What can I do now?

[temmy99]

I have posted on this recently but I still feel there is something that I can do, I just don't know what. my ds has been in private school abroad for the past couple of years and his results apart from his writing has been quite good. He is supposed to be in Y9 but currently still at home. I applied for a transfer to a Grammar school in July this year and was asked to bring his recent report sheet which I did when we received it only to be told that nothing could be done until September, fair enough. 3 weeks into the new term, we have been told that they don't think he can cope with grammar school and we will have to consider a normal secondary school and we have been asked which of these were nearest to us which we told them, what we don't know now is whether we will have to apply again or whether the council will automatically place him. We have not been able to speak to anyone at the council, no letters recieved, should we contact the schools directly to know if they have spaces, ds should be preparing for his GCSEs now but not sure what to do, sorry this is quite lengthy but i just think that if you have the full picture you may be able to advise me. The dd is supposed to go to Y3 council say they are still waiting for the school to respond to them, we spoke to the school but the school says it has responded why can't they just tell us whether or not they have a space or not so we can look at any other option?

Phone the local Social Services office and ask to speak to Education Welfare. They would be chasing you if your kids weren't in school so ask them for help getting them there.

They should at least be able to help find out whats gone wrong.

Chase the admissions team at your local council and keep chasing them. It is up to them to find places for your children.

Unfortunately many admissions departments are struggling as the last government changed the rules this year so that parents moving into an area have to apply to the local authority to find a place. Previously parents were supposed to contact individual schools to try and sort out a place for themselves, only going to the LA if they couldn't find a place. Whilst the theory that you only need to go to one place to find a school is good, the result has been chaos with many admissions departments unprepared for the extra load they face.

prh47bridge - I don't think this quite qualifies as a thread hi-jack because, although I'm asking this for me, it is still "on-topic" (I hope), and your answer may (perhaps???) even help elucidate the situation further for the OP .... .

Have admissions for secondary schools moved to the LEA?

Even mid-term, post yr-7 applications and school transfers?

Supposing you have a hypothetical situation where a child is unhappy at one school, and you would like to see about transferring them to another, particular, school? Can you still apply to the school and go on their waiting list for a post- yr 7 place?

Or do you have to apply to the LEA? And do they keep separate waiting lists for individual schools?

animula - Yes, this applies to all school admissions other than sixth forms including mid-term, post Y7 and school transfers. So in your hypothetical situation you should apply to the LA for a place at another school.

They do keep separate waiting lists for each school. However, they are only required to keep a waiting list for one term in the academic year of admission, so for secondary schools they only have to keep a waiting list for Y7 until Christmas. They don't have to keep a waiting list for other years at all. I expect that in practise many authorities will maintain waiting lists for all years. If they don't it is really pot luck as to whether you manage to apply when there is a place available at your preferred school.

Still chasing admission teams, couldn't get to speak to anyone though so don't know what is happening with ds secondary school, called the schools to ask if they at least have any spaces then we could have some idea whether there is any hope. With the primary school, the head said they had emailed the council and may be able to accomodate my dd but nothing affirmative, with the ds, had to leave a message for call back. I just hope that the dc don't have to wait too long, it will be mid term soon!

temmy - good luch
prh47bridge - thank you. Though that has strangely disconcerted me.

The dh has finally got through to the council who said that the primary school says they can take my dd, he then phoned the school and they have said she can come on Monday to look round. the 2 secondary schools nearest to us do not have spaces so they said they are checking a third one for the ds, mind you they did not call us, we had to call them! thanks for all advice and support, i will keep you posted.

One gone, one to go, dd has been to the school and has been told that she can start tomorrow. Not a word about the ds's school though.........