Didn’t get into any choices, placed into Catholic School - help

[morozova89]

Hi everyone, I’m really hoping someone might be able to offer some advice about secondary school appeals in London.

My son has been allocated a place at a Catholic secondary school, which we did not put on our application list. We are a different faith and not Catholic, so being placed in a faith school that isn’t ours feels very upsetting and uncomfortable for our family.

I’m also a single mum and have had to navigate this process on my own, and unfortunately my son’s dad hasn’t been helpful with any of it. I’m originally from Ukraine and not very familiar with the UK school system, so I did what I thought made sense at the time.

We listed four schools, three of which we genuinely believed were realistic choices based on distance and admissions. Sadly he wasn’t offered any of them. I realise now maybe I should have listed more, but I honestly didn’t know.

What has made it even more shocking is that all of my son’s close friends were offered places at our number one choice school, which is in our catchment area and part of the same federation as his current primary school. I know friendships aren’t a ground for appeal, but it has made the outcome quite difficult for him to understand.

My son was born in the UK, is in Year 6, and is doing well at his current primary school, so this has been a really confusing and upsetting situation for us.

I understand that appeals are usually made for a specific school rather than against the one offered, but being allocated a faith school that isn’t our faith and wasn’t on our list feels particularly difficult.

If anyone has experience with appeals, waiting lists, or what steps I should take next, I would be incredibly grateful for any advice. Thank you so much. 🙏

btw we are in London.

firstly, are you on the waiting list for the 3 you did put on the form? Make sure you are on all 3 waiting lists.

There is always lots of movement - how far are you from each school?

Rather unfair, as OP has said nothing about ofsted or results, only faith.

I never said OP did. Anyway it was rather rhetorical.

Check the GCSE results. You may find out that the Catholic school has way better results than non catholic that you preferred.
Bear in mind that Catholic schools in UK are usually better, with great ethos and kids behave better overall. These are not nun convents but only slightly religious schools. Many parents go to great length to secure the place in such school

We're not catholic but the Catholic schools in our city are highly.sought after and generally above average in terms of behaviour and academics. We are in the Midlands but sounds like it's a wider trend.

Again, that's only because they are socially selective.
Again, plenty of research on that.
Again, the infamous London Oratory, which was defeated in court because its admission policies were ruled discriminatory and unfair, is a perfect example of that.

Pretending to believe in one of the multiple deities worshipped on this planet, pretending to believe that a priest turns a wafer into the body of a deity, and believing in one of the ca. 40-50 denominations of Christianity do not make you a better parent or student.
If anyone disagrees, I'd love to hear why.

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks so much for all your replies!

I admit I made a mistake by not listing more schools (I listed 4). Again, I’m unfamiliar with the system and did my best to figure it out before applying but still, that’s my fault and I won’t blame anyone else.

However, for context -
The federation has two primaries and two secondaries. Most kids from the primaries end up in one of the two secondaries. That’s why I was so confused that we didn’t get into either of those secondaries. Eg my son’s friend, who lives next door, and has no sibling at said secondary (our first choice), got into the school. We live exactly 0.9 miles from the school. And I know of kids in DS’ class who live further away, that got into said first choice school.

Secondly, I am staunchly atheist after having a traumatic experience as a child with Russian Orthodox Church. I just do not see how we would “gel” with the community/ethos of the school given this.

I have since added other schools that are close to us to the list. As far as I understand we are automatically added to the waiting lists but I’m waiting for confirmation from the LA (haven’t been able to reach them by phone yet…)

I guess our grounds for appeal is proximity to school (25 minute walk) + the fact my son as attended the Federation’s primary. It also offers Japanese as a language which my son is very interested in doing. I don’t know if these are strong grounds for an appeal.

Out of 5 of his close friend group, he’s the only one that didn’t get into our number 1 school. I know that may not mean anything really but obviously has made things a lot more difficult for him emotionally.

thanks everyone again for your help.

Secondary school is not the same as primary school. You will hardly have any interaction with other parents in any secondary school.

And again, religious schools from your country are completely different schools than in UK where that religious aspect is very light as they all follow the same national curiculum

OP, you didn't answer the main questions.

The data should be published on the council's and/or schools; websites: what was the maximum admission distance of the schools you applied to, and what is your distance? Not in the past, but now.

Create a table with these columns:

• school
• my distance from school
• maximum admission distance March 2026
• maximum admission distance March 2025
• maximum admission distance August 2025

Last year's movement between March and August gives you an indication but is no certainty. Admission distances change over time. Where I live, there are two schools I like where we would have got in 3 years ago but not now.

In general, the main reason driving most of the movement in London is private schools. Many families applying to private also apply to good state schools. If they are accepted at private, they renounce the state school place, and other people move up the waiting list.
So most of the movement tends to be in the first 6 weeks, because private schools have deadlines for acceptance, but there can be movement till August (people moving out or people forgetting to notify the council they are going private).

Maximum distance of our number one school is 0.967 miles for 2026. We are exactly 0.9 miles away.

I haven’t had a chance to look at historic data yet, thanks for the tip. Will do that this week.

It sounds like you will be close to the top of the waiting list.
How did you measure the distance? The council use a set point at the school and for your property. You should be able to check this information with the council.

It sounds like you are at the top of the waiting list! Does the school use other admission criteria, too?

By the way, the council should have told you how you rank on the waiting list at the moment. Do you know?

As @LostMySocks said, ask the council for the exact distance from your house to the school, to be on the safe side.

With all the detail you have given I still think there must have been an admin error. Child next door, no siblings got into your first choice? Yes there may have been other factors but I would query the process. Good luck.

If the child next door was admitted it is probable that you are extremely close to the top of the waiting list
Or that they measured your address wrong
Or that the child next door may be adopted or have some other access to priority criteria.

Get your Ds learning Japanese on DuoLingo and doing Japanese language activities NOW! (‘Interested in’ needs to be proven, for an appeal)

If the child next door got a place at the preferred school, it is possible there’s been an error, although it’s also possible they were admitted under a higher admissions criterion (which you wouldn’t necessarily know about). It is certainly worth double-checking that you were placed in the right admissions category and the distance has been measured accurately using the admission authority’s system.

Faith schools often have criteria that put children of other faiths above those of no faith.

OP If he does have to attend you can withdraw him from worship and RE.

I’m curious how they’d know if we were of other faith, if any? It’s not like the asked during admissions. Also wonder what would happen if we were say Jewish or Muslim?

While I was baptised as Russian orthodox, he wasn’t. His dad is English and also an atheist. Not that any of this matters for the appeal it seems.

If it was an over subscription criteria for one of the schools you had put down, you would have needed to supply the additional info. As you didn’t apply to a school with a faith criteria, you weren’t asked for it.

They don't. Your faith has had no impact on you being offered this school.
The way the system works is that every applicant for every school is ranked against the specific admissions criteria for that school. If it is a faith school they may prioritise children of that faith or others - for example, an RC school might have practising Catholics prioritised over members of another Christian Church over those who don't go to any Church. (Not always, my DC went to a Cof E school that didn't have religion in it's admissions criteria at all, but it's not uncommon.) If you want your child to go to a faith school then generally you have to provide evidence such as a baptismal certificate and priest's letter re Church attendance in order for your child to be put into the higher priority category. If you don't provide this evidence you'll be placed in a lower priority group. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that all faith schools only take children who meet the faith criteria. They might, if it's a very popular school and lots of Catholics apply, but many (probably most) will fill up with children of other or no faith these days. My husband is a governor at an RC primary school and a relatively small percentage of the children come from families who are practising Catholics.
However, none of that applies to you. Presumably you only listed non faith schools so will not have provided any evidence of faith meaning that the LEA have no idea what, if any faith you are of. What has happened is that you haven't qualified for a place at any of the schools you expressed a preference for, so the LEA have followed procedure and allocated you the closest school with a place after everyone who could be allocated one of their preferences has been placed. Religion has had no impact on that decision. The school you have been allocated is presumably undersubscribed and relatively close to where you live - that's the only reason you have been offered a place there.
I agree with the good advice that you have had so far. You are very close to the distance cut off for your prefered option so do check there hasn't been an error. And make sure you are on waiting lists for all schools you prefer. You must be very close to the top for your first preference anyway. But don't rule out the offered school just because it's RC. There's a huge range of faith schools ranging from the very religious to those where it's really in name only and you'd barely notice, so do go and see for yourself.

RE is a compulsory subject in every school in UK regardless if it is religious school or comprehensive

Your rejection letter will tell you what category you were considered under and why you didn't get a place. What does that say?

They don’t know and they don’t take it into account when allocating places once non of your listed preferences could offer a place.

They simply offer a place in the nearest school that has places, whatever the faith of the school or yours.

The only exception would be if the nearest school with places would preclude your child, I.e they wouldn’t offer a boy a place in a girls school.

But I have a feeling that faith schools are not allowed to preclude children of other faiths or none if they have spaces once all their higher criteria offers are made.

So it would be the same if you were Muslim, Jewish, Zen Bhuddist, Hindu, Mormon…

All schools have to deliver the National Curriculum and that is what the LA is obliged to provide

it might be that neighbour is higher in the criterion than your child for the school.

My friends niece is on a guardianship order, and is either 1st or 2nd critieria (Which are usually things like EHCP/adopted/looked after etc) and essentially, on paper, has pick of any schools she likes int he whole country ut actually didn't get a place in preferred school because it was full of EHCP/First criteria and she didn't get in because she was further away... she had second choice (again far out of catchment)
if the admission critieria for the PAN of 150 is:

1. EHCP
2. looked after
3. siblings
4. catchment by distance
5. all others

and 189 kids on EHCP apply, then the 150 EHCP Kids with siblings would get allocated, then the EHCP in catchment ... its conceivable that the 150 would get a place before anyone else, even if they lived next to the school and had a sibling there ...

it's tricky!