We didn’t get any of our choices - appeals & what next

[Switchy111]

I’m devastated that we didn’t get any of our 3 choices.
we have been allocated a school, we never discussed or even considered as it is required improvement and 7 miles in opposite direction to where we work/ nearest town. I tried to put a positive spin on it but my son just cried and said he didn’t even know where it was.

His first choice school, offers aptitude places, which he passed the test for (we got a letter after test to say he was in top 15%, you don’t get exact score). Based on this I was quietly confident he might get through.

I would have been equally pleased with school 1, 2 or 3 - but to have missed all 3 is gutting. All 3 are outstanding and oversubscribed.

ive added him to the waiting list for all 3 schools and now starting appeals.

School 1 & 2 are effectively sister schools. So children take a single cat4 test for entry to both, the school then band the children into 5 groupings and take an equal number from this band (to prove they are taking a mix of abilities).

school 3 has faith criteria.

the basis of my appeal for school 1 is;
— the day before his cat4 test, he was ill - 16 hours before the test I had to take him to the gp and they diagnosed tonsillitis and gave antibiotics (I now have doctors notes to confirm this) therefore he testing ability was compromised and he is likely to have been incorrectly banded
-he has an aptitude for drama, which they have recognised, this school is a performing arts school gives him the chances to develop his aptitude, which other school cannot offer
-his dad, my husband, is acting as a carer for his father who lives 300m from the school (inside catchment). This means our son frequently needs to stay at his grandparents, and only this school would allow this with minimal impact on his schooling (my husband is registered with his gp as a carer, and is on the electoral role of address within catchment)

Appeal for school 2; (sister school of school 1, but single sex)

• same as above, in terms of cat4 test/ illness: antibiotics/ doctors notes to be provided

appeal for school 3:

• the independent application to the school was not competed correctly, i genuinely believed I had completed everything but hadn’t submitted the full application
• because of this the supporting evidence for faith criteria wasn’t considered
• i am now providing baptismal certificate, holy communion certificate and letter for priest to demonstrate with are practising catholics (school is actually CofE, but any faith is considered)
• we are a long term religious family, and need our son to be in an environment that fosters this

apologies this is very long, but just wanted peoples feedback or experiences.
can I boost appeals or add anything?
for example would a letter from his teacher or head teacher help, if added to supporting evidence.
is it worth mentioning in the appeal that we didn’t receive any of our choices and have been allocated an unsuitable school.

im so devastated for our son and for me/ our family. My husband has worked as a state school teacher for over 20 years, in good and outstanding school, so it’s a kick in the teeth that we can’t access the prvovision he has worked so hard to provide to other people’s children.

I know appeals are a longshot but feel like we have some strong points- rather than just saying we want him to go there.

if we are unsuccessful, we will need to remortgage the house for private school fees which would be awful…but i really don’t want him at a required improvement school.

there is no other school with spaces within 20 miles of us. It’s ridiculous.

It should be an aptitude test not an achievements to date test.

So who can do the best impression of a tree?

I don't know. Possibly picking up and reading through a previously unseen part?

Only one person has said what Im going to say, go and visit the allocated school, talk to them, show your son round and be positive, ask them about the RI areas and what are the plans about that.

I think the appeal points are really weak but you never know.

The best indicator of how a child does at school is their parents' commitment and engagement in education, learning and extra curricular activities, rather than the school or their peers per se.

Our son took 11+ and out of 4 schools we applied for he only got his last choice for now. He is on waiting lists for all 3 schools. If you know your son's positions on the waiting lists, I would do the research in order to find out how far the waiting lists go usually .e.g. what it was last year. Those WLs often go very far because some parents change their minds and choose private schools or other schools. I would not lose hope and stay optimistic. There is still a lot of time till September, and you can stay on WLs once he starts Y7 and change then as well (some children will be no-show, some will move homes, etc.) For example, we could see that the WLs for our son's schools move by 20-30 places till Sep, so it's likely he will get his 3., 2. or even 1. choice eventually, cause he got a borderline result for admission for all 3 of them.

So no practical evidence of any interest or talent in drama, just some random test results?

I don’t fancy your odds at all.

Yes, so our first choice is a new school (only 3 years groups)

its first criteria is catchment, but there’s not enough kids in the area to use all the places (as the catchment is a brand new hous

It's an aptitude test, it's supposed to measure potential rather than past experience, in the same way that verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests aren't linked to reading any given type of book etc.

The DS may or may not have experience of primary school/local drama groups at the age of 10/11, but aptitude tests are designed, as far as they can be, to allow for children who haven't always had the chance to do drama/an instrument/a language already.

Ah, OK - does that mean the banding tests only apply to out of catchment applicants?

It’s a school test - it’s part of the application process

not a random test, the school give 4 places based on the aptitude test

he passed the test, but didn’t get one of the 4 aptitude places

Yes exactly, so they take all sibling link, all catchment kids, all aptitude places, ehcp etc

then the spaces that are left are allocated based on the cat4 bandings

So school 1 is your nearest school but you are not in catchment for it?

Maybe I’m missing something, but you’re out of catchment for the school closest to you? Since you said that they took all of the kids in the catchment area, you must not be but you also said it was your closest school (I thought). Did you apply to any school for which you’re in the catchment?

It is somewhat more complicated when there's banding, though. There could be 4 places that open up in band 1, but none in band 3. So even quite a lot of movement can be no movement at all.

@Switchy111 if it's any consolation, a lif-time ago, dd got into a holy grail, banded cofe school, top band, church place. The sort of school that had multiple applocations for every single place. We had high hopes.

The reality was a toxic, dysfunctional melting pot on the skids. We removed her at the end of Y8 when the only available independent was the backstop application when she was 10/11. They did a great healing job and if we hadn't been able to pay, the local comp wpuld probably have been pastorally better than the supposedly elite cofe school, trading on its reputation.

Good luck.

This advice is not for “UK” as it isn’t relevant to Scotland. We don’t have to apply for schools and are allocated a place in the catchment school. You can choose to apply for a placing request to another school, but you always get a place in your local school. Which seems like a far more sensible system than the shitshow in Engalnd.

"Other than that places are allocated via a fair banding system and you think if he had scored differently there would have been fewer students in his band, giving him a better chance of a place? I am no expert on this but tbh it seems less than fair if the bands are set and then oh look! More students fall into the middle band so they have less chance of a place? Surely the bands are reset (as needed) to give a similar number in each one? So it (eg) there are 200 spaces and 600 took the test and applied, and there are four ability bands so 50 are taken from each band, you would hope that the bands would each have about 150 pupils, rather than the top band having 80 and the second band 200? Otherwise it’s hardly a fair banding test surely? The whole point of those tests as I understand it is not to be selective, but to ensure an even spread of ability?"

@clary It depends on the school. Some schools, such as Trinity Cathedral Academy say " The marks are divided into four bands and we are instructed how many children to take from each band e.g. if 40% of those applying are identified in band 2, then 40% of our intake has to be from this band. This ensures that the places offered reflect the ability range of our applicants."

Other schools, such as City of London Academy say "Approximately the same number of children will be admitted in each of the four bands so that each band represents 25% of the applicants."

So some schools adjust the boundaries to ensure that 25% of applicants are in each band, whilst others set a pre-determined threshold for each band, but then admit a proportional number of applicants from each band.

However, there are concerns that fair banding tests are not fair. https://comprehensivefuture.org.uk/how-fair-is-fair-banding/ "“If schools run poorly advertised tests on a Saturday, with offputting application forms, and then select bands from within the mostly middle class children sitting the test, it’s no surprise they end up with a skewed intake that is less diverse than it should be. It is high time the government ensured school admissions are proactively monitored to avoid this kind of selection by the backdoor.”

"

Because Scotland has c.5m people and England has c57m people. If we all moved to Scotland, then you'd have a similar shitshow on your hands in no time.

Are you sure about that? Because, for example, Northampton Schools say:

"Criteria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 will be applied strictly in the order stated above. Children allocated places under these criteria are included in the bands. These children will be allocated places from the bands first and this will determine how many places in each band remain, before Criterion 7 is then finally applied. The total number admitted from each band will be equal."

In other words, if there are 5 sibling link places, then they might all come from band 1, so the number of places in band 1 for criterion 7 will be reduced by 5. In the same vein, someone who was admitted under staff connection, would reduce the number of places in their respective band.

So the total number of places allocated to each band is 'fair' regardless of how it's made up.

OP - so did you apply to your catchment school, where you would have had priority?

I can see that with 3 slots on the form, it is really hard emotionally to take up a slot with a ‘banker’ school (a school that you are as certain as possible to get a place in, even if you don’t love it) rather than a ‘choice’ school) but it’s still critical to do so. I know your catchment school - or the banker you should have used - will now be full, but it would still be a school you would be placed high up the waiting list for through catchment priority. Definitely one to request to be added to the list for.

This sounds so difficult. I hope it all works out somehow.

I agree with the pp who said you could go and visit the school he has been allocated. It may not be as bad as you think. Even while you're appealing it might be a good idea to look at the "worst" case scenario, which may actually be absolutely fine

If you’re not in the catchment of your closet school (choice 1) which school are you in catchment for? Why didn’t you apply for that?

What is the significance of the grandparents house? Does dad live there or is it just to go to after school?

I think the GP's house is a bit of a red herring - it's a 'family/childcare' argument for the appeal but those don't have much weight.

When you say "Labour" do you mean "school population forecasts that have been predicting this issue for may years now"?

I recognise the two terms are confusing.

Inner London was hit first. It's feeding through to secondaries in more urban outer London now and primaries in suburban parts - I'm a primary governor and this is the first year we haven't been oversubscribed for reception on first preferences, and all local primaries are seeing a similar decline. Som have closed classes already and reduced their PAN.

And that's part of the issue. Place scarcity can actually be exacerbated because the funding model and funding settlement combined mean that running anything but full classes is financially ruinous for most schools. Many schools are taking preemptive action and reducing their PANs (and offerings) so they aren't stuck with an unsustainable half-full class of kids and have to do complicated composite classes.

I know secondaries in Ealing and Hounslow who have both recently reduced their PANs by 30 despite being nominally oversubscribed - so competition gets more fierce, not less, as the population decline works its way through the system.

Op, my dc have gone to a RI secondary. It's been great, my dc have been on trips, done dofe, been in plays, concerts and loads of sports teams. They have lovely friends and are high achievers academically.

Go and look at the school and give it a chance with an open mind.