Late applications/appeal/11+ bucks

[beanhunter]

Hi. We have just moved to Buckinghamshire from a non 11+ area 100 miles away. Eldest due to go into year 7 in selt 2023 but will be assessed for round 1 on our old address. She has the option to sit a late 11+ but has had no prep and I have no idea whether she would even get a space if she passed as a late applicant.

we put the local comp as choice 1 but historically it’s always oversubscribed so I can’t see she will get a round 1 place based on our home address at the time of application and will therefore be offered a school 100 miles away. (I now see that prior council advised me wrongly to only put one bucks school and 3 for prior home local authority)

how do I best approach this after offers day? Do I appeal based on distance (but can I only do this in round 2 due to our address move timing?) - the local comp is 1.2 miles away and we are well within catchment. Next nearest state is 5 miles I think . Or do I just wait and hope she gets in off the waiting list? What about the 11+? If she gets over the magic mark can I appeal for a grammar on the same grounds? The system seems not very transparent and the council haven’t been the most helpful in telling me how to approach. Clearly she can’t go to a school 100 miles away.

@Asal86 it won't help your DC for main round 2025 entry, but if you want to object to a school’s determined admissions policy for the following intake, keep an eye out for it being published in early March. Between then and mid-May is the window of opportunity to submit an objection to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. You can set out your objection to the school in question including / excluding criteria which cause injustice to certain groups and fall foul of the Admissions Code.

However, in the meantime, I would suggest having a read of the Admissions Code itself, with regard to the actual requirements wrt oversubscription criteria. Unfortunately, not having a 'children of staff' criterion (let alone 'children of staff at a completely unrelated school') is not a requirement and an objection to the school not including it really won't be upheld.