Talk

Flip

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Primary Admissions and moving house

6 replies

PippaFawcett · 03/04/2016 23:17

We are trying to move house but I don't want to buy somewhere if there aren't any school places but everywhere in our county seems to be oversubscribed. Our LEA publishes an excel spreadsheet with up to date school places on it but the three schools in the town I am looking at all have no places in any age group. My DD is in Year 3, would it be likely she would be squeezed into our catchment school? And if so, what would that mean for my DS, who would need a reception place? Could we get her in and then appeal for him? Or would he be sent to the place at the nearest school out of catchment? It is so tricky trying to line everything up properly, I know there are rules to follow but I think with schools being as full as they are, it means no-one can move without all this stress! Obviously, like most people, we just want our DC to go to the local school to enable them to make local friends and be part of the community. I don't want them to have no friends where we move to. I will ring the education authority as well but they have a lot of stuff online and I imagine their advice will be to apply when we have our address and take it from there.

OP posts:

Report

SissySpacekAteMyHamster · 03/04/2016 23:20

From personal experience, we had to have a postcode and Council Tax bill before we could apply.

It really is a bit of a gamble.

Worked out well for us. 3 children, 2 schools, all happy.

Report

Inkymess · 03/04/2016 23:24

You need an address to apply. Very chicken and egg. Are you moving too far to keep her in her school for a while?

Report

PippaFawcett · 03/04/2016 23:27

Yes, it is in the same county but with traffic it would be at least 50 mins each way and as DH and I both work, that is not going to be feasible. I'm glad it worked out for you Sissy. It is a place where people move into and out of regularly but I would really prefer not to disrupt the DC more than we have to - i.e. accepting whatever school we are offered and then moving them further down the line if a space comes up.

It is very chicken and egg - the same as buying a house. We need to sell ours before we can offer on one we like but if we don't find one we like then we won't move - such a hard cycle!

OP posts:

Report

prh47bridge · 04/04/2016 00:37

My DD is in Year 3, would it be likely she would be squeezed into our catchment school

If there isn't a school with a place available within a reasonable distance you should be offered a place at the school best able to cope with an additional pupil. That may or may not be the catchment school.

And if so, what would that mean for my DS, who would need a reception place

If the schools give priority to siblings he will be at or near the head of the waiting list. However, as he needs a Reception place there may well be a problem with infant class size rules. The class size limit can be broken if there is no school with places within a reasonable distance. He will be offered a place somewhere. However, there is no guarantee it will be the same school as his sister. If infant class size rules apply an appeal is very unlikely to succeed.

Report

tiggytape · 04/04/2016 10:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PippaFawcett · 04/04/2016 20:48

Thank you both, that is really helpful. I did try to ring our Admissions office today but there wasn't even an option to get through to a person to discuss, I don't know if that is usual or because it is the holidays. All of the primaries are rated 'good' so it isn't about preferring one to another on Ofsted grounds, just wanting them to be together and ideally at our local one to be part of the community - mostly why we are moving to this particular area in the first place.