School place offer day

[The Rotrex Kid]

Anyone else dealing with the pain today?

Reused choices one and two, offered a place at a school out of catchment that is absolutely in no way suitable for our daughter and wouldn’t be on our list if it was 20 schools long

I have already compiled evidence and submitted an appeal. Hopefully we can make them see sense and get it overturned!

[littleredrooster]

Grandson has been refused his first choice because of distance - he's gutted even though it would have involved a 1h10min journey each way. On the plus side, it means that he stays with most of his close friends, as they are similarly affected.

[768]

We've just had our first choice (which has only become our first choice because other options weren't available, so "first" is a bit of a misnomer) for the first time, now that our eldest is 13 going on 14. Keeping our fingers crossed that from September he won't have half his lessons with disinterested supply teachers.

[miniman]

I was about to remark that 1:10 seems insane for a journey to school but then thinking about it, I used to leave the house at 7:20 for a 10 minute walk to the station, 7:35 train, arrive 7:50, next bus around 8:00, 20 minutes on the bus then 5 minute walk. 6 days a week.

[konark]

miniman said:

I was about to remark that 1:10 seems insane for a journey to school but then thinking about it, I used to leave the house at 7:20 for a 10 minute walk to the station, 7:35 train, arrive 7:50, next bus around 8:00, 20 minutes on the bus then 5 minute walk. 6 days a week.

6 days a week? Saturday morning detention?

[ettore]

Likely not helped by all those fleeing from the VAT related fee hikes in the private system.

Unintended consequences etc.

[Alorotom]

First choice offered to my daughter - very pleased as it’s outside catchment and a much better school than the catchment is.

I was concerned that if it wasn’t offered I would likely need to go down the private route and didn’t relish the fee paying! (Plus 2 of the largest local privates are having to merge thanks to a drop in numbers from the VAT addition)

[vikingaero]

konark said:

6 days a week? Saturday morning detention?

Most private (public) schools teach on Saturday morning and have sports in the afternoon. And a fair number of state schools have Saturday classes. It is strange seeing pupils in uniform travelling to school on a Saturday morning!

[miniman]

vikingaero said:

konark said:

6 days a week? Saturday morning detention?

Most private (public) schools teach on Saturday morning and have sports in the afternoon. And a fair number of state schools have Saturday classes. It is strange seeing pupils in uniform travelling to school on a Saturday morning!

This.

[essayer]

We didn't do any preparation for the 11+ as we assumed we'd be out of catchment .. turns out we are 100m inside the distance radius for the local grammar and would have got in if they'd passed. D'oh!

[The Rotrex Kid]

To round this thread off:

We appealed the decision to refuse our daughter a place at our preferred schoold (Out of designated area, no FOC travel) for a school that is pretty awful (Also out of designated area, no FOC travel)

I spent a lot of time compiling evidence, details of staff/SEN availability etc.

We had the appeal last Tuesday, lasted just over an hour with lots of questions asked and answered and today we got the fantastic news that the appeal panel decided our appeal had merit and my daughter has been granted a place at the school. Over the moon to get that decision, it's been a few months of that stress hanging over our heads!!!

[vikingaero]

The Rotrex Kid said:

To round this thread off:

We appealed the decision to refuse our daughter a place at our preferred schoold (Out of designated area, no FOC travel) for a school that is pretty awful (Also out of designated area, no FOC travel)

I spent a lot of time compiling evidence, details of staff/SEN availability etc.

We had the appeal last Tuesday, lasted just over an hour with lots of questions asked and answered and today we got the fantastic news that the appeal panel decided our appeal had merit and my daughter has been granted a place at the school. Over the moon to get that decision, it's been a few months of that stress hanging over our heads!!!

(1) Excellent news!
(2) This is PH, how dare you update a thread with an outcome!