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.

OP says their first pref is their closest school.

I agree it is odd if there is no priority for the closest school.

Closest school doesn’t necessarily mean their catchment school depending on boundaries.

Im so confused what your husband and his parents housing has to do with it? All of your appeal arguments seem incredibly weak

She says in a later post that it is her closest school but that she is out of catchment.

Which implies that she does have a different, catchment, school.

A catchment school not being the closest is reasonable common, as schools are rarely perfectly symmetrically placed within a community. Catchments (rather than simple distance) are in fact most often used in this type of ‘unusually distributed schools’ situation, to avoid having some people close to 2 schools with the probability of getting a place in either, while others are far from both and have no probability of a place in either.

The ‘choice’ rhetoric disguises the fact that this is in reality a way of trying to match supply and demand for school
places, where as many children as possible have a good chance of getting a place in 1 school, and the system knows which school is your preference should you (when the algorithms are run) have a chance of a place at more than one.

Yes valid points about the catchment school vs closest. In fact something like that is the case near me.

So @Switchy111 did you apply to your catchment school? If not can you go on the WL for it?

Closest only matters if distance is used as a tie breaker. This school might be the closest, but because it uses banding, aptitude, etc., then it's impossible to tell how likely it is to get in and it isn't a 'safe' bet, which is the purpose of choosing your closest school. The theory goes that with non-selective mainstream schools, the closer you are to the school, the higher up the chain you'd be, so the more likely you are to get a place. All bets are off when it's a school that uses banding or lottery systems.

Thanks all for commentary and feedback

I can see people generally think I’ve played some type of game, and it’s backfired. This really isn’t the case. I applied for 3 outstanding schools and got none of these - which ultimately is just very unlikely and unlucky, given his classmates and rugby team mates have secured spots at the very same school.

we weren’t just fixed on one school, I was open to any of the 3, but unfortunately none have come through.

my husband was a year 6 teacher for 12 years before becoming a head, so we are not idiots. We know the processes and risks.

i was hoping to get some genuine insight about appeal process but it has felt like a bit of an interrogation!

we are pretty unfortunate to live in a nice village, but deal with the situation that the only school we are in catchment for has a knife problem and requires improvement.

he goes to a very small school (11 kids in year 6), and they have no onwards school as such, so there isn’t an obvious default school.

We probably should have moved house prior to application window, but I was optimistic as so many of his peers have been successful in securing spots at these schools.

My catchment school requires improvement and has a knife problem, so no we didn’t put this down.
our catchment school is still 7 miles from us.

So the school you have been allocated is the catchment school?

Sorry it has felt like an interrogation but people can't really advise on the appeal without understanding the dynamics such as the banding,

So this goes back to the problem I talked of earlier. If your closest non-selective school was not put on your CAF, you may find that you are refused transport costs.

How bad is the knife problem? I think most schools will have had at least one or two incidents where a knife has been taken to school, but I appreciate that some schools have more persistent difficulties.

Why didn’t you fill in spots 4 5 and 6 on the form?

As several of us have noted, many LAs only offer three preference slots, I don’t know where the op is but we only have three where I live.

@Switchy111 isit your catchment school you have been offered?

We only have 3 preferences - I wouldn’t have left 3 spaces blank!!!

We've only ever had 3.

Op - what is it RI for? What are the details of the report, what do others who go there say? Find people like you with children there. Find out about their experiences and opportunities.

As I said my dc went to a RI undersibscribed school. They are well behaved, bright, sporty, join in with everything. They've had a great time!

Yes they've seen assaults and police involvement and almost sorts of things I would rather they hadn't but they have lovely friends, great experiences and have or will get 7-9 grades.

RI doesn't have to be a disaster at all (and your dh will know that Ofsted isn't everything).

Not that it counts for everything but have you read the ofsted report for the school that got RI? Was it in all areas? Have a read of it.

Also, like you I could only put down 3 schools when my dc were that age.

All the best.

Coming from such a small school, it's easy to see why RI and 'knife problem' are alarming you, but really do go and see it if you haven't. It's easy to be scared off by such reputations when the daily reality for the vast majority of pupils is fine or even better. Course you want outstanding, we all do, but I still think your top 3 strategy was risky rather than just getting an unlikely/unlucky result. What his classmates/team mates get is irrelevant unless they live in your house and have the same banding test outcomes etc. It still makes sense to put a catchment school when the alternatives are so sought after. Your best bet was the church school, so the application screw up was the unlucky thing. You've had advice on the appeal cases, which are unfortunately not strong, but it's always worth a try.

The waiting lists are more likely, but you should get on more than just those you (and everyone else) wants and try to be open-minded not alarmist. Nice villages can be bubbles and most kids cope better beyond them than we give credit for.

Whatever your appeal, please do not use the phrase “an unsuitable school” when talking about the school you do not want your child to attend. It might not meet your criteria, and it is a shame that despite your husbands experience as a head teacher you were unable to fill in the application form correctly to get the religious, rugby playing school you think is suitable for your child, but other children will be attending the “unsuitable” school and for all you know a member on the Admissions Panel could have close associations with it.

And surely, living as you do in a small “nice” village , you must have realised that travelling to school in Y7 and beyond was going to come up as an issue. I imagine all the secondary age children in your little village have to travel considerable distances to school.

This post is just dripping with derision. There is no need to be snarky about the ‘nice village’ in which the Op lives. It is understandable that a parent would want to secure the ‘best’ school she can for her son.
And frankly - some schools are unsuitable. Generally, due to badly behaved, badly brought up children, lacking parental guidance and involvement. You can pretend that isn’t the case but it is.

As this is a new school, it is entirely possible that catchment/distance has changed since the OP first moved to the village.

I am not saying there are not bad schools, and of course parents want the best for their child which is why most take great care with their application form, but I am pointing out that using the phrase “an unsuitable school” in an appeal is not going to win friends or influence the panel favourably . And the OP used the term “nice village” before saying that the nearest school was 7 miles away, which most people would have realised might cause issues both with school allocation and travel for secondary school.

@viques of course there are schools that people don't want their children to go to. Schools they might consider 'bad'. It isn't something to say at appeal, because all schools are deemed suitable for all pupils if they are open, but the reality is that nobody wants their child to go to a school that has a knife problem. I guess my question is how much of a problem is it? But I can understand @Switchy111 's disappointment. She clearly had a plan in her mind that her DS would be going to a certain school, or at least a certain set of schools, and that hasn't come to pass. It's a shock, and I can see why it feels unfair.

Is the one you have been allocated better than your catchment school?

Im not sure if every area is the same, but for our area each church keeps and submits registers and you need to go 3 out of 4 Sundays from year 4 to year 6 to meet the faith criteria here.

I’ve not once used the phrase ‘unsuitable school’. Doing a quick scan only you have used that phrase.

I haven’t mentioned the allocated school in my appeal as this is irrelevant to the appeal. I asked in my original post if I should mention that we didn’t get any of our choices - purely to illustrate that this isn’t me being offer #2, but wanting #1.

my husband is the head of a school that he has brought up from RI to good through blood sweat and tears - and it an amazing school. we are in no way snobs, we just know our child and I know where he needs to be.

if I was the parent of a child with SEN or mental health issues no one, I’m sure, would dispute me being selective.

we have the option of either outstanding schools or RI, and by trying to get my son into outstanding provision I’m a fraudster/ idiot/ snob!

Your original post quite literally says you have been allocated an unsuitable school