People not thinking about school places?! A rant

[BlingLoving]

This has absolutely nothing to do with me and I'm fully aware that to be this wound up is ridiculous but....
.... I keep meeting people with children starting reception next year who have made absolutely ZERO effort to understand the way school places work or think about what they want for their kids.

I think it's driven by my frustration at SIL who is always banging on about how important it is that her DC get a good education and she'll pay to live in a good school district etc etc, but when it comes down to it, she's done absolutely nothing. No research on local schools, no effort to understand the system etc. Hasn't booked a single visit for open days etc. Currently she's thinking of one particular school for her DS. It's a good school actually but her reasoning is that she's met people at WORK who went there and said it was great. So she's making a decision for her kid based on people's experiences of 20 years ago!?!?!

Another family have recently moved into our area but it turns out she doesn't even know what local schools are or how the local council's system works and hasn't really thought about it.

I appreciate that school is still 18 months away, but the process of going to open days etc takes time and the application is only 7 months away.

Okay, I'l stop now. I actually know IABU. I'm just so annoyed by the cavalier attitude of some people. I also had someone tell me the other day that she got into her first choice high school because her mum put it down as her only choice so the council HAD to send her there... Argh.

It makes zero difference if you've visited a school or not.....you'll only get your catchment school.

I didn't visit any schools before applying for my dc's places (or, at least not with the purpose of seeing if they were good for my dc). I just applied to the closest ones.

The difference is I suppose that as a supply teacher I have worked in all the schools local to me, some for a few days, others more long term, so had good idea of what they're like. I also know that ofsted reports don't always give the full picture of what a school is actually like, that it can be difficult to get a clear picture of its ethos just by making one pre-organised visit and that there's a lot more to a child's education than just good test/exam results.

I kind of agree with you OP. I think what you mean is there's an assumption that you will get the local school or you will get your first choice- erm, you don't have a choice only a preference!

Huh! I thought this was going to be a thread about people who haven't applied for 2019 which would be reasonable, next year though???

I work in a school that regularly has children turning up in the first of September. Their parents know they are the right age for school but haven't understood about applying so they just fetch their child to the front door complete with packed lunch on the first day of term.

I'm a school admin officer and I mostly agree with you. I was reading up on the school admission process whilst my eldest was in the womb just to make sure I didn't have to put his name down from birth or whatever. (It was helpful to know for my then current job within the council anyway) The amount of people who don't have a clue how the whole thing works is astounding. The number of parents who rock up to my office in the middle of the school year waving their 30 hour code expecting a nursery place for their 2-year-old the following day goes into double digits. (Our nursery is 3 and 4 year olds)

But there is only so much you can do. Our open days for reception are in Autumn 2 and the dates finalised the month or so before so you can't book on them in the summer term beforehand. The application period is September-mid January.

Just pick the school closest to your house unless it's really bad, and even then the only way is up.

Know where you are coming from though, we moved when ds was nearly 2 and I did look at the ofsted reports on the several primary schools that would have been an option, and even which secondary schools they fed into. Yea things can change but several school had been consistently poor over several years so they were ruled out. Did nothing more until application but checked and those schools were still poor whereas the nearest one we chose, and to be fair would have got anyway, had improved leaps and bounds. I went to there open day and it just felt right, as well as going well

you'll only get your catchment school.

Well that's not entirely true. In some areas you won't get your catchment school and in other areas you have much more chance of a different school.

Where I live plenty of people won’t get their catchment school. But they don’t know this because they don’t do any prior research or consider any back up options and then moan like fuck when they get allocated the crap schools that can’t fill their places.

It’s not all about being anal and over preparing a year in advance. It’s just about having a general clue about the process and not just blindly assuming it’s straight forward. Some people just don’t care of course, but some are just a bit clueless and disorganised. The people I know who were completely oblivious about the school process are the same people who didn’t thinking about nursery/childcare until the last minute and then struggled to find places. They are the same now their kids are at school, never know term dates or appointment times etc. Always rely on someone else to sort it for them

Of course you’re being unreasonable. I haven’t been to look at any schools at all and just accepted my child’s place.

It’s pretty obvious that you get little control over the whole process, you choose 3 in order of preference but they can decline all 3 and give you another option anyway. It’s a silly move to buy a house in a whole different area just for a school, they’re so over applicated that it really is luck of the drawer.

We went off league tables and ofsted reports and chose 3 of our local and close 5 schools and I ordered them in terms of my preferences. We thankfully got first choice and I’ll be going for a look around soon, you’re really wasting your time and efforts thinking about this as much as you are. You can only pick 3 and get no control over what your child will be put in. What is the point in setting yourself up for a fall and giving your child a negative start to school because you preferred a different one?

Candace - I live in an area where you are very lucky to get into your closest school (assuming it’s a school you like). Entrance fraud is rampant - and we also have a criteria where parents in receipt of benefits get first choice of nursery. Understandably many of these parents chose the best nursery - which isn’t always their closet. This means those living close to that nursery who aren’t in receipt of benefits often can’t get a place.

Most of these nursery’s will be attached to an equally good primary school. If being in the nursery is in the admissions criteria then these children will get first preference at a primary school place, displacing local children.

All primary schools should be good, and it is understandable that parents will do everything they can to to get their children into a good school when some underperform. But it results in lots of children not getting into their neighbourhood schools.

I think the English system is crazy, in Scotland we go to your local catchment school. This system is driving house prices up and leaving other schools to be labelled 'bad schools', if people went to their local school it would see a spread of pupils/involved parents and see schools improving across the board.

We just looked at the Tatler guide
. Love it. Why didn't I think of that!!

We moved based on school catchments but also knowing the reality was my son had a less than 50% chance of getting into the catchment school during the main admissions round, or any school within the local area. So I did visit a few schools to try and see what the alternatives that he may get into were like.

Fortunately the school was so oversubscribed in catchment that year they created an extra class. I was also prepared to go on the waiting lists and home educate for up to a year if needed.

It does really surprise me that people don't check admissions statistics etc online. I'm pretty sure this is not the only road in the country where getting a school place can be challenging.

My local catchment is small but we are firmly within it. It doesn't do open days, you have to contact them yourself for a tour. From my youth group, I know it's a decent school, and I got a nice vibe from my visit. Our second and third choices, I didn't visit as the odds were I wouldn't need them, again, I know current pupils at them.

My friend was a bit out of catchment and managed to get her child in to her pleasant surprise, even though there were a good number of siblings for that year group. Her catchment school has had a rough few years, but had a decent reputation for years before that. It was a comparatively late decision to alter the order of preference.

It surprised me how quickly applications came up as my DCs were 3 at the point of application (as most will be).

You do realise that most schoola are over subscribed and your choices mean nothing they will just give you the closest one to your house in a straight line. As many people in our village found out on the 16th.

Please can I also take this opportunity to remind everyone that not all areas use catchments (including the vast majority of London boroughs). Some areas have true defined catchment areas, which are fixed and do not vary from year to year without proper consultation. Many more simply use straight-line distances and publish their 'admissions areas' which can give you an idea of how places were offered in previous years but give you no guarantee of priority.

Estate agents are particularly bad at using the term 'catchment' inaccurately and you would not believe the number of parents who believe the estate agent who wrongly told them that their property was in catchment for St. Anywhere's and have bothered to do no further research into the admissions criteria.

I openly admit I had no clue, I put one choice down and if he didn't get in I was going to homeschool and then had a month of panic before the place allocation letters were sent. Thankfully he got the lovely school and I wont be such an idiot with his sibling.I was fully being unreasonable.

We're on the waiting list for 27 primary schools. I researched so carefully last year,looked round a bunch of schools, read all the data and the applications guidance. I picked our top 3 as a mix of good schools all within 1.2 miles of the house and then waited. We weren't allocated any of our to0 three nor any of the four next closest schools. We got one 3 miles away in an area rife with drugs problems and other significant social issues. I appealed the hour the council opened and was reassured that as three of the four schools that are closer than the allocated school still aren't full then we have a good chance of getting a place.

There is very little logic to this system that I can comprehend.

I didn't view any open days for Primary entry. DS starts this coming Sept and he's going to the same school as his older sister. We got a place even though we are technically out of catchment but live very close.

Secondary will be more intense as we will visit with DD and will very carefully look on our council's website as it gives the category and distance from school for the last place allocated for all over-subscribed schools. Very useful to know if you stand any sort of chance.

Karigan
Was at least one of those 3 in catchment? I’m confused at this. There’s usually no mystery to getting a place.

Wtaf! 27 schools!! Rife with social issues, if anything reeks of middle class snobbery that does 🙄

TBH, we do not have this issue living in Canada. Usually your choice is either a Catholic school or the local public school, and you're sent to the one under whose catchment area you fall. In rural communities we don't even have that. You just go to the school where you live because there is only one option.

If you want your child to go to a different school, you can apply. There's no guarantee they will get in - it depends on whether there is space available.

Maybe I'm being a bit naive here, but it seems to me that school quality would be something to consider when you decide where to live when you have a family.

@karigan - does your council list the category and distance of the last place offered for over-subscribed schools? It makes it very easy to know if you stood any sort of chance. Some of our secondary schools, the last place went to a child in catchment living under 500m from the school, you wouldn't stand a chance here at 1.2miles.

Our council helpfully changed the categories around too. So it's LAC children, siblings in catchment, then new in catchment, then siblings out of catchment, then new pupils out of catchment. Siblings both in and out of catchment used to come before all new pupils but now it's changed. Caught some parents out as they live out of catchment and were banking on getting in due to the sibling but now all the new kids in catchment get places first.

Over 400 applications for 120 Reception year places this year, and that’s just our school. The other decent local schools all had similar numbers. Too many kids, not enough schools, too many “no mans land” areas within catchments, and lots of people like me whose catchment school isn’t actually their nearest school. Also the “straightest line on a map” thing isn’t always the case. Our LA uses an specific mapping system. Then there’s the over subscription criteria, too many kids in catchment so they prioritise kids with siblings first and so on. It’s a mine field and not as simple as saying “just go to your local school”. They are usually full!

I am SO glad I don't live in England. The school system is truly f*cked. Its nothing like this in Scotland at least not in most schools.