to be completely confused by nursery and school ...

[thenightwalker]

My daughter was born 23/03/09.

Im not planning on sending her to nursery until I dont have to pay for it as im not working so theres no reason for her to go any earlier.

My question is everything basically..

When will she start nursery and school

And how do i go about getting her in?

thanx ladies

Are you in England or Scotland?

England..

I think she'd start getting free nursery place after Easter, 2012. I think you need to get her name down now (that's how it works around here). Visit those you're interested in, but try to get personal recommendations too...

She'd start school in the school year 2013-2014 but exactly when depends on your local education authority/the school. (younger oness like your dd often don't start until after christmas, ie Jan 2014)

Round here, there is no 'putting their name down for school'. You get an application pack in the autumn before the start of their first school year and apply in the spring.

I should phone your council - I spoke to a lovely lady in our education department who explained it all really clearly. She also helped me to understand what happened if we applied to a school that was v popular/oversubsribed.

I am thinking the same thing, reading all of these school threads!

I know that here children can, if they/their parents choose, start school nursery, full time, for free, the September after they turn 3. All parents here take that offer up, I do not know one child from that age bracket who does not go to full time school nursery. You can alternatively get the 12 hours funding knocked off from a private nursery bill. I don't know anybody who does that.

I now know from googling after seeing on here that that is not the norm. My dd was born April 2008. She has just turned 2. She will start fulltime school nursery next September at the grand old age of 3years 7 months. If she lived seemingly anywhere else in the UK, she would go mornings or afternoons for a year and then start fulltime reception the year after at 4 years 7 months. I think that is what I am getting from the others

If you are in England she will be entitled to 15 hours a week preschool place starting the term after she turns 3, so April 2012. But bear in mind we may have a new Government soon so that might change.

She will start school the September after she turns 4, so September 2013.

You usually apply to schools the year before, so by November 2012.

Obviously the dates may vary depending on LEA, the months I have given above may be different for your LEA.

thanx bosch i will do. Been abit confused about it all andbeen wondering when i should start applying. I already have my eye on a few schools.

We dont live in the nicest area for schools where i am. Is it possible to apply outside your catchment area for better schools?

If you go to your local council website and that of the council of the area you may want to try for, it may explain better as I think most areas work differently.

We apply the Jan before the September they start, so I will receive the info pack through later this year for a next September start. If I wanted to send her out of area, I would apply at the individual schools in the other area (we're 100m from council border so their schools are technically nearer) and they would get back to me if they had spare places not filled by those in the area

Where I am you have to contact schools directly to apply for a place at the school nursery and the school allocates the places. So best to contact them and find out if you can put her name down now.

If she gets a place at a school nursery outside of your catchment area this does not mean she is more likely to get a place at the school, going to the school nursery is not supposed to have any bearing on getting a place in reception. This is because the school allocates nursery places, but the education authority allocates school places so the two are separate.

As someone else has said you will get sent information from the education dept of your council to apply for a state school place so you don't need to do anything about that yet.

I'm a bit confused how nursery, school works in UK.

In OZ DC don't legally have to start school until they are six.

They don't have to go to pre-school at all if parents choose not to send them.

Also school year starts at end of January and DC can start school if they turn 5 before July.

Some people with DC turning 5 in March, April,May will keep DC back until the following year when they are turning six.

Technically you can have DC in the same class with 15 month age gap.

Seems to work alright though.

IndigoBlue "As someone else has said you will get sent information from the education dept of your council to apply for a state school place so you don't need to do anything about that yet."

Not necessarily, in our LEA the onus is on the parent to obtain the forms for school application from the school. The LEA don't send anything! The onus is also on the parent to get the form in on time, there are no reminders.

Always best to check on your LEAs website I would think. Amazing how it can vary so much across the country.

Beware of using the word nursery. In my county 1 in 10 schools has an attached LEA nursery. My children have attended two primaries and neither offered nursery provision so you may find the same in your area.

My lot attended a local preschool. Run as a charity, inspected by ofsted obviously but nothing what so ever to do with schools/lea and you DID have to ring when your child was 2-2.5 and put their name down.
We got the 'free' place which was for two and a half hours back then and paid a top up fee as the preschool session was four hours long.
We could also have got the free hours at the local private daycare nursery but aagain would have had to pay a top up fee which was huge at the day care (£12 if I recall)

We got the lea card to apply for the reception place through the preschool as they were sent to all children who funding had been claimed for.

Ok so what I said may not be correct if it varies depending on where you live so I guess could be worth contacting the schools you're interested in and see what they say.