Twitcher Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 We have received the dreaded school admissions pack. It states we have 3 choices, but really when it comes down to it I don't feel we have any, just the local comp. As, if our other choices will be undoubdedly be oversubscribed and we don't put our feeder school down as a 'choice' then we could be anywhere in Sheffield. So really there isn't much choice at all, unless you have Money or religion! Not fair............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 We have received the dreaded school admissions pack. It states we have 3 choices, but really when it comes down to it I don't feel we have any, just the local comp. As, if our other choices will be undoubdedly be oversubscribed and we don't put our feeder school down as a 'choice' then we could be anywhere in Sheffield. So really there isn't much choice at all, unless you have Money or religion! Not fair............. It is a ridiculous system that needs to be replaced but won't be unless we get another government. The trouble is that Cameron also supports that idea that there should be no admission by ability. What this means in practice is that school places are allocated according to the parents ability to afford a house near the school they choose. Children who live on the Manor have no chance. Under the grammar school system (with all its flaws) those children stood a chance is they were more able. I don't advocate a return to the grammar school system but it would certainly be better than what we have now. While you are still stuck with this silly system I would recomend looking at the sound eductaional reasons why you child needs to go to a particular school. You then can use these as the basis of an appeal when you don't get into the school after they ignore these reasons, which I am certain they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitcher Posted September 18, 2006 Author Share Posted September 18, 2006 [While you are still stuck with this silly system I would recomend looking at the sound eductaional reasons why you child needs to go to a particular school. You then can use these as the basis of an appeal when you don't get into the school after they ignore these reasons, which I am certain they do. Thanks for this advice. I shall use this as the basis of an appeal, I have a great letter of recommendation from her headteacher hopefully this will help but I am becoming more despondent each day, the worst thing is they then make you wait 6 months before you can find out which school you've been allocated a place at.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 [While you are still stuck with this silly system I would recomend looking at the sound eductaional reasons why you child needs to go to a particular school. You then can use these as the basis of an appeal when you don't get into the school after they ignore these reasons, which I am certain they do. Thanks for this advice. I shall use this as the basis of an appeal, I have a great letter of recommendation from her headteacher hopefully this will help but I am becoming more despondent each day, the worst thing is they then make you wait 6 months before you can find out which school you've been allocated a place at.... I would recomend looking at particular areas that she is really interested in. If your local school is poor in these areas (perhaps in an Ofsted report) and the school you would like is very good in these areas then you need to explain this in a note that goes with the application. The admissions policy does actually say that they take these reasons into account, although a doubt they really do. If you then fail to get the school requested on sound educational reasons, and someone else does who didn't have the same reasons but lives nearer (although outside the catchment area) then you have good grounds for an appeal. In our case, we didn't even put out local school as one of the three because they have virtually no music education, no bands and no instrument tuition. If she had gone to that school then she wouldn't have been able to keep up with her playing so it was clearly unnaccaptable. For other children, with other interests, it is a good school, but this is a reason why allocating schools purely on distance is wrong. You also shouldn't ignore private education. Many private schools offer scholarships and bursaries so that children who are able can attend without it costing parents a fortune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitcher Posted September 18, 2006 Author Share Posted September 18, 2006 Hi Ken You say you didn't put your catchment school as one of your choices. I am so afraid of what would happen if we didn't - thinking about a worst case scenario. Did you have to go to appeal and were you sucessful? I haven't ruled out private education but am not sure even with a bursary we could afford all that went with it. It makes me so mad that with all the taxes we pay every child should have a right to a 'decent' standard of education and not just those that can afford to live in the more affulent areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairyNormal Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 My son has 2 years left at junior school but I have been advised to seek a place at Bents Green School as he has significant special needs. I realise I am going to have a battle on my hands as places are few and far between. I intend to start the ball rolling as soon as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitcher Posted September 18, 2006 Author Share Posted September 18, 2006 Bents Green has a great reputation I don't know the criteria for special schools but I wouldn't imagine that catchment areas are not as relevant. I just wished we'd moved to Dronfield 2 years ago then we wouldn't have this dilemma, I feel I've let her down with her education thru no fault of my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranberry Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Include your catchment school last and put the two schools you would put ahead of it as first and second. If they are those with sixth forms you might not get your child in but at least you have tried. If you don't put your catchment school on the list you run the risk, and it's down to you to find out whether they get full up, that you might have to appeal to even get into that one. If you don't get offered what you want then appeal through the proper procedures. Parents do get their children in on appeal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Hi Ken You say you didn't put your catchment school as one of your choices. I am so afraid of what would happen if we didn't - thinking about a worst case scenario. Did you have to go to appeal and were you sucessful? I haven't ruled out private education but am not sure even with a bursary we could afford all that went with it. It makes me so mad that with all the taxes we pay every child should have a right to a 'decent' standard of education and not just those that can afford to live in the more affulent areas. If you don't put down your catchment area school and then are unnsuccesful with all of your choices then they allocate a place at the nearest community school with places. They also put you on the waiting list for your chosen schools and then offer you places at other schools with places. My own view is that there is no point putting down a school that you consider unnacceptable regardless of the consequences, so I wasn't preapared to do that. We ended up being offered places at our third choice school and then, later, at the second choice school both of which are considered hard to get into and which are across the city from us. You really have to look at the statistics for each school and work out the chance that you have. If your preferred school doesn't even have enough places for its catchment area and you live 6 miles away then your chances are almost zero. If your preferred school has places for all all catchment and feeder school children and then has enough places for 20% of the children who normally apply then your chances are 20%. In theory your complete with the children in that same category according to educational and social needs of the child. If they actually allocate places based purely in distance and you don't get one then you have the basis for appeal if you have stronger, better, reasons than those being put forward by the parents that did get places. If your daugher is particularly gifted then there are private schools which pay for all the fees. It is more normal to get some of the fees paid based on the childs ability and on parents income. It doesn't hurt to look into it anyway, because if you don't investigate these things then you never know what would have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalaland Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 It seems daft to me that there are so many decent schools and so many crap schools. Why on earth don't we have something done about it? How can it be that there are schools that everyone wants their kids to attend because of decent results and good behaviour etc. and there are schools where results aren't as good and there's not so good behaviour? Surely it's time to start hammering the crap schools. If the schools aren't performing then why is this? Do we need to start penalising teachers? Improve facilities? Surely we should aim to make all schools a place where you'd want to send your child instead of continuing with schools that you'd rather not even walk past and schools that produce decent results. Surely everyone wants the best for their kids and wants to give them a good start in life, if all the schools were up to it this would be a lot easier and there wouldn't be these stressed up people when it comes to getting their child in to school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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