Grammar school place waiting list

[hyrush]

Hello everyone,

my son sat 11+ exam at The king’s school Grantham passed but he haven’t got a place by 2 marks and on the waiting list at 15th place. How likely he’ll get a place?

and he got offered a school which requires improvement and not very happy about it. Is it better if I appeal?

I am first time parent of a secondary school so don’t have much knowledge about.

please help me out.
thank you.

Can you demonstrate that there was a reason he missed the score and could still benefit from the selective education? Are there other schools he could join wl of which are preferable to allocated? What was your back up?

He prepared within short time frame but will that be okay. He is very academic and he was not offered any of the school we applied. And LA offered a school which requires improvement. He is devastated, and says doesn’t want to go school.

Why was he not offered others, you can appeal those too and may have a better chance of success. Highlight activities which suit your dc, such as an engineering club if he is strong at maths and hopes to take it as a career but not his academics as such. Does his primary head support your grammar appeal?

So is the 'RI' school the only one in the area that you would have got, anyway? Or are there schools that you didn't name as preferences, that

• with hindsight, wouldn't be too bad, really (and better than the 'RI' one) and
• for which, if you made a late application now, your DS would be ranked further up the waiting list and stand a better chance of the waiting list moving enough for, than the grammar and your other original preferences?

There's nothing to stop you appealing for all the schools you listed as preferences, and for any additional schools you apply for now and are refused - you can always withdraw your appeal(s) if a place is offered at a school you are happy with.

Have you and your DS actually visited the allocated school, or are you just going on hearsay? Is it the specific offered school that your DS is upset about, or the fact that he didn't get his first preference, the grammar?

Years back now, but when our DD was offered a place at our nearest undersubscribed school, the other side of town and one she hadn't visited (I was away for work on the night of their open evening and DH didn't fancy traipsing off with at least two of the 3 DC in tow to look at a school we were unlikely to name) and fresh out of Special Measures to boot, I rang up on national offer day and arranged a visit. Result, we were pleasantly surprised at what the school had to offer and DD spent a happy year there until she eventually got a place at her first preference, a grammar school, late in the summer term.

The exams are meant to be taken unprepared so preparing within a short time frame will be instantly dismissed. Also, he passed so they know he’s of the required standard - but so are the 14 people ahead of him on the list. Your best bet would be to get on the waiting lists for the other schools you listed. There’s lots of movement between now and September so you may well be offered a place at one of them. You can continue to be in the waiting lists first for the grammar.

One really important thing, please do not turn down the place he has been offered thinking this will force the LA hand to offer you a place. It won’t. If you do so the LA has no further obligation to you and you will be on your own with waiting lists/ appeals etc with the possibility that if they don’t work out your son won’t have any place at all in September. Staying on the list for the school you don’t want will not affect any appeals or waiting lists, and if in September he hasn’t had any other offers you can decide whether he goes there or not.