To live next door to a school and be declined a place.

[user1483804139]

So we recently moved to the area. We happen to live next door to the school we would like to move our DD to. They refused a place because of the ancient rule of 30 to a class. She's on a waiting list, but for how long, I don't know. We appealed but still lost. I'm just tired of having to be out the house even earlier to drive past a school to get her to the one in another town. There's another school which is about a 10 minute walk away which I'm thinking of applying for but so dissapointed that we can't get her in next door.

30 children to a class is about 10 too many already, in my opinion, so not a bad rule to have. I guess when you say 'make more room for children you mean add more classes, not more children to existing ones. You're not being unreasonably frustrated about this, when my son and I moved to the area there was a school 5 min walk away, had that at the top of my list, also had four others on it, all within my encachment area. He has been going to a school about 25 min away by bus- I don't drive, for three years now. That school was not even on the list of schools in our area! What surprises me is how vicious some of these comments are - she is entitled to be annoyed/frustrated, and maybe the 5 min difference in the walk to school is the difference between getting to work in time or being late! We are all mothers here, maybe some of our posts will be in the YABU category, there's no reason to be nasty and judgemental about it.

30 to a class is already difficult for a teacher to manage and with cuts to resources and support staff it will just get worse. You cannot expect them to just accept more children because they moved nearby, it isn't fair on anyone involved.

Yes authorities should provide more schools and spaces for children, but that involves new builds and more staffing which is something they cannot afford to do just now.

Such is life.

Thinking about it Although my daughter is only at nursery, there are 15 children in the group at max at any one time, their max is 24 kids, I spent 2 hours there when my daughter was settling and 15 is definitely enough. I think children that young need .more focus especially as the.children are on so many different levels. My daughter is 2.3 years and there ia a child 2 month older, she can have a proper coversation and day 6/7 word sentences whereas he has only just started.learning to talk. The teachers have.more time to help those who need it more with a manageable class

When I lived in Scotland the school had to accept new kids if they were in catchment. So mid-year this family moved with a girl in my year group and twins two years above us. The school had to accept, but the twins meant the P6 class would be over numbers. So they had to split the P5 class into two composites - some with p6s and some with my p4 class. 3 classes changed and a new one created mid year! It was madness. The English rule of "we're full, you can have a place here" is much better imo. Far less disruptive.

Late to the party but this stood out to me:

Considering they are building a load of new family homes, yet nothing is ever done to make more room for children.

Do you really think that developers and councils honestly think about this when they are building new developments??? A school maybe lucky to get funding to expand bit it is extremely rare

My local school has just changed from 2 form entry to 3 form entry. A large part of the cost was met by 3 different builders who are building new estates in the area.

The school was pretty well demolished and 2 years of disruption for kids as a new block was built, they were moved into it, old school demolished except for the admin bit which joined the new block to the rebuilt old school. Sorry that sounds a bit complicated but basically a single storey school became a two storey school,old temporary classrooms removed so outside space was pretty well unaffected.

Drives me mad every morning and afternoon as parking is a nightmare and the parents block my cul de sac. My neighbour even had someone park on her front garden and when paramedics were trying to get to my nextdoor neighbours 93 year old mother who couldn't breathe they couldn't get through. That is a whole different thread though.

Just to add the builders didn't contribute to the school from the goodness of their hearts, it was part of the planning permission that they had to make the contrbutions.