To ask the likelihood of your child getting allocated to a school if they already attend the nursery

[orangeleopard]

Posting for traffic on here. But as the title says my son already attends the nursery at the school that we would like for him to be able to attend the primary school at. We find out tomorrow and I’m a little stressed as he is on the pathway to be diagnosed with autism and doesn’t do well with change so I kind of am really hoping he gets into his current school. Especially as they’ve been incredibly good with helping with his needs. It’s the second nearest school with only being 0.9 miles away whilst the nearest school is 0.7 miles. Not much of a difference so I’m hoping I don’t get the nearest school based on only 0.2 mile difference.

Do they give first priority to the nursery children or is that not taken into effect at all?

Surely you have looked into admissions criteria for the school when you applied? But no typically it doesn't hold any weight to your school place application

depends entirely on the admissions criteria, which will be published online. Usually attending the nursery will not be relevant but there are exceptions. You should be able to find this out on the schools website.

they won’t give you the closer school just cos it’s closer. They will rank everyone who wants your first choice school, according to the admissions criteria. Then they’ll take the top 30/60/however many spaces they have. If your child doesn’t get a place based on this, then your second choice will have done the same thing and hopefully he’d get a place there instead.

No, going to a school nursery doesn't give your child any priority unfortunately.

School nursery normally doesn’t give priority because it’s not fair on the kids at private nursery because their parents work.

Hope you get your first choice

It would depend on the admission criteria of the school. But, in the case of the school my child attend, no. Having attended the school’s preschool provision bears zero influence on gaining a reception place.

You need to look at the admissions criteria for the school concerned, it’ll be online, look on the school website. The local authority website may also give you several years worth of previous admissions data so you can see roughly what distance children usually get in from (assuming distance is the key criteria).

Don’t take this wrongly, but given you don’t appear to know the admissions criteria, you have actually followed the admissions process and applied right? Just that I did once come across a parent who had no idea the reason their child had no email offering a place was because she hadn’t actually applied for one.

Typically admissions criteria prioritise 1. looked after children (in foster care etc) 2. kids with siblings already at the school 3. distance from the school. But this varies a lot so you will need to look at the admissions criteria for the specific school you are interested in. But I would think it's very unlikely that nursery attendance would be on there. My council also publish the furthest distance away which got the child a place so you might be able to find this on your council's website to get a sense of the distance involved. Not all schools are oversubscribed either.

I worked and the school nursery offered 7:30-18:00.

Didn't affect the criteria for school entrance though.

Admissions policy applies. Our local nursery is attached to a catholic primary, so whilst the nursery is open to all within the community the school is only open to practicing catholics with sign off from the church. If there’s any space left over they would be open to other denominations but usually RC children travel a fair way to attend the primary.

Attending the nursery doesn’t usually give you any more chance. Is the school oversubscribed?

Not with our school, no. The admissions criteria was distance within their catchment, siblings and looked after children. Nursery didn’t come into it.

My dd only got a school nursery place because someone dropped out even though my ds is at the school and their reason for rejection was other children had siblings at the school.

I'm kinda hoping dd get the same school tomorrow but based on their initial rejection, I'm not holding my breath!

That’s very good for working parents. Is that all year round?

School nursery is approx 9-3 here

It will be the same criteria as when you did the application so whatever you were told/looked up then

@BoohooWoohoo yes except for between Christmas and New Year.

No, attending the nursery doesn’t usually make any difference I’m afraid.

99/100 it makes no difference to admissions.

You won't get allocated the nearest school of there is a place for you at the school you have prioritised. But you will not be awarded a place at your preferred school above someone who is closer / is a looked after child /has a sibling in the school already.

So basically, it depends on how many places vs applicants your preferred school has.

Never heard of this being part of the admissions criteria.

If the school is a standard school funded by the local authority they will have a very similar admissions criteria to nearly all local authorities which is usually;

1. looked after children (children who are adopted or in foster care)
2. children who have additional needs and that school is the only school who can provide these, this needs to be backed up in writing by a social worker, health worker
3. children who have siblings who live in the same home (so not a half sibling, for example, who doesn’t reside with the RP)
4. distance from the school

Your council website should have more details, including how many children applied the previous year v how many places they had, which should give you an indication on how oversubscribed they are.

The only time I have seen being in the attached nursery is for our local fee charging school.

No, it cannot form part of the admissions criteria for a state school.

The admissions procedure at my school didn't give any priority to children from the school nursery. The children themselves did have an advantage when (if) they started school due to being familiar with the school, the staff and the way things were done generally.

My son didn't get a place at reception where he attended nursery school. It was hugely oversubscribed and they gave places based on distance from the school.

You should be able to find last year's admission data which will tell you how many applied and how many got a place etc, to give you a flavour.

Which one is your catchment school? My catchment school wasn't actually the closest one to us.
But as others have said, no, attending the Nursery doesn't come into it, it isn't a decision made by the school but the LEA.
Have a look on your chosen schools website for their admission criteria.
And I hope you get the result you want tomorrow.

What nursery the child attends is very unlikely to make any difference to school admissions.
Admissions criteria are usually to do with-
looked after children and those with ehcp
distance from school
siblings

I’m promise I’m not being rude here but I find it strange that you don’t know this already. I read up on everything when applying for schools in September, perhaps I was a bit OTT 😂