Getting a school to change its admissions policy

[Trifle]

DS2 is due to start Reception this September. As he is a July boy his school say they are following the LEA guidelines for the area so he will not be full time until April. I have contacted 5 other schools in the area and whilst they too all follow the same guidelines, all their summer born children go full time from January. I work 3 full days a week when he currently attends nursery so to go from that to part time for 7 months will make work impossible. My only option is to put him in nursery for the 3 afternoons but as I would no longer get a grant for him I would have to bear the brunt of the cost myself which would make work financially unviable. I dont want to be making 6 journeys to school and back. DS1 is already at this school so it's not as if I can move him. What pressure can I put on the school to force them to accept him full time 3 months earlier? Has anyone been able to do this and what argument did you give to convince the school?

[fishfinger]

really?
no grant are you syre?

[SoupDragon]

At DSs school (South London), the aim is for all children to be full time by the first half term - should a child need more time to settle, this is given, judged on each child individually. Unless the parent has deferred entry until January, all children start in September regardless of their birthday.

[LIZS]

Which LEA ? dd was down to go to Reception at a Surrey school . She is an August b'day and due to a recent policy change would have stayed for lunch as of January and gone full time as of February half term, whereas this year it would have been after Easter. Don't know whether this may be a general trend though and I think the school was undersubscribed so possibly a financial reason too.

[foxinsocks]

I think it depends which LEA you are in and how flexible the school is.

Our school (same policy as yours) would not budge at all because they said if they changed the rule for one child they would have to do the same for everyone who asked. Have you looked for local childminders or other children's au pairs (this is what many families at our school did)? You may find that you will link up with many families with flexible childcare in that first term.

Surely when he goes to school fulltime you will have to find something for that 3.20 till 6 slot (whenever you finish work) anyway?

[Gobbledigook]

Wow really? Here they all start full time in Sept regardless of where their birthday is.

What a right pain for you. I don't know if you'd be able to change it - do you have no say in it at all??

[Trifle]

The LEA is Surrey Heath. I cant seem to find any information on any web site about admissions policy. LIZs - are you saying that your dd would have been full time in April but it has now been brought forward to Jan/Feb? If this is the case do you know where I can find out about such a change in policy. One of the local schools I did contact mentioned this change so they too have changed from being full time in April to Jan. I just dont understand why this school is the only one in the area that has them start so late when presumably they are all following the same guidelines. Incidentally I work 9.30 until 2.30 term time only so after school care/holidays are not a problem.

[foxinsocks]

it's on the county council page here but it's definitely worth calling them up to ask whether they are changing their policy.

This was raised at our school this year but apparently our LEA has no plans to change it (ggrrr). Do you know any local families that use nannies/au pairs?

[LIZS]

Yes that seems to be exactly it. We had a note through from the school about a month ago to that effect, suggesting it is "due to revised LEA policy" change not just a borough one. Perhaps it is being phased in by a certain date so that not all schools will implement it this coming year. Could you call the Surrey LEA Education office tomorrow to double check ?

[Jimjams]

are you sure you won't get a grant???

[Jimjams]

ummmm ds1 did part time school and part time nursery in reception- I'm sure he got a grant.

[foxinsocks]

I know that no-one in our school who had to use childcare for the other half of the day got a grant but then again, this is often administered by the LEA so can depend on where you are.

[Ameriscot2005]

We are in Surrey where the policy has always been full-time from start of the term in which they are four.

However, the primary school that my kids go to has everyone full-time from January. They found that it was not benefitting the summer children to remain part-time and it was really hard on the teachers and other pupils getting all the academic requirements squeezed into the morning. My July-born daughter was actually less tired when she started going full-time in the January as I think the pace of the lessons changed dramatically.

It might be worth writing to the governors to explain your predicament.