Whenyougonnalearn
Kennykenkencat
We had this but in our case because of how the boundaries are set up and the nearest schools being outside of our catchment area and the nearest one inside our catchment area over 2 miles away (the first bit of our postcode was the same as the houses across about a mile+ of fields
I rang up and put the fact that I wanted to appeal for a place at the nearest school
The person told me there was no point appealing as that was the nearest school in our catchment area and my daughter would stand no chance of getting into a school out of catchment area
I replied that in that case as it was over 2 miles away that I would need transport. I don’t think Dd being 4 years old affected whether she got transport or not. That meant for the next 6 years we would need a taxi daily to get to the school. I also pointed out that as the roads were being rejigged and the school was moving to a new site the following year the travel would become 4 miles each way for 36 weeks per year for the 5 years after that at even 50p per mile (probably gone up now) that was another £720 per year or £3600 it would cost them to insist she went to that school and the taxi would continue after she had left for another 2 years as presumably her younger brother would be allocated the same school
The person said he would get back to me
About an hour later the HT of the nearest school rang me to say a place had become available
Even over subscribed schools have children who won’t want the school place because they have decided to go private or they get into another school or the family move out of the area so I wouldn’t give up
It was only when I got to the school in September I over heard another mum (who was also outside of the catchment area but further outside than us saying that she had been given a place but then had the place rescinded (which was about the time Dd was offered her place) and then another place became available so was offered that place a few weeks later
I personally wouldn’t give up the school place but say that you are deferring it because of her age then see if you can be on a waiting list for your nearest schools. It isn’t set in stone that everyone who starts reception will be there at the end of year 6 let alone the first term of reception
At least 3 people left the school in reception 2 because they were moving away (one to Australia and one to another area of the town) and one because although they were at the school which was in their catchment area they were also on the waiting list for a school nearer to them
You lived in a house you knew was out of the catchment area for the school closest to you
You applied to the school knowing it was out of your catchment area
Actually never gave it a moments thought. I applied to the schools that were nearest to us.
This is what I don’t get. We wanted a specific school for our children and we wanted it to be walking distance
So when you bought, we bought having researched the admissions criteria with a fine tooth comb and looked at last data re distance allocation
This was before children
Again you are putting your situation and planning on our situation.
We moved to the house in a year when the number of properties on the market was minuscule. Remember this was pre Rightmove, pre computers pre mobile phones. Or at least we didn’t have any of those things.
We had sold our house in a different area and needed to move for dh’s work. We sold so quickly that from telling the estate agent to go ahead with the sale and getting a buyer who had offered the full asking price prior to viewing was 7minutes and we completed 3 weeks later. Upon which our furniture was taken to France because there was no more storage facilities in England.
We moved into a holiday cottage where everyone else staying at the same place was in the same situation.
I was calling hundreds of estate agents from phone booths to try to find somewhere to live. Very few had anything on their books. Our cats had gone to the cattery and our dog was living with us in the holiday cottage.
We only bought this house because it was the only place that was for sale that we could find having started off with a list of criteria that we wanted (children weren’t even considered) and ended up with any house we buy shouldn’t be on a main road because we didn’t think a main road would be safe for our cats.
We didn’t view the house prior to buying.
It had to be a quick buy as it had only just come on the market and if we had waited to see it inside we would have certainly missed out.
Looking at catchment areas for potential children given my age and medical history was the last thing on our minds.
When we wanted our eldest to go to a particular secondary school, we looked in to admissions and disregarded because we weren’t in the admissions criteria. It was disappointing but we weren’t prepared to move to for the published admissions criteria
We didn’t apply and then get annoyed when we were told what we already knew
But I didn’t know. I did know that if they gave you a school over 2 miles away then they had to pay for a taxi.
As it happens it worked out.
Dd went to school in Central London to a specialised school that focussed on a particular subject for senior school and Ds bobbed in and out of main stream school but has SEN’s so I ended up HE him.
If we had studied every catchment area for children’s schools when we didn’t have children or targeted only one area then we would have wasted so much money in holiday let’s that we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford anything when eventually the perfect house came on the market.