Secondary admissions quandary - stuck between two LEAs with different admissions policies

[Cornishmumofone]

Hi! I'm looking for advice ahead of secondary applications next autumn (closing 31 October 2027, for September 2028 entry).

Our situation: we live in Southampton (so Southampton City Council is our home local authority for admissions), but DD attends primary school in Eastleigh, which is in Hampshire.

• Southampton secondary admissions rely heavily on feeder schools. My daughter's primary is not a feeder school for any Southampton secondary, so she won't qualify under that route.
• Hampshire secondary admissions rely mainly on distance from the school, with a small number of specifically named "linked schools." DD'sprimary is not a linked school for any Hampshire secondary, and we live too far from any Hampshire secondary to qualify on distance alone.
• We are within 800m of a lovely Southampton secondary school, but because it is not a feeder route for us, we won't get in.

When we applied for DD's primary place, this wasn't an issue - the feeder-school policy was introduced after she had already started (it changed when she was in Year 1).

We can list three preferences. The usual advice is to include one "realistic" school, but neither authority's criteria works in our favour as we are bottom of the list for both authorities' admissions policies.

Has anyone navigated a similar cross-border situation? The headteacher of DD's school has been spectacularly unhelpful and I'm so stressed. D is on the waiting list for other local primary schools, but they are all oversubscribed, so we're really stuck. (Two local secondary schools accept 10% of pupils on specific criteria - music or performing arts. One tests them in early October, so we would know if that is a possibility; the other tests them in January after applying, so it might be a wasted application).

There is an undersubscribed school 45 minutes away (on the other side of the city). It is rated 'Requires Improvement' and has a terrible reputation. I won't put it on my list, but am assuming it is where DD will be allocated. Public transport to get there is dire and it would not be safe to cycle there.

If anyone has any recommendations for who can help us, I would be so grateful. We are not in a financial position to move house or pay for private education. There are no grammar schools in this area, so that is not an option either. I'm really stressed and sad as DD is a well-behaved and hardworking child who doesn't mind being separated from her friends for secondary school, but she really wants to go somewhere that will support her education.

Right, I think I've worked out the primary school. Crestwood & Toynbee are the preferred options. If the school has its first Yr 6 intake this year, Hants won't have had to deal with secondary school moves before.

I suggest that you contact Hants CC and ask which secondaries your school will feed into. They probably haven't updated the wrbpages yet. Don't just assume that someone else will be nudging them. The pupils from your school must be going somewhere in 2027 and it will become a bigger issue year on year.

If you mean OP should propose a change to admissions arrangements so that her child’s school becomes a feeder for one or more secondaries, any outcome will be too late for her child to benefit from it in Y7. For arrangements which are to apply for entry in September 2027, the statutory consultation had to completed by 31 January 2026.

No, just ask them. None of us know if Hants have it in hand already or not. However, as this is the first group of year 6 pupils moving to Toynbee or the like in 2027, hopefully by next year they'll have more idea of where they intend them to go.

I doubt if many of us who are local would be bouncing up & down with excitement at the prospect of having to get a child to Mayfield, Lordswood etc from where the OP is likely to be living if her DD is currently at the likeliest primary.

Crestwood wasn’t full last year, so I suspect that’s the logical Eastleigh school to feed into. Wyvern would also be an option - fairly sure there’s a bus out to Fair Oak.

Op is looking for September 2028 entry.

So she is. Apologies.

But that is good news because extrapolating, it means if there is an omission there is maybe time still to get it sorted if she acts quickly.

You can tutor for the musical aptitude tests and lots of people do. If you make that your focus for six months, you'll increase your odds of a musical place. Maybe consider signing her up for somewhere that does LAMDA exams - sounds like it's something she would enjoy and might be gentle training for performance aptitude.
But if there's a school in Eastleigh that wasn't full last year, surely she just goes there?

Seconding this - it might just be oversight that your primary is not yet listed as a feeder school and worth nudging the council.

If council are useless and you have time/energy/support of other parents maybe approach local councillors & news sites? It seems very unfair that council changed policy to feeder schools after you started Primary and has not listed your primary as a feeder for any secondaries.

Unfortunately, Wyvern is nearly 75 minutes by public transport (and probably worse during rush hour). Last year I had to drive DD there for athletics starting at 6pm and it regularly took 45-60 minutes by car. The only buses that go anywhere near our house go between Winchester and Southampton city centre.

I’ve started looking up the details of people who offer coaching for the musical aptitude test. We went to Bitterne Park open evening last night and their performing arts selection sounded like it would be feasible for DD.

Thanks for the help @HewasH2OI’ll email HantsCC and see what they say. We’re going to Crestwood open evening… they couldn’t answer my questions on the phone.

I’d forgotten about LAMDA. I’ll see if I can find anywhere local. I did LAMDA exams decades ago!

This was the situation in Cambridge for children from a primary in the city centre. the parents took the schools to the Office for Schools Adjudicator and won, and two secondaries had to do an emergency change to their criteria in the middle of an admissions round last year. The judgement is here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68b94a69b0a373a01819fddb/ADA4492_Parkside_Community_College_Cambridgeshire_03_September_2025.pdf

might be worth looking at, not sure how similar it is to your situation. Basically some children had no chance of getting into a school in Cambridge due to two admissions criteria prioritising different things, and children were being offered places in St Neots due to every other school in Cambridge being full.