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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

People not thinking about school places?! A rant

100 replies

BlingLoving · 26/04/2019 17:14

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.

OP posts:

cadburyegg · 26/04/2019 19:38

YABU it sounds like you’re the one who doesn’t understand how the system works! It really doesn’t have to take up that much time. We went to 2 open evenings last November and December, looked at ofsted reports, did the application in December (which took 10 minutes), and got the offer for our first choice school last week.

We had been thinking about it for months and moved the year before with schools in mind but this time last year I had just given birth, and looking round schools months in advance wasn’t very high on my priority list, and also it’s completely unnecessary at this stage. Parents do have other things to focus on and think about, you know.

Smoggle · 26/04/2019 19:43

If their child is starting this September, then they're too late to do anything.

If their child is starting next September, then they're too early to do anything.

silvercuckoo · 26/04/2019 19:48

My friend had to register her daughter almost from birth (before 1 y.o.) for the school she wanted to send her DD to (but I think it was a private school). For me, I think it was a simple form on the council's website allowing to choose from 6 schools, but if I remember correctly, only state schools in the borough were available on their list. For someone like me, from outside the UK, the school system here is somewhat mind-boggling.

DappledThings · 26/04/2019 19:52

DC1 will be starting in September 2020. I didn't even know open days were a thing till this thread.

We'll apply to the village one and the ones in the next nearest villages. I've given it no further thought than that.

Smoggle · 26/04/2019 19:56

The January before my DC started school, I applied for the three nearest schools.

In April we got a place in one.

In September they started school.

It's no more complex than that!

snarfblatt · 26/04/2019 19:58

What @DappledThings said! They do open days for primary?!

Our DC is a Sep 2020 starter and the only thought I've spared the whole process so far is 'I hope we find somewhere new to live by then'. Our tenancy is up soon and we need to be settled by September, hopefully with enough time to start researching first, but we're going to struggle being on UC to find anywhere so I'm pushing school research to the back of my worried mind and hoping for the best!!

KittyInTheCradle · 26/04/2019 20:00

@TapasForTwo

So jealous! The nearest school to me is terrible!!!

exLtEveDallas · 26/04/2019 20:02

God you'd hate me (or hate to be me) OP.

The year DD was due to start school the Army told me we would be moving back to UK...that was in March. In June they told
me where we would be going, with a move date of end August. I managed to google the 5 nearest schools to our new address, but when I phoned them they were all full (including the one at the bottom of the road). So I contacted the LA and was told that until we were actually living in the house they couldn't give us a school!

We moved on 31 August, lived in a Travelodge lodge for 2 days, moved into the house on 3 Sep. DD started on 7 Sep at a school that didn't even appear on my Google searches. Thankfully it was a good school, although it was galling that we had to drive past the school 200m from the house to take DD to it.

The only prep I did was to get my mum to buy some grey school pinafores and white blouses from M&S so we'd at least have some semblance of a school uniform if DD was chucked in at the deep end!

PinkiOcelot · 26/04/2019 20:05

Are you feeling ok OP. I really think you’re about to burst a blood vessel.

Jasging · 26/04/2019 20:07

I'm not sure why it bothers you so much but I do think a lot of people get very confused and make up some strange things ...
Eg - going to church to help get in a C of E school when admissions are done by the council and faith is way down the list... or imagining in their heads living in a certain road that is definitely not in catchment will somehow be different for them and then complaining when they don't get in. The mind boggles.

karigan · 26/04/2019 20:15

No our council doesn't publish a list. That Wouldve made the whole thing easier. The woman on the phone couldn't explain why there were schools with free places closer to us and we'd been allocated the one we got.

Also it's not middle class snobbery. There have been genuinely been cases of rickets in that school within the last year. A lot of drug problems, needles found regularly in the school playground, two people have been stabbed on the street the school is based on. It's not about it not being a 'naice' school, it's about getting my child into a school where she isn't going to pick up a needle in the playground. I doubt many would disagree with me.

JeantheHipster · 26/04/2019 20:29

I understand your angst (although I'm another to add that open days for 2020 haven't been advertised at our local schools yet). Last week a mum was having a rant on the local mums fb group that her ds has been allocated a school she didn't apply for and she won't be sending him there. 3 people responded informing her it was her fault for using up all her preferences and if she had only put one school she would have got a place. Two told her to reject it because the council have to give her a school place and she doesn't have to send her ds to a school she doesn't like. Thankfully the rest of the posters gave her good advice.

@karinga - did the data you read support that your dc was likely to get a place at one of these 3 schools? My friend has made a mistake of only applying to the outstanding schools in the town, she didn't apply to her second closest school as a back up which is the recently rated 'good' sch because she didn't want her dd to go to the council estate school. Her dd now has a place at a school in an even more deprived area 3 miles away and she doesn't drive.

Re things on this thread :-

Not all counties have catchments (mine doesn't).

Each LEA operates differently. I could list 4 schools. Friend in another county could list 6 schools.

My dd has been offered a place at an outstanding rated school despite it being 1.2 miles from our house. She didn't get a place at my first choice 'good' school which is 0.5 miles away (I don't know why yet but I assume it's due to a huge sibling intake). The data over the past few years suggests the opposite result.

A church school near me prioritises practising CofE children and siblings, cared for and medical reasons but after that prioritises any child living within 2 villages so going to church for two years to get into that school is unlikely to result in a place if you live outside of the two villages.

karigan · 26/04/2019 20:52

There wasn't any data released by our council supporting strength of school applications. Two of my three schools were picked on the basis of geographical closeness (they are the two nearest schools to my house- the next closest is more than 0.3 miles further.) The third was 1.7 miles away (still closer than the school we've been allocated) and done on a faith statement, we've attended our church since 2013 and the vicar wrote that on the form- didn't get a place there.

glueandstick · 26/04/2019 21:05

@bogglesgoggles

Have done exactly the same. Our local state schools are woeful. I’ll just push work along a bit and my husband will do the same to make up for the fees.

JeantheHipster · 26/04/2019 21:21

@karigan OK, that makes it difficult for parents then. Our LEA data shows the number of children accepted under each category and the distance of the furthest accepted child. They have 3 or 4 years worth of data on their website. I knew from looking at them over the past few years that my dd had no chance of getting into the the CofE school I mentioned above. It is our fourth closest school but it didn't seem worth wasting a preference on that school whereas our sixth closest school seemed a much safer bet.

I hope you have success with the waiting list/appeal for a closer school.

karigan · 26/04/2019 21:24

@jeanthehipster Thank you. I've got everything crossed :)

UCOforAC12 · 26/04/2019 21:45

@grumpyyetgorgeous that's eye opening! What happens in those instances?

grumpyyetgorgeous · 26/04/2019 21:55

Well our school used to be very undersubscribed so often we took the child and got the parents to fill in forms in the head's office.
Now we're much fuller and things have tightened up so I think we have to just give them a council number to ring.
It's worrying though because parents that do this are generally quite vulnerable and need guiding through the process really.

HopeGarden · 26/04/2019 22:09

I agree it’s definitely sensible for people to have a general idea of how school admissions work, I believe most LAs publish guidance explaining it.
Although I guess how important visiting schools is depends on how oversubscribed schools are near you.

When we were doing DS1’s applications we knew from looking at past years data that we had something like a 50:50 chance of getting into our nearest (preferred) school, so we were also looking at which nearby schools tended to be undersubscribed.
All of the local schools which did open days did them in the autumn term.

Also our LA doesn’t do catchment areas, it’s just closest walking distance for all schools.

There’s still too much misinformation about though. I remember one presentation at a school open day where it was clear from the teachers comments that they didn’t understand how the admissions process worked themselves.
And I know people who’ve got schools they didn’t want after doing things like only putting down one school.

LynetteScavo · 26/04/2019 22:24

I looked at our local school in the September before DS was due to start school. We decided it wasn't right for DS, looked at other schools and moved house.

All very possible...no need to panic.

mytreeisgrowing · 26/04/2019 22:50

I've researched but I don't get it .. help me please...

So I'm in catchment for two infant schools very close by. A big one closest 0.3 of a mile and a small one 0.5 of a mile away.

If I apply for the small one, which is slightly further away, then don't get a place then how does the second choice work? Will I get the big one I'd put as my second choice or be sent miles away as it wasn't my first choice ?

There are actually 3 schools in my catchment. but the other one is really far away, I couldn't walk it, so I don't get why it comes up as catchment on my councils site. I don't drive and I estimate the walk to be 30 mins each way at adult speed.

EggsFried · 26/04/2019 23:28

@mytreeisgrowing All LEAs in England have to operate an equal preference system, so the order that you list schools doesn't matter at all unless more than one on your list is able to offer you a place, in which case you will be offered whichever school is the higher preference. You could put a school as your 6th choice and someone else could put it first, but if you meet the admissions criteria better than them (e.g. by living nearer) it is you that will be offered the place above them. The best advice is to list the schools in your genuine order of preference, but to include at least one school somewhere on the list that you are pretty sure you will be offered a place at based on the admission data in previous years (usually your closest school, but not always the case, and of course I know that there are some spots where you can't be sure of an offer from any school).

EggsFried · 26/04/2019 23:30

So if you prefer the small school, put that first and the bigger school second, and then if the smaller school can't offer you a place you will still have exactly the same chance of getting into the bigger school as if you'd put it first

Original poster

BlingLoving · 27/04/2019 01:23

I think the poster who said I have an SIL moaning problem is totally right.

I will say in our area the distance thing is complicated and varies and there are significant shifts year to year. So there is, in theory, a choice for many people as to which school they go to as well as, At the other end of the spectrum, the chance of having to go to school quite far away (depending on siblings/ distance etc). In which case doing some research seems sensible to me. But yes, I was over invested. And realising issue is more about SIL has made me calm down!

OP posts:

mytreeisgrowing · 27/04/2019 07:41

@EggsFried thank you so much that makes it clear!

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