2024 waiting list/appeal support thread

[Hopeful88]

I thought I'd start a support thread for everyone in the same position - either waiting on appeal outcomes or hoping for a secondary school place from a waiting list.
I've read all the advice I can and I'm doing the best I can but I'm still struggling with the unknown.
We're currently in the 20s on the waiting list for our first choice school and an unknown number for the second choice.
Fingers crossed for everyone in the same position. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

It is true for the two Academies near us, yes. They run their own lists so nothing moves in the summer.

However I would expect movement in the one or two days the school opens before the beginning of term; by that time everyone will have decided on their school and places may open up literally within the last 24 hours. I have known this happen to a friend of mine!

There’s a sister school where she is now 5th but the council seems to run their list. It’s such a gamble but I think we will keep her home in September and see if anything comes through rather than send her to the allocated school. We can also submit a late appeal which won’t be heard until mid September.

Sorry to hear about the waiting list. There might still be hope in the next couple of weeks as acceptances filter through from appeals and other waiting lists. Someone I know was given a week to decide whether to accept a place, then the place they give up will be offered out. Wishing you luck - I'm still feeling hopeful for you.

Thanks everyone :)

I’m digging out letters and anything I can use for the appeal of it comes to it. For example DD has a history of unexplained tonic-clonic seizures and it would be better if she was with her friends who know about her condition. I’m not sure if this would help our appeal?

It certainly won't do any harm. It will be stronger if you can get a letter from a medical professional saying that it would be helpful if she is with her friends. It probably won't carry a huge amount of weight, particularly if there is no supporting letter from a medical professional, but it may help a little.

focus on what the school you want has to offer.

We won our appeal on the following grounds;

• ethos of the school fit our family values:
• school offered extra curriculars that our child already did, that no other school did
• friendship groups/best friend at new school
• travel logistics

we had letters from primary saying he needed allocated school, letters from youth leader, letter from friend with background in family law about need to be at the school

some on MN discouraged our appeal due to lack of medical grounds, but we still won.

Concentrate on why that school and no other is the right one, and why your child will benefit that school.

HI! With the summer holidays looming, I just wanted to say good luck to everyone still waiting for the place they want. Please update us at the start of the new academic year on how it went.
I am currently chatting to our neighbour who needs to apply to secondary for their son next year. They are completely convinced they will easily get into the school we only got via appeal. I really feel for him as this definitely won't happen, in particular as this school attracts a lot of pupils who might have gone private if there wasn't the threat of the 20% VAT rise - so the next school year will only be more competitive.

Sending lucky thoughts to those still waiting. Apparently there's lots of movement in the first week of school, I hope everyone gets the outcome they're wanting. 🤞🏼

Thanks @Hopeful88

We are still no1 for our first choice. The school said a couple of weeks ago that they were 13 over PAN but I rang the council this morning who said that they were only 6 over PAN - I don’t know if the council are wrong or just up to date, 🤞 for the latter.

DD is pretty musical and our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice schools all have music scholar places for 10% of the PAN. From 1 September we can apply to be on the waiting list for those spaces, we’ve done a few mock tests and she seems to be comfortably above the pass mark on the aptitude test, so if a space comes up there then we should have a good shot… Our second choice school has a major shortage of her instrument for their orchestra at the moment too according to her teacher who also teaches there.

Finally, we can submit a late appeal for our first choice school in the first 2 days of September and it will be heard mid September so that is a last resort. DD has fairly major anxiety about being separated from her friends again, we are late applicants due to an international move that went wrong when my husband was made redundant and we ended up having to move back to the uk after losing our visa, she really doesn’t need another totally new start in such a short space of time… what kind of evidence would we need for this? A letter from a doctor?

Also - the kings speech is tomorrow and it doesn’t look like private school VAT will be in it… one to watch for sure!

I’ve only skimmed the list of bills outlined by the King’s speech and can’t see the VAT on school fees. Hopefully that has a good impact on those waiting for state school places to be freed up by dithering private schoolers.

It looks as if this has in fact been mentioned - look at 11:41.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c250v53jz5dt

This will have a massive impact on the school we got through appeal - it's in an affluent area in which many families will be borderline between private / state. So grateful we got in!

It was definitely mentioned. It was worded as something like “Remove the exemption for value added tax on private school fees”

The VAT change wasn’t expected in the King’s speech as it doesn’t require a change of law. It’s due in the first Labour budget which will be in the autumn.

Ah thank you and thanks also for the link. I will take some time to read now.
This will also have a big impact on the school we won a place at on appeal

After telling us the school was 6 over PAN, and then a few days later a separate council official told my husband that the school was 1 over PAN. The council is now insisting that they do not have that data and have never had that data for any school in the LA. They say it’s not possible I was told that 🤷‍♀️ if they do not have data on how many spaces there are at each school then how do they know whether to send out offers?

Is it likely they weren’t meant to because the data isn’t reliable and are now gaslighting me? The school admissions officer won’t be back in school until the day before school starts. I really don’t want to buy a whole uniform for another school if she will get an offer in the first week 😫

It sounds more like it could be the person you've just spoken to has got it wrong. They should hold that data for most schools, ours get published on the council website.

I would order two sets of uniform but keep the tags on both. I still have a strong feeling you'll get in. 🤞🏼I'm sorry you're still in limbo with it.

I called and my husband called on different days, I spoke to a man and he spoke to a woman (today) who said the data didn’t exist. I asked the man who told me it didn’t exist to check with a colleague as we had been given it before and he said his colleague is the most experienced person in the team and he confirmed it doesn’t exist…

it definitely feels like they weren’t meant to tell us about it.

That's very strange indeed. How frustrating.

It’s really odd. The most likely scenario I can think of is that the data isn’t very up to date and they aren’t meant to let parents know about it, but instead they are just telling me it doesn’t exist… I could FOI it I guess?

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing.
Sending lucky thoughts to those still waiting and support for anyone who has accepted their next option. I hope all the soon to be Y7 children have a good and happy year ahead of them.

Sadly we’re still in the same position as we were in July, except now DD has bonded with girls in her tutor group she met on open day and so is absolutely set against moving school should the opportunity arise

We’re in the same position as before but that’s expected as the school said they won’t be responding to emails until Monday next week… school starts on Tuesday.

DD does not want to go to her assigned school so we’re going to keep her at home and try and figure something else out if a place doesn’t come up in the first 2 weeks. AFAIK we are still number 1 but they don’t update the waiting lists over the summer and we don’t know how over-allocated the school is either.

Fingers crossed those still waiting get some good news once schools open back up. I’ve had 2 friends decide to move house over the summer so their school places will be free shortly - things do move a lot over this six weeks of silence. Good luck!

Thanks @AllSuggestionsTaken I've just confirmed with the council that we won't be taking up that offered space. Hopefully we've made the right decision.

Our problem is that we do not know if the school is under PAN, at PAN or even 10+ over PAN as nobody will give us that information.... at the peak they were something like 15 over PAN.

The school won't accept phone calls and they do all their own admissions separate from the council so we are hoping for an email on Monday.