Schooling

[waitingforafamily]

Just wanted to ask all the knowledgable ladies out there about adopted kids and schooling.

I am sure that adopted kids get priority at schools (in or outside catchment) but my friend is being told that this is only during the time before AO is granted. I am sure she is being told wrong information or has the wrong end of the stick.

She keeps saying it is only when they are "looked after" children and not when they become officially adopted they get the opportunity to "jump the queue" so to speak.

TIA for some clarity on this please 🙏🏻🙏🏻

I'm 99% sure our social workers have all said that if a child has ever been a 'looked after' child they get given a certain degree of priority. I think it's the first criteria (correct me if I'm wrong more experiences adopters) they look at when school allocation is decided

It's kids who are or have ever been looked after. So post-AO too.

But there's different rules at play depending on whether theyre applying as new Reception aged starters or transferring in later I think.

In addition to what fatberg says there are a couple of things to be aware of.

1. Some Catholic schools 'play the system' by only giving priority to LAC or preciously LAC pupils who are baptised Catholic. Other LAC pupils are way down the list after all the other catholic categories. In my experience C of E and most other faith schools usually apply the admissions code more fairly i.e. They give priority admission to all LAC or post LAC pupils.

1. It doesn't matter if the school is an academy or not the priority admissions apply at all schools (except private ones)

1. I believe that under the fair access protocol schools can go over their published admissions number for LAC pupils for in year admissions (i.e. When you're trying to get a place for your child mid year or for them to join a school at a point other than reception or Year 7) However, this might not be the case for infant classes where there is a legal restriction on the number of pupils allowed (30). It would be worth checking with either the admissions team at your local authority or by going through the admissions code very carefully. You should be able to find the admissions code easily on the DfE website via google.