Secondary school waiting lists Solihull and Birmingham

[Karpuz26]

Hello everyone,

After an anxious wait for offer day on 01st March 2023 my daughter wasn’t offered any of our 6 preference schools. Instead …We have been offered a local failing secondary school. A school which we made sure to visit for ourselves, the visit reaffirmed it was not an option to be put on our list.

Our preference schools were all realistic options.

So now we are left hanging on to hope through the waiting list process!

As of today, my daughter is 15th position on 1st choice, 59th on 2nd and 83rd on 3rd choice - the other three schools are in the high 100’s.

Does anyone have an experience of waiting list movements in birmingham/Solihull? I know the appeal deadline is 29th March, I’m hoping this will have some bearing although that may not favour our position. Are there so called ‘second rounds of allocations’? I read about these in other regions.

I can’t see how waiting lists move - the LA only ask parents to contact before 15th if they are refusing the offer. So that’s has now past leaving us in the above positions.

Has anyone been in my situation of waiting list positions that could share their experiences?

It’s an awful situation - I feel a have a dark cloud hanging over me and my daughter is so disappointed.

Any advice, experiences, opinion are most welcome!

Thank you for reading
Karpuz26

@Hunter2501 "more disadvantaged Coventry kids" is a very sweeping statement. I'm not local to Solihull but one of my university friends lives in Coventry and her DC go to Heart of England. Oldest DC - a Coventry kid- has been offered a place at Oxbridge college. These threads don't ever paint the full picture....

Sorry didn’t mean to cause any offence!

I was reassured by the open day that the large school element of Arden operates well.

they split the year group into two. There seems to be conflicting messages on the redevelopment of the site. It appears now that the house builders won’t be responsible for any redevelopment. Too costly and not worth it to them.

I did read about the schools building fund and I saw Saqib Bhatti had highlighted Arden getting a chunk of this. All too late though I imagine for our DC. These things can take years to get moving.

Acknowledged on drugs. I know there is no getting away from it. Anywhere.

Blythe Valley is under TGA catchment, in terms of distance, as Blythe Valley is closer to TG than HH, so they have higher advantage than you.

https://www.solihull.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/TGAS.pdf

However, many of them still can't get into TG this year due to baby boom year. You and pupil in Blythe Valley are on the same boat.

Heart of England is a perfectly good, proper comprehensive school with a wide range of pupils in terms of background.

Arden is very much the local school for a very wealthy area. Yes it does have a reputation for drugs problems but I think it's a hangover from the past and the local private schools are definitely aren't better.

Please remember the Solihull comps are generally very good indeed.

It’s a shared catchment with Light Hall. Given that TG is oversubscribed I’d have assumed Light Hall if I lived there.

TG is the only catchment school for Blythe Valley (the new builds by Bloor Homes and Crest Nicholson) .

@Hunter2501 thank you. I think that you touched a nerve I'm afraid. I'm very fond of friend's DC and delighted that they have an Oxbridge offer that they are highly likely to be able to take up following seven years at Heart of England. As @GuyFawkesDay says probably "Heart of England is a perfectly good, proper comprehensive school with a wide range of pupils in terms of background." My own DD2 attends an inner city comp which could be described in exactly the same way and is predicted for 7s and above across all ten GCSEs that she is taking. DD1 (very arty) has been accepted for her first choice of university course in September and I think gained a lot of social skills from being in that same very mixed setting of an inner city comp. She certainly has a strong sense of social justice and lots of empathy. My DN attends a grammar school and hasn't had such a wide exposure to different ways of living and his predicted A level grades are less than those DD1 attained last year.
I would say though that I'd be looking for a school that set by ability in English, maths and science from year seven onwards. Other subjects can be taught in a mixed ability group but the core subjects need ability groups so that all are taught appropriately. In DD's school the largest class groups are those who find the subject straightforward and the smallest classes are for those who find it challenging. I think that a reasonably capable teenager will probably be fine in a decent and large comprehensive school. If, as someone else said, Solihull comps are generally good then I doubt there's actually that much to chose between them.

Anyone had any luck yet?

Watching with interest. DC is in Y5 and we live in TG catchment, about 0.6 miles straight line distance. I’m starting to get a bit twitchy about the impact of the TG HH intake from 2024

No worries, Just 30 places from TGHH. Should be fine with TG catchment , but not remote catchment

Since the beginning of time HH have been in catchment for TG so no need to feel twitchy as it’s only this year that there has been an issue

Hi, we got offered out first choice place today - started at 23 on the waiting list.
We live right on the border of the TG catchment and got a place - interestingly enough we are still in the 50s for a place at Alderbrook

Great news @Hunter2501 !

That’s great news! I started at 32 and still at 32. Does not make any sense to me at all

One of the the things to think of re: Birmingham Schools is the 4 academies that take at 14/15

They are specialist academies - so for my DD we accepted the place at the local Secondary to us which was an ok secondary, with the intention of her then moving to Aston University Engineering Academy for Year 9 - looking at how they offered places we were fairly confident about her getting a place - and she did indeed move there for year 9 and loves it.

I think the The Birmingham Ormiston Academy specialises in creative, digital and performing arts.

@FancyFlapjack - there’s two BOA academies - one for performing arts and one for digital. They take for all round the county, as far as Shropshire.

What's the HH intake for TG

HH’s PAN is 30 so that is the maximum possible. It’s very unusual for every single child in a class to go to the same secondary school but I don’t know HH well enough to know whether it’s the norm there.