About school applications for reception 2015...

[elfycat]

To remind you that you need to apply by Mid-January (15th seems to be the day).

And AIBU to bump this for the next few weeks?

You need to apply, even if you live next door to the school, even if your child is attending the preschool attached to the school, even if a sibling already goes. There are no automatic places at state schools.

There were quite a few shocked parents last year who got a random school that they didn't want their child to be at. If you do not apply for a place and someone else does - they will get it. Even if they are out of catchment and you are in the area they will get the place.

Most, if not all counties have on-line submissions. If you have time to read MN you have time to nip in and start the application, or start by just getting the log-in sorted. Do it now before you forget and get caught up in the frenzy of Christmas and the post-Xmas exhaustion.

I think it's area dependent rumbelina - it was bought in between my eldest and second DC starting here - just as it was starting to get harder due to building of new homes and birth bulge to get DC into preferred schools - when previously it had been easier and there was rumours of grandparents addresses being used.

A lot of the information on this thread is area dependent.

I put down only one school for eldest because we were very close by in catchment ( we'd moved into it) at a time it was still possible to get a place with no siblings just outside catchment. So it wasn't really a risk. With subsequent we've had catchment, being very close to school within catchmnet and having siblings link - so again one school only not a risk.

In other parts of the country - that would be an huge risk to take.

Same with religion. My DC go to a C of E school - but despite there being two non religious schools -it doesn't control it's own intake but LEA assigns people following their published criteria. Other C of E and RC schools in the town have control of their own intakes and do take into account religious attendance and observance.

It's clearly stated over school docs and council webpage - yet people still think knowing the local vicar, running the church playgroup or attending the church the school has a close relationship to means that it doesn't matter they are very low on the LEA criteria - and then get bitter and upset when not offered a place.

Same with school nursery - letter and staff make clear places have to be applied for and while they have similar criteria to school intake doesn't mean they will get a school place if other children move in or have attended other nurseries. So many parents refuse to believe this.

Parents really do have to know their local situation and rules - and so many seem not to.

I'm not aware any schools locally hold open days, but they are happy to show you round whenever you want.

Legally they cannot withhold any information about the school, so if you wanted to, you could ask to see all the ofsed paperwork and all correspondence.

But really, who wants to be that parent!

Just to say, in Wales, or certainly our LA, the admission process doesnt even open until 12th of January and closes mid march, so no need for Welsh mumsnetters to panic just yet.

And to add, I've had so many frustrating conversations with other parents during the process last year for DD and this year for DS where they have NO idea of the admissions criteria etc. The classic being 'well I'M only putting down the ONE school I want DC to go to on the form...etcetc' as if this would cleverly circumvent the process and guarantee their child a place at the named school. Honestly, I've lost cound of how many times I've heard that.

Do go and look round the schools, you cannot tell whether they will suit your child on not just by looking at OFSTED reports.

All the local schools we're considering have links to their most recent ofsted reports on their websites. So no need to directly ask the school for them in our case.

And while not all of them do open day / evenings for interested parents, I know that even the ones with open days have shown parents who didn't go to the open days round at other times on request.

Oh, and the teachers at the schools aren't always up to speed on the admissions criteria.

When I went to the open evening at our nearest school, one of the more junior teachers told another parent that being in the catchment area was more important than having a sibling already there. This is the opposite to what it says in the admissions guidelines published online by the council. That school doesn't even have a catchment area. Only the religious schools in our county have official catchment areas.

Technically you will only get a certain school if it's your 1st choice but only if you meet the entrance criteria more than anyone else who has put it. You won't get it because you put it first if more people meet the criteria than you. The schools don't know which order you put them in - they get a list of pupils once the LA has done all the allocations based on each school's entrance criteria and the pupil's eligibility.

But I looked round 2 schools last year where the HT's came out with the line about needing to put them first if I really wanted a place. One was my catchment school which is undersubscribed due to the demographics of the estate I live on. I could have put it last on my choices and still got a place over someone out of catchment without other children there already.

Do heads get more brownie points if lots of people put their school first?

I was wondering why we needed to provide proof of parentage but it's obviously to stop people trying to get their child in from their grandparents address. Didn't need to do that first time round

More brownie points? No.

Head teachers stress that you need to put them first because they get some of their funding on a per pupil basis (not sure how much). So an undersubscribed school will be thousands of pounds down compared to a fully subscribed one. This either means smaller classes with the shortfall having to be made up from savings in other areas or mixing classes in a way that wasn't originally planned for. It might also mean redundancies if numbers drop.

But if you really do want your child to go to a particular school, you should put it first as you won't get a place if you put it second and get offered a place at the school you put first.

I was just about to honest! No point in us putting a second choice though, DS is in the nursery class, has a sibling there and we do in fact live over the road.

Made the mistake last year of putting the school at the bottom of the garden as my first choice. To receive a letter back saying it handled their own admissions! I had to call round pick up an application form apply/ be successful then call the council and be taken off their lists!
In fact the 5 closest schools around here ( Wales) are all Church in wales Voluntary aided schools, so none on my list were handled by the council. I just thought they were the local village school.

This is a really good thread. I've done dd application but I'm going back to double check because I'm pretty sure I didnt read the small print and being in London everywhere is oversubscribed

The people who most often seem to forget to apply seem to be people with older children already at the school - the application for the 2nd/3rd/4th child in the family gets overlooked because it is not as exciting as when the eldest was starting.

Can anyone clarify of you have to use all six choices on the form? We have three local schools which are our top three and supplementary forms already signed and sent in. The next three by distance are way out of catchment - do I still need to put them down?

Thanks

This is a good thread. Is the online form difficult? I had a quick look at it (DS doesn't start reception until 2016 so I am a year early) and the only thing I thought might be difficult would be finding the council tax reference number.

A friend's borough (a couple of years ago) used the child benefit reference and she had a mad panic to get one because they weren't eligible to receive it.

We only get 3 choices on our form.

We don't have to use all 3 choices - if I only wanted to put down one choice I could - but the council advise people to use all 3 choices, because that way you maximize your chances of getting a school that you'll be more or less satisfied with.

We had 3 choices on the form. With ds1 I put all 3.

With ds2 I just put 1...we were out of catchment but there were only 12 in his nursery class and generally, very few dc at this school 'only' join in Reception (full class is now 17). Plus he had a sibling in the school so I felt the risk was pretty low.

shelf yes if you are in an area with many oversubscribed schools, put in all schools within an acceptable travel distance.

Can anyone clarify of you have to use all six choices on the form?

Don't think so.

We had 5 choices and we only used one for all our DC - but in our case it would have met they hadn't followed the published admission criteria if we hadn't been given a place ( obviously checked out very carefully by us and based on local situation).

Whether it would be wise to put more school on depends where how likely you are to get a place at the three you are in the catchment for - and if you don't how bad the place you would be offered instead would be.

Plus how likely you'd even get a place at these other 3 out of the catchment area schools anyway.

This is why I confused! We will def get a place at one of the three, and hopefully for our first choice which is a single form entry faith school. We have twins so need two places and we know of at least 12 siblings going through. We meet the faith criteria.

Would be happy with the other two but we are too far away from any of the other three unless something goes catastrophically wrong with numbers. The two other local schools are both admitting bulge years.

I think I will just put down the six just incase - they could've forced to take in bulge years too?