Can the school just ignore me?

[QueenCamilla]

I'm moving to a new area (the other side of the country) and I'm looking for a school place for my DS.

There's a Primary very close to our new home that I've made a contact with to ask them if they would have a spot available for an in-year admission in June.

So I sent an email introducing myself and my son, giving our address and asking the above.

A couple of days passed and a very curt e-mail response arrived (No greeting, no sign-off just one sentence): What's your son's date of birth.

I thanked them for their response (even though I was a bit.. 😐) and replied to their question.

Then a week passed. Nothing.

I sent another email asking if they would have an update...

That was two days ago and nothing....

Is this a thing?! What do I do next? Are they even within rights to not respond at all?

Next two nearest schools are not suitable for us (one of them is a Catholic primary). Do I really need to look further afield even though I don't have a straight yes/no?

Help!

Don’t you apply through the Lea?

Do you have a phone?

Call them.

Phone them to follow up?

Have you looked at the County in School admissions process - generally it is managed centrally. Or tried calling them to ask if they have space.

Of course they don’t HAVE to reply in the sense that they don’t have a legal obligation or anything like that to.

Better to phone for these kind of things in my experience.

I had a absolute nightmare doing an in year admission. The LEA would tell me to ask the school for a space and the school would tell me to contact the LEA. It took me forever to find a school with a space.

Go on the LEA website and apply officially to the school.

You need to apply via the Local Authority. They will have the up to date school place list and as it's an in year application you'll likely be directed to a different form to fill in.

Also - if there are no spaces in that school and your child needs a place you may need to consider the other schools. A non catholic child can attend a Catholic school

Phone them.

If its a popular school then you could be simply added to a 50 plus waiting list.

Have you contacted the local authority to ask which schools have spaces?

And have you filled in a mid year application form to the local Authority?

Until now the schools usually want everything in writing and then eventually if they do have a spot, they send out their admissions form.

That's the thing, I'm worried I'm doing something wrong without realising!

I'll call but I feel like I'm harassing them... 😳

In my (admittedly limited) experience, applications are made through the LEA? The school might not be able to help, but they should probably have told you that!

Phone them.

Thank you Mumsnet!! I forgot about The List! I'll contact LA

Just apply. Then you will know.

Emailing without the most important piece of information, his date of birth, was a bit daft.

Do you want your kid going there if that's their attitude?

@User56785

Yeah, I had that in the past - where schools were stating that the only way to get a place is via contacting them and NOT to call LA.
Well, something's different here really.. So might be worth a try.

We had to go through this last year. I phoned the schools nearest to the house we were moving to to see if they had places. Some were very non commital and asked us to phone back when we had actually moved. Others were more helpful and were able to share if there were currently spaces. Once we had moved I arranged to visit a few with the children and then I contacted the LEA knowing that the school which was our first choice had spaces. It probably wasn't the right order of doing things but it seem to save a lot of time as the school had basically accepted us and the LEA bit was just a bit of a formality.

Good luck!

Yeah, I've been thinking that... Feels like they want to put me off?!

I had a tough week - my conveyancing solicitor stopped responding to email/phone too and I had to switch solicitors at the last minute.

I feel like I'm going mad and someone has cancelled communication as a thing!

That could have gone tits up though as if someone else had applied through the
LEA they would have got the place regardless of what the school had said. Unless they had a few spaces I suppose.

The LEA told us who had spaces. We then applied, through the LEA, and got confirmation from the school we'd got places.

Unless you have a reason for not choosing a Catholic school I’d consider it. My own non Catholic DC went to a Catholic Primary and Secondary. They were very good schools . Our reason for choosing the primary was that at that time a lot of other schools in our area needed improvement. I’m a non Catholic and I worked in a Catholic primary which was rated good and it’s pastoral care was excellent. The main focus was the happiness and well-being of the children.

@TheGrumpiest
Thank you. I'm thinking I may have to do it "the wrong way" too. And if it ends up very wrong, we will have an extra long summer holiday! 😁

I work in a school and we’re not allowed to tell prospective parents whether we have spaces. We could have one this week but then someone else applies next week and fills it, so you apply the week after thinking there’s a place and it’s gone.

Basically until the official application comes to us via the council we don’t know if your child will be able to come to our school so we don’t tell parents whether we even have a space. I find it as frustrating as you, not to be able to give basic info that I have at my fingertips, but it’s for a good reason.

And if you had even an inkling of how much a school office has to deal with on a daily basis you’d understand why your vague email was shunted down to the bottom of the to do list! Sorry, but I must get 100 emails a day, most of them absolute junk, some of them needing urgent replies, some need forwarding or sharing, many more need writing (for parents to ignore!).

I also have to fit in multiple phone calls, chasing absent pupils, parents at the front desk paying for items, approx 5-10 head bumps PER DAY which all need forms filling out, ice packs applying, parents phoning, sorting out lunches, sorting out kids who’ve forgotten their lunches or PE kits, administering medicine, inhalers, diabetics needing blood tests, sometimes several per day, delivering notes from one end of the school to the other about who’s collecting little Tarquin today, fending off parents who want to discuss every detail of their child’s education with the head teacher all the time, dealing with applications for sports club places and the registers for those clubs, and that’s before you get into all the policies and procedures we have to read and update regularly, safeguarding issues, behavioural issues, and the printing and photocopying,

Sorry to say, but your email asking a question I can’t actually answer won’t get a look in most days!

You can't apply for a school place until you e got proof of address - frustrating but it would be hypothetical at the moment . This could be why they aren't responding as you won't be eligible for a place (if over subscribed) till you actually live there .