The Head has had the forms since Thursday AM, and I have still not received them back.
The Head says this is due to dd's teacher being on paternity leave, so her attainment levels for his year cannot be completed. Surely someone else in the school must be able to complete the form?

I phoned the secretary this morning who was, as she usually is, fairly rude and dismissive. They are still unable to tell me when these documents will be available.
Aaaaaaggh!

Walk in there, ask nicely, if it's not forthcoming, tell her 4 other DCs were looking around at the same time and HOW DISAPPOINTED you'd be if your DC didn't get the place due to THESE DELAYS.

Whilst I am not suggesting there'd be any need to go down the route, she MUST know there are legal implications here!

Move her and hurry up the head. Just explain the situation - she must understand.

Hopeful bump, anyone?

I have been for a meeting with the Head of the new school this morning, and everything is in place for the move. However dd's current school is dragging it's feet on the transfer form, so I have no confirmation of a place. 4 other children were looking round the school at the same time, so I am now obviously worried that dd's place will be taken before I can manage to extract the paperwork from our current Head.

newgirl, no, feeder schools are not 'normal', this one has formed a trust with local primaries and opted out of the LEA's control.

The school was amazing, music, drama and language teachers from the high school visit to take lessons, and the children have lots of opportunities to visit the high school for lessons and to use the facilities. These are the main advantages of the trust.

How long can the Head reasonably take to complete the paperwork? I am concerned she is delaying on purpose, as she was a little put out about the move. Can I ask her to hurry up? Or do I have to accept she is a busy woman and risk losing dd's place?

Can vary from school to school within an authority, I believe!

The advantages of a feeder is that the primaries and secondary can work together to a greater extent so make the transition more seamless; the DCs will definitely know a good %age of the DCs at the secondary and it can provide a possible 'way in' if you can't live in catchment for the desired secondary.

are feeder schools normal? i dont think we have them in our area in herts?

in your situation it sounds sensible

I moved mine! 3 weeks ago!

DS1 (Y5) moved at half term to a feeder for the secondary that we favour. The house move will get him the place, not the feeder status (that's lower in the pecking order!) BUT we felt it was important to get DS a few friends lined up prior to Big School. ALL the kids there come from one of 6 feeder schools (or preps). The house move was only a couple of miles. Things were a bit more complicated for us in that for rental and immigration reasons, DS1 didn't live in his previous school's catchment (2.5 mile drive!) anyway. We lived 1 mile from the nearest secondary but that ISN'T the one 90% of his junior schoolmates would be attending! And I wasn't that taken with the catchmented secondary for his old school so we said sod it. We rent, let's get some advantage out of this, let's move a couple of miles and effectively 'buy' ourselves the opportunity for DS to attend one of the best comps in the county.

Now, 3 weeks in, it's fair to say the honeymoon is over- DS is managing admirably but of course has now lost the 'new boy' cachet and it trying to muddle in with kids who've known each other for 6 years. The new school is educationally very similar to the old but I AM feeling guilty that I dragged DS1 away from his mates etc etc BUT I am very aware that a) he still sees his old mates at least twice a week and b) the reality is he was heading in a different direction to these other kids anyway.

It is my belief and hope that we have done the right thing!

I would move her as well.

Move her

I moved schools loads when I was a kid, you get over it quickly and learn to be adaptable and make new friends. Valuable skills. Good luck