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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be utterly pissed off that having a child already at the school has no bearing on getting a place if you do not live in the catchment area?

295 replies

samram · 28/02/2011 18:32

Ok, This news to me.

Having just rang the school admission line to make sure they had my dd4 application form i was told that already having my elder daughter attending the school has no bearing on my application if i do not live in the catchment area!
Im so worried now - i mean how can i possibly be in two places at once?
Its not even like my elder daughter is old enough to walk home on her own (she's 6 in a few weeks)

Does any know if this is correct or have any advice? Thanks

OP posts:
muminthemiddle · 28/02/2011 23:33

But the local authority has to draw a line somewhere. It cannot have lots of places at one school and classes over full at another school iyswim.

I do sympathise with the op but put it this way, I can imagine the outcry if a reception class bumped up the numbers to say 37 just to fit kids in. The school would not automatically get any extra staff to help, so all in all a difficult situation.

begonyabampot · 01/03/2011 00:08

regards the logistics, I had to young children at separate schools about 2-3 miles apart (catchment schools couldn't take both anyway). Lucky the eldest started about 20mins earlier but both finished at 3pm. I just had to pull the younger out 10 or 15 mins early and the mums/teacher at older child's school looked out for him till I got there. Saying that, I don't work and have a car or I'd have been screwed. I could possibly have looked about till I found a school that could take both but preferred having them both at schools I was perfectly happy with.

exoticfruits · 01/03/2011 07:55

If you choose to send a DC to a school outside your catchment area you have to take the risk that numbers will be up for your second DC and you may not get a place. Those who should come first would be up in arms if they couldn't get a place because it was taken by someone down the list of criteria-I should certainly raise a huge stink and hold LEA to their list-you can't have people jumping the queue.
It is unfortunate, but something that should have been pointed out at the time that DC1 started.

Northernlurker · 01/03/2011 08:09

I think that siblings should come higher up the priority list than they mostly do. It's absurd to have children at more than one school and I think that should come above the priorities placed by parents seeking a school for their first child.

SeeJaneKick · 01/03/2011 08:13

She probably will get in though...I hope she does.

PfftTheMagicDragon · 01/03/2011 09:26

You said it is not first in your catchment area. Indicating the school is in your catchment.

SoupDragon · 01/03/2011 09:35

I think siblings should still get priority provided you were in catchment for the older one and have not moved.

monstermissy · 01/03/2011 09:35

My eldest goes to a school out of out catchment, which is nearer than the school in our catchment. The school in my catchment is shit and failing and the one closest to me where my eldest goes is very good but of cause the houses in that area (just down the road) are double the price of ones where i am. Is it fair my children have to go to a sub standard school just because we dont have as much income as others?

My friend with children in the good school catchment actuall live nearer the rubbish school and double the distance i live to the good school. I think as the area has recently had loads of new houses built they should look at the catchement areas again. They really are out of touch with the layout of the area.

Littlefish · 01/03/2011 09:36

Northernlurker - I completely disagree with you.

If you put your child in a school which is out of catchment, this is the risk that you take.

jellybeans · 01/03/2011 09:37

YABU I agree that Why should your child be allocated a place over someone else who lives in the catchment area? If you choose to use outside the catchment area then you accept that you will have lesser priority. But assumabley you still get higher priority than those outside the area with no sibs?

Daisypod · 01/03/2011 09:41

Our LEA changed their criteria last year to change to catchment having priority over siblings and I kow a lot of people who got caught out by it. Still lived in the same house as they did when eldest DC got in but the catchment area had changed in the meantime! How the heck can that be fair?!

I know a few who appealled and they all got in so if you are out of catchment and do not get it it would be worth a go.

swallowedAfly · 01/03/2011 09:42

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McDreamy · 01/03/2011 09:44

Yes but not everyone CHOOSES to put their child in a non catchment area school - if only we could, I could walk to school, school run would be 15 mins instead of an hour round trip driving, dc's would be at school with their friends from home, etc etc etc. Sad

SoupDragon · 01/03/2011 09:44

"if everyone just sent their children to the school nearest them there would not be these problems."

LOL. Personally, I think that's a little naive. Your nearest school may still be over subscribed and thus have no room for your child. It never is that simple.

swallowedAfly · 01/03/2011 09:44

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swallowedAfly · 01/03/2011 09:46

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SoupDragon · 01/03/2011 09:47

Yes, because there is infinite space for schools to build and extend Hmm

This is why school playing fields are so rare these days.

DooinMeCleanin · 01/03/2011 09:48

I have this worry too. I have been told that the school dd1 is in and dd2 is in nursery at have far more nursery children this year than they do school places.

We are not in the catchment area. I didn't know this when I applied for dd1 to go there. I stupidly didn't think to check. I just presumed that the school closest to the house we were moving into would be our catchment school Hmm

I have no idea what I'm going to do if dd2 doesn't get in. Both schools start and finish at the same time. They are in opposite directions.

I suppose I'll have to start letting 7yo dd1 walk to school alone Shock or home school dd2 - which will not be easy as I'd have to leave work.

Catchment school does not have spaces in dd1's year group. I have asked, she could go onto a waiting list.

This is not really something I want to do either. She took a year to settle into the new school as it is, without taking her out now she is finally happy and putting her in a new school.

monstermissy · 01/03/2011 09:48

I also think if your child has a place in the school nursery then that should secure a place in the school. Otherwise, the child has spent a year in the school getting to know the teachers and making friends etc then if they dont get the place have to move schools and start all over again.

At least if they didnt get a nursery place for whatever reason,you can then pick another school and start them off in the right place.

cantspel · 01/03/2011 09:49

LOL The Wright stuff is debating this now.

"waves to Matthew"

monstermissy · 01/03/2011 09:52

swallow - my children are sent to the nearest school to us, which happens not to be in our catchment.

expatinscotland · 01/03/2011 09:53

We live in a place that's not ideal for us, meaning DH and me, because the schools are very good and there's no worries about catchment areas.

We go without most services and conveniences taht many have because of this, higher costs for essentials like petrol, limited product availability, etc.

Life's a compromise.

This blond chick on The Wright Stuff is an eegit. That mum with three kids in a one-bed flat will only live in it till the eldest gets in, then move out and use the sibling clause to get the others in - it's a means to cheat the system.

SoupDragon · 01/03/2011 09:54

I don't have a problem ith nursery children not being guaranteed a place. I don't think it mkes any difference - DS1 did not attend the school nursery and had no issues leaving his old nursery friends behind and making new ones. DS2 and DD both went there and were split from their close nursery friends into different classes. Again no problems.

There are many children who would be disadvantaged if nursery children were given a guaranteed place and I fail to see any concrete advantage.

Fimbo · 01/03/2011 09:57

My dd goes to our local village heavily oversubscribed High School. The headmaster's p.a.'s daughter got in, despite living over 20+ miles from the school.

thingumybob · 01/03/2011 10:01

Where we live catchment takes priority over siblings out of catchment and there still weren't enough places for all the catchment children. So they added a bulge year and created an extra class, 30 places, for reception. There were still 20+ children in catchment who did not get places. This is a ridiculous situation of course but would be 10* worse if catchment children didn't have priority over children out of catchment. There are, for historical reasons, quite a lot of children from out of catchment higher up the school so potentially a lot of siblings.

Now I'm waiting to hear if DC2 will get a place in the catchment school, with DC1, and I'm not sure that even he will get in. Never mind siblings from out of area. You're really stuffed if you can't get into your catchment school because then the only places left are at rubbish schools miles away.

I don't know what the answer is though because obviously there are a number of children locally who couldn't get a place in their catchment school, now their siblings will want to go to the same school but it is out of catchment... This clearly sucks, and is a very different set of circumstances that those who chose to send an older child to the school knowing that by the time their younger child started it would be over subscribed (lots of new development).