Primary school advice please

[Tomoveornot222]

Hello. I'm not sure what to do. We are going to be moving soon. End of July. One week after the school term ends for summer holidays. Currently 2 kids in local school year 1 and 3.

Daughter has just received reception place for same school.

Now when we move school will be too far and they have a younger sibling who wouldn't get in due to distance in a few years time.

So I spoke to the local school where we are moving and at the moment they have space for the boys. But not sure for my daughter as allocations haven't finished.

So I have applied for her now as the Council said to apply as soon as we have our tenancy agreement which was today. They said if she gets in and we don't accept she will keep her place at original school. But I will need to accept before I know the boys definitely get in. I need to apply after half term for them to start in September. Our other option is to move earlier, as we have both properties for 2 months as we started the process early so need to pay rent on old property until end of tenancy. And apply for their place in the next few weeks and hope they get in. But still not sude about reception child. Feel very confused and stuck! Help!

Does anyone know what I can do if only say 1 gets in or 2 and not the other.

I think that this a 'fingers crossed' situation.
You cannot force a school to accept your child.
Moving home doesn't give you an automatic right to a place, either.

I hope that you get a good outcome.

No I know it doesn't. Just wandered what my options are if I can't get them to their original primary. But as you said a cross fingers situation

And thank you

Once you have moved, the new LA is obliged to find you a school place. If it is too far to walk, they are also obliged to find you transport.

It is a case of juggling until it falls into place. Which may mean that you have 2 schools for a while. As soon as one child is in the school, you can ask for the others to go on the waiting list and they should be at the top as they are siblings.

Hi @Tomoveornot222

If they currently have places for your older children that’s a good sign. There are no guarantees they will still be available when you need them, but nevertheless it’s good you’ve asked the question. You could ask the school how much movement is typical, whether they have multiple places etc if you feel it would be helpful to you to know that. It’s also good you’ve applied for the reception place too

It no doubt feels very tricky but what I would do is if you are offered the reception place, take it. You know you are going to be moving and it’s too far from the current school so if you’re offered a place at least that’s one ‘crossed off’ so to speak. If you’re not offered a place then go on the waiting list.

Do you know when you will find out about the reception place? I guess in the next few weeks? I think I would be tempted to wait until you’ve heard about that and then if you do get it, then apply for the older two places. Depending on the timing you are correct you may need to move a bit earlier and take up the places before the summer holidays but that may be nice as it would enable your children to make some local friends to play with over the summer.

If you only get one or two places but not all three you can add your other children to the waiting list and you can also appeal. Appeals are very very hard to win for reception, Y1 and Y2 but are more possible for Y3 upwards. As someone else said the LA does need to find school places for all your children but it could be logistically difficult if they are not all in the same school so you’re right to start thinking now.

There’s a primary education board which has some knowledgeable people on it. You may want to post there if you experience difficulties.

I would move now and get the boys in. You will then be applying for a sibling place for your dd and much more likely to get in.

Agree with @madeforthis

Plus a chance for the kids to start to form friendships this summer before what could be another disrupted autumn of schooling.

If you've got a tenancy agreement from today, can you move earlier than July?
As soon as the oldest are in the new school, your youngest will be fairly high up the waitlist if siblings are prioritised (and quite possibly first).

Thank you all. Yes moving now is possible but also will be difficult due to work commitments. I think we will wait until we hear back for my dad's reception place. If she's got it we will move in from then and apply for the boys whilst I know there are places. One ds is fine other one really doesn't want to move so I kind of wanted him to finish his school year with his friends. But I will have a think.

Looks like dds applications won't be processed until after May 14th. And I would need to apply in the half term for a September start for the boys. Maybe we should move now and apply now. Tenancy starts on 6th may

We moved in August one year and were told we had to wait until we lived in the property before applying for local schools. The school admissions department was closed for the summer so I basically couldn’t apply until early September when they should have been returning to school. It was a total nightmare but thankfully they did all get in at the same school even though it sadly wasn’t the one we wanted which is on the end of our street.

It’s a wait and see approach I guess, you can’t do much for now. You may end up in a situation where your DD is allocated a place at a different school but hopefully not. They can and do offer you any school in your district, even ones 3+ miles away (they did this to me).

Ok, thank you. Yes we have 3 schools within our area so any would be fine. But it would mean darting around and a child possibly being later every morning. But I would look for before or after school clubs in that scenario

In Year admissions are always a gamble. My DDs have just started their fourth school. Younger DD has never had an issue getting a place (The current Yr3 seems to be a low birth year! She's been in a class of 18, a class of 14, and two classes of 28). Elder DD was once out of school for two monthsbefore we won an appeal. But this time... A child left before Easter, she just started a week after moving house.

Get your DD on the waiting list. Apply as soon as you can for your son's. Other children can take available places at any time. Your younger son is under Infant Class size regs, but your elder child isn't, which can help at appeal.

Thank you!