Reception child refused school place

[Abbazed]

My 5 Yr old son has been refused a reception place. Has anyone else been refused a place?

Sec told me we weren't vulnerable or key workers so tough.

We need more info -

If your school offered reception kids to go back 2 weeks ago and you opted not to send yours initially, then expected you could change your mind and they’ve now said there’s no space - yabu. It was a logistical nightmare for them arranging bubbles and stuff.

If that wasn’t the case then how are they prioritising?

I don’t think it’s the schools fault, some just can’t accommodate even the 3 year groups supposed to have gone back because of the government guidance.

Most schools have got a limited number of places, and a hierarchy of categories by which they allocated them. And if you've only just applied now, there's a good chance they've been full for weeks.

There’s limited spaces.

My DC’s primary school is only taking 2 year groups worth of children. That’s how many they can manage once classroom sizes and available staff are taken into account.

So it’s impossible for them to accept all nursery, Reception l, Year 1 and Year 6 children back, even if there were no key worker or vulnerable children in other year groups.

And of course key worker and vulnerable children were given priority over other children.
We responded quickly to the school’s messages asking whether parents wanted a space for their kids, and we were lucky to get DC2 (Yr1) in before the Year 1 bubbles filled up.
But some schools may have so many key worker / vulnerable children in that there’s no room left at all for the other kids.

Loads of schools are only offering limited places. Ours said they could only take 15 reception pupils total, and that if more than that wanted to come back they’d have to prioritise somehow. Luckily only 13 have gone back anyway. But yes it’s really common right now that they can’t take everybody.

Our school isn't having Reception or Yr1 back - too many keyworkers/vulnerable/type kids.

Utter cluster fuck 😩

If new capacity taking into account capacity/size of rooms, availability of teachers not shielding, toilets, distancing, bubbles and so on is less than demand then even Yr, Y1 and Y6 may not have spaces in England. Locally, one school have c30% capacity and is full without covering all key workers. ATM, they don't have plans to get portacabins on the playground, hire extra teachers, rent local indoor spaces and recruit more teachers to increase capacity. Presumably Schroedinger's magic money tree might need to materialise or companies agree to accept play money.

I'm thinking if it's like this now then it will be worse in Sept with more kids.

Have they actually reopened to reception children OP? It’s unclear from your post.

I'm wondering about sending to local prep school. My sons dad has a brain tumour so I wanted 5yr old back to help teen if the worst happens.

Yes reception open

@scottinoz yep

Is it open to anyone other than key workers or vulnerable children though?
Ours has all reception, year 1 and year 6 back full time. Some local schools have got some back part time, some are only taking key workers. What is your school’s policy?

So your son is on the roll for YR this current academic year?

In that case, it will be numbers that can be accommodated according to the Government mandated bubbles. Not the school.

My advice is to call weekly on a Friday for a possible place in the week after a bubble. The window is closing though for those who thought they'd suck it and see in the 1st June.

Boris is promising Business as Usual for September.

Our school is at maximum capacity just with KW children. Maybe the same for them.

Ours is key workers only, and now the "bubbles" are formed they're not going to add anyone else even if there was room.

when did you ask to go back OP ?

our local primary has significant;y more keyworkers than the next cloasest school which is much bigger..

Our local school has siad it needs to see if it will have space for year 6 so if a reception child refused initially the space will have gone to year 6.

on the update a class will be classed as a bubble.

Once all our KW children are accounted for our school can only accept 28 Y6 children and 24 Reception children, none from Y1 at all. As for September, if the social distancing rule is relaxed to 1m we will still only be able to accommodate 60% of pupils.

Boris didn't say it was business as usual in September.
He wants them back. Not that they must be back.

We still don't know what will happen.
But it depends on the circumstances.
When schools were told they could open on June 1st this didn't mean they would all open as many assumed
Schools don't know if they will be open in September or not yet.

That's rubbish mine are in as a key worker. But our school have now opened to reception y1 y6 and y5

Did you ask for your child to return having previously said no? If so Yanbu.
My reception dc can’t go back either. Year 6 and KW children only. Lots of KW children so not enough staff to deal with reception. It sucks.

justasking111 - 1 hour per week! I know schools are in a difficult situation and I have every sympathy for them but that hardly seems worth the effort.

As I understand it if the places are full they're full.

Not ideal but what can the school do.

September is still a way off, imo it's extremely unlikely that we'll still have the same rules.

@cabbageking Gavin at the press briefing was pretty adamant that all pupils will be back in September, and in Primary schools they will be in class bubbles. Conveniently forgot to mention how they would do it in Secondary Schools, probably because he hasn't written that part of the plan yet

In our area reception children aren't going back unless classed as vulnerable was suppose togo back on Monday coming had phone call saying there not now an hopefully it will be September.