Moved area; 2 children given places in 2 different primary schools

[Stumpfest]

Has anyone been in this situation before and what did you do?

I have dd6 in y1 and dd4 in R, we've just moved areas and been given a school 1.8 miles away from our house for dd4 and dd6 has been given a place at a different school 1.9 miles in the complete opposite direction. I cant drive and have an 18 month old to also lug around on the school run.

I could just about hack doing the school run with them if we were going back and forth to 1 school but I have no idea how on earth we can make this arrangement work until a place becomes free for either sibling at either school. Can't afford to do before/after school club to stagger pick up/drop off and even if we could that would still mean one child is walking a ridiculous amount of miles per day.

We had to move and I just have no idea what to do. Dd 4 is a June baby and is really struggling with getting to grips with school as it is.

You sound like you've had a tough time this year. Well done for keeping on going. I don't have much to add except please try to sift out the wrong information - infant class sizes will impact you at this point unfortunately.

I came on to say having had kids go through school if you home school 1 or both girls for a year or so I absolutely believe it will have no detriment to their academic achievements or their social development long term. They will adapt and adjust.

When and if you get to an appeal you have great grounds for asking for them to be together based on your circumstances.

Are there any buses which could help with the journey even if not direct?

I’m not sure if this is a stupid idea and probably is, but I wonder if there’s a childminder near you that could help with literally just the school run, although I understand money is an issue. I also wonder if talking to the school about a funded breakfast club place might be possible too. However - I really think with all you have on your plate that you should avoid having to do a two mile school run at all, let alone a four mile one, so I’m hoping another option will come up for you and agree that keeping the youngest home for the interim wouldn’t be a bad idea.

While I usually do anything to avoid other people’s childcare, if I lived near you I’d do one of the runs for you daily without a second thought. I hope a solution comes along for you soon.

I would contact the schools & also the council & tell them what you have told us.

Also I would contact the one nearest home as 0.5 miles would be much easier.

It sounds like you've got your hands full with a house move & a baby all on your own.

Do you qualify for free school meals? Pupil premium children might get free places at breakfast club which might help with timings (but not distance).

I don’t suppose you know local families well enough yet who might be able to help out

You've had lots of helpful advice already.
I just wanted to make another suggestion, as you said that money is tight. Contact your local Citizens Advice and ask if there are any grants they could apply for on your behalf. If you can get help with the cost of food, fuel or other essentials, that might free up some funds for breakfast/after school club or even for a second hand bike.
If it was affordable I'd say a cargo bike would be a great solution - might be worth looking into finding a second hand one or seeing if there are any hire schemes near you.
I agree with PPs though that you should probably keep your 4yo home for now and just hope a place comes up.
Also, I might be wrong about this, but I think someone said that if you appeal, it puts you to the top of the waiting list, so you should definitely do that!

You say you have a medical condition- it might be worth checking whether there is discretionary help with transport under 2 mikes I have come across this but it’s buried in the small print but worth investigation. Good luck

Did you mean to be so rude?

Did you, with this response?

I'm sorry I don't have any knowledge here OP, but I think some posters are forgetting that school placements being nearly 2 miles in opposite directions means that each morning and evening, at least one child is being asked to walk nearly 6 miles (and OP with baby is having to walk nearly 16 miles per day). Yes, schools cannot magic KS1 places out of thin air, but transport must be made available for one of the children in cases like this. It is simply not in any child's interest to walk that far, let alone an infant, plus how late is the second drop off going to be if they've walked 2 miles to first school for earliest drop off time, then a further 4 miles to their school? Get your MP involved too if this doesn't get resolved.

I agree with contacting your councilor, they can be very helpful.

In fact just take the advice on offer, ignore the snide comments and have an unmumsnetty hug from me.

Just one last thought, depending on your medical condition you might be eligible for 'ring and ride', it's a bus service for people who struggle to use public transport and is door to door.

My local one allows dependent children to travel, you do have to pay, locally it is £1.30 a journey.

If you have a Roundtable, St Vincent de Paul etc they can make small grants available. There are list online of charities that make grants to individuals.

I applied as a student, as they are one off grants you do not need to declare them to the DSS (at least I didn't, it might be different, do check).

You might not get transport payed by the council but you have a good case for transport from a charity.

What a horrendous situation for you OP.
If you keep.your 4 year old at home for another year, will they definitely get a place in Reception at your older child's school?

Hopefully you will get it sorted.

If you do end up accepting a school place, I would like to remind you to update the other child school application. They might not get sibling priority (if applicable) otherwise.

I have found schools own admission officer much more efficient than the local authorities ones.

I had a similar situation - I would suggest phoning the schools and the admissions team. I also visited the schools, so that the head teachers and the office staff knew me well. The admissions team did too - the personal connection helped I think.

It might be that there is a third school further away with 2 places.

I ended up having mine at different schools for a term, then a place became available unexpectedly. But it was tough. I had to arrange to get someone else (who I paid) to do one school run while I did the other. (I had a little one at a nursery elsewhere too!). It did work out in the end as they all ended up in the same school.

@Summerfun54321

I would home school both children until you can get places for your kids at the nearest school. You’ve been through a lot by the sounds of it and having a short local walk to school will really help you. Although schools are oversubscribed where we live, there are children leaving in those early Yr 1 and reception years as parents move house when the kids aren’t too settled yet. If you’re a single parent you really need to be at your nearest local school for support from other local parents, not one 2 miles away. You have options for your very youngest as it wouldn’t be a crazy idea to keep her back a year, so she could go into reception this year or next year if there’s a place then and you haven’t missed this year’s application deadline.

I agree, this is worth considering. It seems to me that taking some time to get used to your new area, have a look at the schools, and explore all the options might give you better school options.

OP, you seem very ready to move heaven and earth to sort the situation out, but remember that putting them into a particular school means committing to school runs which may be awkward for many years to come, unless you are happy to change their schools later. I wouldn't do anything in desperation which you may regret.

It's possible that by waiting for a few months or a year, a good school option will become available. A short while out of school won't do the kids any harm, and may even give all of you a chance to de-stress from whatever difficult situation you are moving on from.

Home education does not have to involve huge amounts of formal work, especially with young children. It is probably easier than you think. And if it really doesn't suit, you can go ahead with school after all.

My two DC were allocated different schools (Y1 and Nursery) 10 minute's walk apart when we moved areas many years ago.
I put them on each other's waiting list and dropped DC1 off as the doors opened then cycled to drop DC2 off nearer 9am.
School finish times were 20 minutes different so the afternoon was a doddle.
Juniors was trickier as the finish times were closer, so DC1 met me on the street after school from DC2's school run.
DC1 was offered a place in the other school in Y3, but didn't want to leave friends so stayed put.
They are very different temperaments so the different schools suited them.
They went on to different secondaries and colleges and both did well.
The dual school run was tiring but both DCs got a lot from their respective schools.
The trickiest bit was keeping the school admin straight, as term dates, sports days, dress up days were often different and I lived in constant worry that I would send the wrong child in dressed as a Roman!

There is a Facebook group called flexible admissions for summer borns, someone there would know if there would still be an option to start your four year old in reception again in September.

We were in a similar situation. As it was mid-pandemic (end 2020) I simply registered them both as home educated and kept them both at home until places came up in the school I wanted. This actually happened much faster than I thought it would, although I was prepared to wait out the year. I felt it would be better for them than potentially starting and getting pulled out etc, and at this age it's not so bad. Mine learned loads at home with me, we did topics together and I signed up to twinkl. I enjoyed it, although it was also stressful and I could not have done it long term as I was also holding down a full time job (shift work so it was possible but meant I never really had a day off!)
Because I could prove they were getting an education at home, I wasn't forced to accept the first schools we were offered and was able to wait it out.
It's definitely an option worth considering.

@AnotherEmma

You've had lots of helpful advice already. I just wanted to make another suggestion, as you said that money is tight. Contact your local Citizens Advice and ask if there are any grants they could apply for on your behalf. If you can get help with the cost of food, fuel or other essentials, that might free up some funds for breakfast/after school club or even for a second hand bike. If it was affordable I'd say a cargo bike would be a great solution - might be worth looking into finding a second hand one or seeing if there are any hire schemes near you. I agree with PPs though that you should probably keep your 4yo home for now and just hope a place comes up. Also, I might be wrong about this, but I think someone said that if you appeal, it puts you to the top of the waiting list, so you should definitely do that!

Unfortunately I don't believe appealing affects the waiting list position. You either win your appeal and are given a place (even if it means going over numbers), or lose your appeal and your waiting list position is unaffected. As others have said though, the OP is limited by Infant Class Size laws, which mean that appeals to make classes go over 30 can only be won if a mistake has been made or in very exceptional circumstances. These laws do not apply after Y3, so appeals for junior and secondary places are far more likely to be successful than those for infant places.

Best of luck OP

@BoredZelda

Did you mean to be so rude?

Did you, with this response?

You know this is a stock MN response that we are all supposed to use right?

With my local council if you call a number no one calls much, eg sewers and drains, then say "oops can you transfer me internally please?" Sometimes you get through quicker because they will pick up an internal call, whereas they screen calls from outside. Worth a try!

Re transport... when my DD was given transport the school was within two miles. It was simply because there was no spaces in any school closer and her sister had been granted a place at nearer school (they were 1.91 miles and 1.92 miles away straight distance, further by road but that didn't matter).

@Hoppinggreen

Well it might be rude but it’s true. Some schools are very oversubscribed and there just isn’t room for another child. Of course OP can appeal but there aren’t really any grounds for it

There are if the school's oversubscription criteria give priority to siblings.

My school has 34 children in each class at KS2 and 30 at KS1. That is the absolute limit and we simply wouldn’t have room for anyone else, whether it was an inconvenience to them or not. Places can’t be left open in case someone needs to move into the area.

I was in this situation, reception age dd placed at one school 6 miles from home and y3 ds placed a mile from home. Same start time. Tried the LA and got nowhere. I actually ended up ringing the school my reception age dd was going to, and asked for suggestions. They made a space for ds. I know there are strict limits on ks1 class sizes but maybe it'd be possible for them to do this once your older child goes into ks2...