To decline my school place?

[LG123]

I'm so cross, just want to yell at admissions (I won't).

My daughter got offered a place outside of catchment as my catchment school os oversubscribed. They wouldn't have to provide transport because she's under compulsory school age so my tiny 4 year old would be expected to walk 2 miles each way everyday.

Bet all the ones that drive got their place at a school round the corner.

AIBU to tell them to jog the fuck on?

@linsey2581 Because I am fed up of people not reading.

@RosstopherGeller I’m Scottish so our schools start in August not September and we automatically start in Primary 1 full time (I don’t understand the English reception class thing?). At the time when I was in P1 our house was directly across from the school but we moved when I was primary 5 and had a lot further to walk but our school was still the nearest one. In Scotland you just go to the school which is nearest you in your catchment area unless exceptional circumstances.

That's interesting because my mum was Scottish (moved to England when I asked a baby) and was horrified that I sent my summer-born to school at 4! She gave me a really hard time about it.
My brother and me are both summer-born and we didn't start until the September after we were 5.

The OP has 2 nearer schools, but the system in England is different that there is no guarantee.

Definitely not unreasonable to consider delaying her start.
Check if they will allow her to start reception next year and they won’t make her go straight into year one.
best of luck

Life gets harder for people who can’t drive, if your a student nurse it would make your life easier to drive.

@Fluffycloudland77 I have tried and will continue. Of course it makes life easier.

My Ds has great difficulty driving a manual. He has absolutely no road sense and the gears he could do if there was no cars, no corners and nothing else around

He is learning on an automatic and feels more confident. For him I think he needs to drive around in an automatic till he gets confidence about roads and other car users and then he will take more lessons to do his manual test.

I took far too long learning to drive manual. I am a great driver now (I have enough practice as I drive probably 2000 miles per week) But I still prefer an automatic. Mainly because I live around London and it aches my left leg because I am on and off the clutch in slow moving or stopped traffic

Granted this was 20 years ago. Burnt secondary school 6th form offered other courses aswell as a levels. My boyfriend had already done a year when I joined 6th form, and so he was the year older than me when we finished 6th form. Therefore 19 and due to his birthday he was actually almost 20. I was almost 19.
this was a long time ago but I have never heard of 19 year olds not being allowed in secondary 6th forms. Where I grew up and where I live now every single school has a secondary 6th form. Not college. And there were maybe about 20/30 19 year olds in our ‘year 13’

How did this matter conclude op?

@Intrigueddotcom yes 😊. I'm firm with my decision to delay entry till next September 😊

But will happen at next admission point? Won’t you just be in same boat again but with a one year older child?

Or was the issue only down to transport?

@Intrigueddotcom I had already hoped to delay but put it off because people berated me for it. It's just the fact they won't offer transport because she's not CSA that tipped my decision, just showed me even more that summer borns are just not catered for.

Next year, I could be offered my catchment school, and if not it they will need to get her there.

Your op doesn’t remotely indicate that your reasoning for cancelling is down to anything other than a transport issue. Hence my confusion.

fingers crossed for next year. Unfortunately once a catchment has swollen it is very unlikely to then get smaller. Why? Siblings.

@Intrigueddotcom If you read some of my other updates reasoning is within that.

My gripe initially the audacity of not wanting to help a 4 year old travel 4 miles a day purely because they are 4, not 5. Yet they want them at school at 4! Wasn't really about my thought to delay.

And as a parent it's your responsibility to ensure that they get to school whatever the age they are or to choose to home educate. Although I would be frustrated that my child didn't get into the most local school I wouldn't consider it anyone's responsibility but my own to make sure they got to school wherever they'd been allocated regardless of their age.
My daughter was just 4 when she started school (24th August), and I chose to send her to a school that was almost 5 miles away because I needed somewhere with before and after school care. She didn't get into the one that I put as my first preference-that was 2.5 miles away although my neighbour directly opposite did get a place for her daughter that year. I put her on the waiting list and enquired to the school as to what her place was on that list (she was 2nd). I thought about the other options (keep her at the private school where she attended the nursery was one) and then made the effort to visit other schools that had places to get a 'feel' for them to see if they'd suit my daughter.
Where I am the most local school only accepts 15 children a year and most places are filled by siblings each year. Apparently this year 5 children were allocated a place based on distance and the furthest distance was 0.17 of a mile away from the school. That school had 24 people who put it as their first preference and 52 who put it on any of their preferences.
From where I am there are 4 children due to start school in September that the school would be the closest-none of those 4 got a place and have been allocated 3 different schools. We also live a the top of a big hill, any of the children who would be going to any of the schools they've been allocated have a really hard walk home.

To be fair your OP and many following posts make no mention whatsoever you are considering holding her back. It’s all about your anger re no transport.

unless they increase the class intake to add another class, it is very unlikely the catchment area will swell unless you were right on the border, but even then unlikely.

so you need to be absolutely sure you are happy with the school you got allocated this year.

we were the furthest pupil accepted 6 years ago. 0.0147 from the school. I kid you not.
and my daughter only got in two years later because a sibling, otherwise wouldn’t

and that if with me doing dozens of hours research before moving to the property, looking at past distance data, calling school to get an idea of sibling intake over years etc.

OP wants someone else to be responsible for getting her child to school because she didn't get a place as close as she wanted. She's delaying her child starting school thinking that next year she will get transport for her child because it'll be over 5 years old.
Mentioning deferring for a year wasn't mentioned in the original post and was added in later ...

@clarcats I have wanted to delay since the minute she was born, she was slightly early and was due in late September. There a several reasons I want to delay. Even so, its part of my LA's process to apply this year. No one would even be questioning the decision had she been born a week later.

I was giving up on the idea because of people berating me. As for someone else getting her to school, it is the councils responsibility if you are allocated a school within a certain distance.

@Intrigueddotcom this shows you haven't read ny updates. I've stated the school itself is fine. Not keen on it being a CofE school but other than that it is a good school.

Please accept this as my last post. I've provided enough information, a few reasons as to why I want to delay if you can be bothered to read each update but people can't and that's the issue with mumsnet.

To you start a thread about an issue that you are seething with anger about I'm so cross, just want to yell at admissions and ask if you’d be unreasonable to tell admissions to “jog on”

when all along you had very little of ever accepting any place irrespective of transport because you intended to delay.

correct?

Very little “intention” of ever accepting I meant to say

How odd

OP I know you don't want to reply anymore which is totally fine but I only just read the thread now. I totally respect your decision making and would do the same in your shoes, in my part of the UK you cannot delay school which really annoyed me as one of mine simply wasn't ready to start!

Anyway, the bit I am confused about is you are a student nurse. Surely you cannot actually bring dd to school yourself anyway and will need to drop her at nursery still - don't they do school drop off? You will likely need to be ready to start work at placement at 0730 and uni at 9?

I used a childminder who brought DC to school when I was training. At least I wasn't having to pay for a full days childcare, just wraparound. Is that an option for you, also to save you some money?

sounds like a sensible idea! The OP said she could get her child to nursery via public transport but not to the school she's been allocated. Finding childcare with a childminder that drops off at the allocated school would work nicely, there's bound to be other parents near OP whose children go to the allocated school as it sounds like the others are regularly oversubscribed.
The OP wants her child to be allocated school transport which she thinks will be given when her child is of statutory school age.
The OP needs to start doing lots of research into schools, how places are allocated, start chatting to schools about whether they have a high number of siblings likely to start in 2023 etc and which schools offer before/after school care or whether there are childminders who will do drop off and pick ups- because if she's working or at university when her child does start school she's probably going to need to use such services.
There's lots to think about when your child is school age! My daughter went to a school that was quite a way away from home because I needed before and after school care (I was teaching full time at that point), the most local school that she was allocated didn't offer that at the time (and I didn't think for one minute we'd be allocated it, I was trying to be tactical!) so I had to look around for a school that I liked, that had the extended hrs and that had a place for her that year.