Currently on a secondary school waiting list - moving child a few weeks into the start of term?

[Turquoiseturtle3]

Hi all, with 2 weeks to go in slightly freaking out about the start of secondary school. We are currently on the waiting list for our top choice. At one point we were 3rd at the start of July but have now slipped to 10th. So the chances of being offered before term starts is now extremely low. I was hopeful we would be offered in the summer holidays and everything would work out. So we are now potentially facing a dilemma if we are offered once term has started. Has anyone moved their DC a few weeks into term? I am gutted he will miss out on the “getting to know you” stuff. Of course he might not be offered at all and this is also semi wishful thinking. But I have to be prepared.

The school he is currently going to is further away but he will know quite a lot of people from primary. Our first choice school he will know practically no one. Im worried about him making friends when groups have already been formed. But know this is probably short term pain. Any advice welcome. TIA

In the same boat, accepting DD will start the school we don't want but holding onto hope there might be some movement on waiting lists in first term.

Ok fair enough don't want to say reasons

Why would he go from 3rd to 10th

That’s a good point! I should find out when they start streaming.

People moving into the area and possibly people changing their minds or wanting a back up option. The people added would have been a living closer or satisfied one of the other criteria. It’s very frustrating to be so close and then move backwards.

To be honest I wouldn’t get your hopes up. We stayed at 7th on the list for five years and never got in. They rang every year asking if we wanted to stay on the list.

@Blondeshavemorefun also people are advised, if appealing for a school, to add their names to any other lists that might be a match. There may be people on the waiting list who are on several other lists

In terms of streaming/sets - If you end up getting a place at your first-choice place, do check what has happened already by the time your child joins. I know someone whose child joined a year late and was put into low sets for everything (one step up from the lowest-ability) because they had missed the assessments that would have been used for streaming and they didn't have the capacity to run the assessments again just for one pupil so they felt that was the safest bet. They weren't able to change the groups until the start of year 8, so it was a frustrating time for the child.

When do appeals usually take place? 8 people have been added after the transition day at the start of July/now. I would have thought if they were due to the appeals they would have been added on before July…

joined a year late sorry I was distracted and multi-tasking while typing - joined a term late (ie at the start of November, in an area where the year is considered as 6 terms that broadly follow the "half-terms" of other schools)

Then surely if they want to add their name they should be behind op son

They should be 10th if he was 3rd

2 more spaces refused and her son would get the space

Or not how it works ?

That’s really bad. Hopefully they would use the Sats results as an indicator or at least speak to the primary school.

@Blondeshavemorefun no, waiting lists are in criteria order not order of being added.

So if someone moves into the county and is 2 miles from this school and 1 mile from another, and op is 3 miles from this school, the new person might put themselves on both waiting lists, hoping for the 1 mile school. In the meantime, they would go above op for this school.

Sadly not. They go on the admission criteria - distance, siblings, ehcp and re rank every time there is a new application.

It'll all work out either way is my feeling. Kids move all the time, it's only a problem of they move repeatedly or at very difficult points.

Do NOT mention the second child in discussion with the first. Only make it about the first.

If he really doesn't want to move when the time comes I'd have a rethink.

Do you mean don’t consider the second child when making this decision?

That sucks

Why should a child moving to town in a closer house get up the list quicker

Because that's how the system works.
Lists are held in admission priority order, not based on how long you have been on the list. Distance is the 'tie break' within each category (normally).

In the same boat here too. Hoping for a miracle offer in the first week of September or early in the term but would consider a move at any point in Y7 at this point.

Fingers crossed for you. Where are you on the waiting list? Do you have any idea on movement last year?

At the end of the summer term we were #9 on the list. I think we might have scraped it last year at that position but obviously every year is so different so we're preparing positively for the offered school while quietly hoping for this option to come up...

Have you contacted the council to find out your latest position?

The new kids starting a couple of weeks into first term thing happens all the time, op. They seem to settle into friendship groups with very little problem.
To be honest, the friends kids make in the first few weeks aren't necessarily the same ones they'll have a couple of months down the line; Year 7 is a time of great change in that respect.

No - it's not managed by the council. I have to wait for the school to open in September to find out direct from them.

The councils normally have the year 7 waiting list for the first term, then they hand it over to the schools. But obviously this may vary.

Thanks - that’s really good to know and is reassuring. I think it’s just the initial discomfort of changing which would hopefully subside quickly