Late Admissions For Bexley and Bromley Schools

[RedDawn18]

Hi,
My daughter is due to start primary school in September and we have decided last minute to move out of east London (our house price has increased considerably and we feel this is a good time to move). She has been accepted into out first choice school in Stratford (Chobham Academy).
We've seen 2 potential houses in Bexley Village and Chislehurst. After watching School Guru's video, I'm now really worried that we will end up with a really bad school because of our late admissions.
The schools that are close to the Bexley Village property is Old Bexley CoE (we are not church goers) and Hurst. In Chislehurst, the nearest school is Red Hill. Has anybody had any experience of moving into either of these boroughs after the school application date for reception class?

Our daughter turns 4 next month. I was wondering if there was a possibility of her starting school next year, in Sep after her 5th birthday? Is that an option due to statutory school age being 5 yrs old?

I will call the schools and local authority on Tuesday, but would really love to hear any advice before then.

Thanks you.

A very panicked mum.

[LIZS]

It is an option legally to delay to Sept 2015 but you would then be starting her in year 1 and still dependent on where a space opened up at the time.

[AuntieStella]

Yes, but as noted above she will almost certainly have to go into year 1.

It has never been illegal to place pupils outside their age cohort, and councils have been reminded that they are not allowed to have blanket policies, and must instead consider any case individually. But even when there are significant SENs to be mitigated, it is rarely used.

[SanityClause]

Red Hill is my 4th closest school. Last year my NDN's DD was offered Mottingham Primary, which is even further.

I have no recent experience of late admissions in Bromley, but like all London boroughs, the better schools are all oversubscribed.

Can I say, though, don't move to Bexley for the grammar system. If your DD doesn't get in, many of the alternatives are dire. Chislehurst will give you more options - depending on where you buy, you may not be close enough to get Bullers Wood, but there is also the up and coming Beaverwood, and she may get a Bexley grammar from here, or Newstead.

[pyrrah]

If you move to an area where you can easily commute to the allocated school, you can do that. You would need to move after your DC starts school in September.

A friend has a DS in Y3. They recently moved out a long way out of the area but she still works there so her DS commutes with her in the morning. He's an only so it's not as if they're trying to get a sibling place or anything, but he stays at the school he loves rather than trying to get an in-year place in the new massively over-subscribed area where they now live.

[bloated1977]

Both Hurst and Old Bexley are extremely over subscribed so the waiting lists would be very long I would imagine

[Spindelina]

But the point is that you jump ahead of others on the waiting lists if you meet the school's criteria better than them.

So if the last category in which people were offered places was effectively 'other' (no sibling etc), most of the people on the waiting list are likely to be people who live too far away to have been offered a place. If you move next door to the school (where you would have been given a place if you had applied on time) then you jump ahead of all those people.