Ringing schools if you're on the waiting list

[brixtononmymind]

Hello everyone, grateful for advice on this: my DD is number 12 on the waiting list of a school that we would vastly prefer she go to as it is 5 mins from our house, rather than the 25 we now have to walk. Other children that we know have got in who were higher up the waiting list than we are but my daughter's position has remained at 12. By my count, she should have moved up at least 3. The local authority won't give any information about why this is. I keep hearing that as a parent with a child on a waiting list you should keep ringing the school. I've rung the school a few times but they just say 'it's all down to the local authority'. Does anyone have any experience about waiting lists? Should you keep ringing the school? If so, what does this achieve? What can the school do? Thanks!

[louisejxxx]

The school can't do anything about the waiting list and the info they have given you saying to ring the LEA is true as it is most likely them not the school that maintains the list xx

[ExcuseMeButtingIn]

Yes the LEA maintains the list. Where she was on the list doesn't really mean anything either,she could stay at 12th or even move down if children come into the area who are a higher priority. The fact that she has a school place will mean she is a low priority. Sorry

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Other children may have moved into the area who are closer to school etc. So yes on the day you phoned she was still number 12, but 4 days earlier she could have been number 10.

[brixtononmymind]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I guess her position is less what I was interested in than whether people have experience of getting anywhere by ringing the school regularly. If so, how did that work? I keep being told by various people "just keep ringing the school" and I can't understand the point! Likewise, why keep ringing the LA if they should theoretically just ring you when your child gets a place? Yet, people, including the LA, advise that you do this. Just wondering about others experiences. Cheers again for all replies.

[PatriciaHolm]

Ringing the school won't get you anywhere, they won't know how the list is moving on a day to day basis, and have no influence over it. Ringing the LA won't get you up the list either, though they should have the most up to date information. Sometimes people erroneously attribute moving up the list to regular ringing - "oh we got a place really quickly off the list because we made a nuisance of ourselves with the LA"' - but that's not how it works.

Sometimes, once lists are not kept any more on in later school years, you do need to ring regularly to make sure the LEA is aware you are still interested when a place comes up, but that's not the case here.

[PythagorousPlannedIt]

A few years ago waiting lists were looked after by the schools, and as the year went on people "left" the list but did not always tell the school, so I think some schools asked people to ring to confirm they were still interested, for example after half term, and that may be where this story got started as it may have been half true a few years ago.

[schooladmin]

Is this for a Brixton school, out of interest?

[GoldiandtheBears]

It definitely helped us to ring our school when we were on a list, but they were a VA school.

In our case they knew straightaway and had strongly suspected previously that they had a pupil leaving and they called me the same day it was finalised and my DC started straight away.

They told me the LA are so snowed under that processing these sorts of things takes days and sometimes weeks. Parents on a list need to be called or written to and some sort of response processed.

I think at a certain point some schools manage the lists themselves but this often varies. For our school the cut off was end August, then our application was classed as in-year.

[brixtononmymind]

schooladmin - it's a school in Dulwich which is very oversubscribed. We're close but not close enough!

GoldieandtheBears - thanks for that. I was thinking that the LA may just be behind in updating my daughter's position so I think I will ring the school and ask.