Educational Drama

Today we found out the results of TB's primary school application. It's damning.

Of the three schools we applied to, he has got into none. This leaves us with two choices: attempt to find another school or appeal. It remains to be seen whether we can do both, one as a backup for the other. Despite being able to view ties application results online, we have to wait for a letter telling us what we should do next.

The problem is, we've now exhausted our three nearest schools (not counting the catholic and c of e schools which we don't want him going to). Both of our first two choices are 700m away. He already attends one of these schools and we were perfectly happy to keep him there. The other would have been a compromise, but one we would gladly have accepted. The third school on our application is 1.2km away, and chosen purely because it's the next closest. We never even contemplated that we might even have needed that backup choice.

The chances of appeal don't look good. For an
appeal to be allowed, it has to be based on an unreasonable decision (the rules as to what constitute an unreasonable decision are incredibly stringent) or an error in the selection process. It seems like our only hope is that one of TB's friends, who lives further away from the school, has gotten a place. Mounting an appeal will involved considerable playground subterfuge.

So now TB's on the waiting list for all three schools. And all we can do is wait. And hope.