To tell you to read this thread if your DC starts school in Sept!

[seamstressmummy]

This thread saved my skin last year, so I am paying back the karma.

15th January seems to be the closing date again.

• remember it is preferences, not choices
• they do not HAVE to give you one of the schools on your list
• make sure you have a dead cert banker in there!

We did ours online so impossible to put down the same school three times. It's so nerve wracking though. There's only one decent non-church school round here, which is very oversubscribed, so I'm preparing for us to get the less naice school. Must not get disappointed. It's only primary!

notquitehuman we got our 2nd choice last year and I am mostly happy. I was thinking about my DD this morning and how much she has come on in the past few months- it is really amazing!

I have a little issue with her teacher shouting but that could happen anywhere.

I think you notice different things when you are in as well- I thought this school wasn't particularly welcoming to prospective parents, but now we are 'in', I realise that they work more with existing families.

Bumping for the evening crowd! Get this done before Xmas!

Thanks seamstress. That is comforting. Obviously we all want the best for our DC, but I'm trying to take a relaxed approach to the whole thing. As long as he's not stuck in the failing school across town it'll be ok, as that'd meaning having to drive every morning and be a right pain!

What happens if you dont apply but should? Ie your dc is raising 5?

Are you going to home school, 0christmastree?

What happens if you dont apply but should?

Your local council won't allocate a child a place at a state school unless an application is made.

If you're planning on going private or home-schooling, that shouldn't be a problem.

But if you want a place at a state school and don't apply when you should, you'll be left with whichever schools have places left after the normal admissions round has finished, which means you're less likely to get into a school you like or a school close to home, especially if you live in an area where schools are often oversubscribed.

Primary schools don't actually have 'catchment' areas though do they IME?

Both areas we lived in did - one area we looked at didn't and it was all distance.

You really do need to check what the area situation is. The closing date in our current area is a week before OPs date.

What happens if you dont apply but should? Ie your dc is raising 5?

You can home school - but they are supposed to be in education from term after they turn 5 on but home schooling is acceptable.

Otherwise - if you should have applied last year you need to look at IN year applications - same as if you moved to a new area.

The local admission department will be able to tell you where there are any places currently in local schools - you have to check when you'd have to take place up to keep it as well.

I think rules may be different in Scotland about delaying younger in year DC - you'd have to check - but I believe currently in England unless you go down private school route they need to be in their current year group so in you leave it till next year they'd miss reception.

There are some very knowledgeable posters in primary section who really know their stuff about more complex admission cases. Despite reading some horror stories about some admission departments the ones we dealt with post move in new area were extremely helpful.

"I've only put one down, it's in my catchment.
My dd goes to the juniors on the premises next door. If they allocate me anything else I'll be screwed anywhere as I won't be able to to pick ups and drop offs."

Does having a child at the juniors give your younger child priority at the infant school?

If not, how oversubscribed is the infant school, and how far up the different criteria do you come?

Yes, you may not WANT to do 2 drop-offs. Yes, you may not WANT different holidays. But if you HAVE to have these things because there is no space for your second child in the infant school, then it is better to have these disadvantages in a school you have chosen as your second choice, rather than at a school that the council had a space left over in once they had given spaces to everyone else...

In England, it is vanishingly rare to have a school that guarantees a place to everyone in catchment. In my DC's school, 46 children in catchment didn't get places last year - and no siblings out of catchment either.

So 'I know that I have a sibling, there is sibling priority, and there are no siblings living closer to the school than me, so I'm only applying to that school' is a calculated risk, but a very small one - 30 looked after children or children with statements naming the school would be an extremely rare occurrence.

But 'There s no sibling priority, but it's my catchment school, and I don't want to do 2 drop offs [but I have no idea what the last admitted distance was last year and how it compares with my distance from school] ' is a non-calculated but high risk! Remember last admitted distances can get very small. I can see my DC's primary from my front window, but 3 years ago the last admitted distance from a 60 entry was 154 metres so we wouldn't have got in.

When we moved we were fully aware they we very probably could be assigned 3 different schools - especially in one area we looked at where they was a noted shortage of places.

It put us off actually but in new area places weren't supposed to be as few- there was one school that could offer us all three places needed.

Does having a child at the juniors give your younger child priority at the infant school?

You do need to check this as one we lived near didn't.

Many parents used year 3 to get into the primary my DC school went too - after they when they got younger DC in or moved subsequently first application closer to school - meant year 3 onwards were 30 + classes despite my DC school objections - several other near by primary had similar issue. So actually it was slightly easier to get in.

Fairy, even though we were having a place stated in the EHCP at a sn resource base - we still had to have a place at a ms school, which we applied for by the Jan 15th cut off. I thought this was standard advice - but it may be worth checking with a professional involved in your ds's care. Your Ds needs to be on the waiting list (and have this stated on the EHCP) for the special school you want, even if you end up deferring for a year.

Thanks for answering lots and bond ---
What happens if you don't apply but should?

my dn has an application form by dsis not applied, wants to wait until after 5, when should she apply and what happens if she doesn't?

Why does she want to wait until after DN is 5?

Says dn is still a baby.

0christmas - if she doesn't apply she won't be offered a place at any school. If she applies late or after the Reception year she will be offered the nearest school with a place.
If she doesn't organise a school place or home educate from the term after your DN's 5th birthday then she's breaking the law and could be prosecuted.

Oo, thank you for reminding me, OP!

I have known for ages that I needed to do this at some point... but seemingly had expected the council to know by telepathy which school I wish my DS to attend .

Well, it's all done and dusted now - so thank you!

Ok jes thanks, dn is last dc and dsis finding it hard but dn starting late is missing out, dn isnt 5 until June. when would dn have to start sch or be home ed?

She'd need to be educated from sept at the start of yr 1. You can't defer and hold a reception place for that long though. She may be able to get the LA to agree to a deferred place to start reception a year late, but she has left it really late to do this.

She can defer until summer term if she likes, but she needs to get an application in before Jan 15 or all the places will be allocated and she will only have a choice of undersubscribed schools that still have places.

Thank you hazeyjane and honkinghaddock, very helpful :)

Yes teacherwith2kids, having a sibling with the younger child also in catchment gives me priority, it's on their website. It's a faith school. It's on their website.
Along with the fact we live in catchment.
I'm not worried.
Maybe I should be, but I'm not. If they offer me something else, I'll reconsider. The school I've applied for, the one in my county and catchment is rated as ofsted outstanding and I'm sure it will be popular this year as it's one of 3 infant schools in the local area. It's a lovely school and I'll eat my hat if we don't get in (not being mouthy at all but we live 45 metres away and distance is one if the main criteria, if not the main, I checked a while ago.)
The other 2, one I've worked in and was horrible despite the ofsted 'satisfactory', and I don't really rely on the ofsted alone as, as I mentioned, I have worked in local schools. The other infant school is a feeder school for a junior and senior school which I don't rate highly personally.
Anyway, whatever happens happens.
I've only chosen one school as I won't be sending my ds to any of the others anyway.

Apologies I've mentioned "on their website" twice in the start of my post, have partaken in festive wine!

Cake, with sibling priority and being only 45 metres away, and with no significant criteria other than distance (I presume that it's not a faith school with 'church attendance' criteria, as you mention distance being the main one), then I agree that putting only that school down falls into the 'small calculated risk' category ...

The thing is, there are people (it shocks me that it still happens, but it does) who will write - and think - exactly what you did, but without considering whether or not there is a sibling link or whether they live within the usual admitted distance... and then go to the newspapers when they don't get in..