Y5 move to area with oversubscribed primaries

[CrepeDeChineWag]

Have you done this and how did it work out for you?

DD currently in Y4, hoping to move within the next few months. Unfortunately all the primaries are currently full. Of course things may change by September but chances are slim really.

Does amyone have any experience of this situation and if so what happened?

We could go down the private road for a coupke of years if we really had to vut it would be a bit of a squeeze and we'd prefer not to.

[CrepeDeChineWag]

Bump

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

If you are moving too far from your current address to reasonably commute then the LEA (if in England) have to find you a place under the Fair Access Protocol but it might not be in a school that you would choose, just the school which would most likely be able to cope with an extra child. I think that at this stage there isn't a good time to move but yr4/5 is better than yr 6 as few children seem to move in yr6 as everyone is staying put for the secondary school lottery. I would recommend looking at secondary schools first and their entry criteria because those two years will fly and you are better to choose where to live based on best chance of secondary school and hopefully any primary place will be ok for next two yrs.

[CrepeDeChineWag]

Thanks ShouldWeStay, one of the main reasons for picking the area is the great secondary schools so I've got that covered. I was hoping for an answer of 'if they're all full anyway then you get to choose' but your answer of being placed in the school that can best cope with an extra sounds much more sensible! There are only really a couple of schools that I'm not overly keen on. How likely is it that a school that 'requires improvement' would be picked to take on an extra? Surely ones that are good or outstanding would be better suited as they have better standards of teaching/behaviour (if at this stage all places in all schools are full)?

[eyebrowse]

Some children move to private schools at the end of primary -mostly for year 6 so you might find a place

[MarmaladeAndEggs]

Our Y5 (in a primary school which is extremely oversubscribed in Reception - catchment area around 300m last year) has several places because at the end of KS1 a lot of parents put their kids in prep schools. A couple more kids leave at the end of Y5 having taken 10+ exams for the independents. So always worth trying, the state primaries do have places in the higher years!

[CrepeDeChineWag]

thank you all, very helpful info and am feeling more hopeful as a result

[smellyboot]

Depends on area but near us all the schools are busting at the seams in KS1 then kids drift off as they move or go private etc and there are often spaces in yr5/6 coming free. The only down side of if they are feeder schools for a specific great secondary then people won't move as much.

[Whistler15]

If you can't get a place locally, instead of shelling out money for a private school, invest in some good tutoring. You'll get concentrated 1-1 attention. You can't get that in any school! It will then give you time to wait for a local place.