create that detriment then you might want to start accruing evidence now, from your GP and Primary SENCO.
If there isn’t such a detriment I’m afraid there’s not much else you can do, and it might be better to start preparing to support him through transition to the other school.

Lougle · 08/01/2023 21:02

The good news is that you can appeal for any school, for any reason, and that appeal will be heard fairly, without regard for the reason that he didn't get a place at the school.

Start compiling a list of all the reasons that you want your DS to go to the school that you would have applied for if it had been submitted. You can appeal as soon as the offers come through.

Rogue1001MNer · 08/01/2023 21:02

Probably it'll be considered a late application, unfortunately.

You'll be considered in the second round.

And, of course you'll appeal.
You might get lucky. Especially if the year group is a small cohort/lower birth year.

Oblomov22 · 08/01/2023 21:03

Sorry to hear this. Did you submit, leave, go back in and check? Did you get the email? Or just thought you had and now realise you hadn't finished the submission?

RandomMess · 08/01/2023 21:08

Thing is it's not always obvious that you should receive a confirmation email.

Did it clearly state on the application that you should?

redskydelight · 08/01/2023 21:42

Is it a school you would have easily got into if the application had been submitted on time?

If so, I imagine you have a very good chance of getting in via the waiting list as there is always movement after National offers day. So don't panic yet.

Original poster
NH78 · 08/01/2023 21:53

Yes, it’s our nearest school and is next door to his primary school. I think DS would have definitely been offered a place if this hadn’t happened.

I feel sick!!

OP posts:
Unicorn2022 · 08/01/2023 22:18

There's not a lot you can do except hope for the best. Hopefully you will get a place. They won't accept that the application somehow failed to submit as they would expect you to check that it had gone through and you had received a confirmation.

PuttingDownRoots · 08/01/2023 22:21

If its any consolation... youvare likely to be very near the top of the waiting list and they can move a lot. There is hope.

Pipsquiggle · 08/01/2023 22:52

You need to start reading all the admissions information / criteria / procedures. Particularly the 2nd round process - should you apply now or on the 1st March? Timing of admin is crucial when applying outside of the normal time lines.

You need to start getting all the information on appeals.

You need to start compiling your appeals admission. You could even get in touch with an appeals specialist - you may have to pay for this.

Get in touch with the council, Councillor, your MP, your current Head teacher and the secondary school - they may have a nugget of advice that could be helpful.

Pipsquiggle · 08/01/2023 23:13

Basically you need to be 100% on top of your admin now so that your DS is number 1 on the waiting lists of all your preferred schools as it is possible there will be movement between March and September

prh47bridge · 09/01/2023 00:15

Do you have evidence that you submitted the application when you say you did? A confirmation email, for example? If you do, you have a very strong case for appeal on the grounds that you submitted your application on time but, due to a malfunction in the council's IT system, your application has wrongly been treated as late.

If you do have evidence, I would send a copy to the council now and ask them to reconsider. If they refuse, you will be able to add the council's unreasonable behaviour to your appeal.

Unfortunately, if you don't have evidence, it will be your word against the council's, so it will be difficult to persuade an appeal panel. However, you can still win an appeal by showing your son will be disadvantaged by not being admitted and that this outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with an additional pupil.

Thingsthatgo · 09/01/2023 09:26

I wonder if it's worth trying to find other people this has happened to. If it was a problem in the system, there will be others in your situation.

poobaloo · 09/01/2023 09:31

Oh no OP! I was really worried about something like this happening that everything got checked at least three times to ensure it was all done correctly. As others have asked, did you get any emails/texts to confirm the application at all so showing it was a mistake from their side rather than yours?
If not, then appeal is the only way. Where I live there is a lot of movement between offer day and starting in September. I know quite a few families that were offered schools way down their preference list but gradually worked their way up over the months. All I can say is good luck!

RandomMess · 09/01/2023 09:34

My starting point is what did the application system say about how you would know it had been successfully submitted.

Did it say you should receive an email or allocate you a submission reference?

MintChocCornetto · 09/01/2023 09:39

No advice but fingers crossed

I will say though that I work really closely with our school admissions officer and there is always movement in the list of offers and even confirmed places, this continues right into September when children we expect don't turn up as they have gone somewhere else.

lanthanum · 09/01/2023 11:08

They'll send out the offers in March, then look at the late applications and add them into the system. At that point, he is likely to go to the top of the waiting list for your nearest school (unless there's another late application living nearer). It then only takes one child to decline the place (because they're going private, or moving area), and he's in. I suspect it's unusual for there not to be any movement (if you ask the school concerned, they may be able to tell you how much movement there usually is).

It will probably be absolutely fine - but unfortunately you've got three months until you know that.