Registration forms for children starting school SEPTEMBER 2006 were out yesterday....

[SPARKLER1]

DD2 will be starting school next September. I can't believe it. Picked up the form from school yesterday. She looks too small to go.
I am looking forward to it though getting some time back for myself. She will be full time in October 2006. One more year and I will have 6 hours a day 5 days a week to myself.

dd starts then as well. Don't know how I will get a uniform to fit unless she grows loads between now and then.

what happens for your first child? Do they automatically send all kids in the catchment area a form by post? Should I phone the school to make sure he gets in?

Yes, DS is.............................

1!

No you won't get sent the form. You have to go to the school that would be your first choice to pick it up. You usually get it 1st October the year before your child is due to start.

Boo Hoo - I know how you feel - have already returned the form for DS2. He will only be 4 years and ONE month when he starts - poor Aug baby....

Ah little one. The year will soon fly by. Is your ds at pre-school? It makes such a big difference to them doing this before they start school. Most of the time we are more emotional than the kids.

My DS will be starting September 2006 too. He'll be one of the oldest with a September birthday. We have a Sept and a Jan intake but I'm hearing alot of education authorities are doing away with that now.

My friend's DS is four weeks older than my DS and he started school last week at 4 years and 6 weeks. Big difference I think and I'm secretly glad DS has another year before he goes, he's not ready to go now.

I can't wait! We got our forms through the post and I see this year, everyone (in London) will apply on one form directly to the LEA, including all those people applying to church schools. I'm really pleased they have done this because in the past, the church schools have done all their admissions separately way before the state schools which has led to a complete bun fight as people 'hold' onto places to wait and see what they get in the 'normal' state schools! Let's hope the new system works though.

Ds2's form came in the post. This has just reminded me I need to fill it in!

I got my form 2 weeks ago. I still need to find another form of ID that they have asked for. Why I need a council tax statement I don't know. I can't find it anywhere, I wonder if the council will send a replacement?

The form has to be returned by February I think, I wonder if I will have sorted it out by then!

DS is an April baby so won't start reception until Jan 07.

Just been on my council's website for info and helpfully they are still showing details on how to apply for September 2005!

Here (Warwickshire) we have to get the forms from the LEA, but they are downloadable from the website. Only 2 weeks until closing dates though, so we've been doing the rounds of the open days at the various local schools over the last few weeks.

We haven't actually been to the one which was our first choice before the visits began yet, but were a lot more impressed than I expected to be by our catchment one.

Their last ofsted got E ratings compared to similar schools and for several years in a row SATS results had been falling off dramatically (I know it's not everything, but a drop of 20% over 4 years had to be more than year on year variation). But they had a new head a couple of years ago, and things do seem to be improving rapidly since then. Also quite liked the fact that they had some male teachers at primary level - the only one of the schools we've looked at which has.

I'm in a muddle. I was planning on sending DD to an independent school, but finances have meant we need to look at the state schools. I don't know what to do...I have been told which is our catchment school, but how do I check to see whether it is any good...Arghhh

Well it looks like it'll end up being catchment for ds, as what would have been our first choice school only has 17 places a year, and they told us yesterday that they already know they've got 12 siblings of exisitng children who are expecting to start next year. Not much chance we'd get one of the other five as we're (just) outside their catchment area.

As an aside, is this a blip, or is the birth rate higher there than anywhere else? Statistically, if the average number of children in a family is only 1.8 these days, then of 17 children, they'd have an average of 13.6 siblings between them. Assuming that those are equally likely to be younger siblings rather than older ones who could already be at the school, then you wouldn't expect more than about 7 of the 17 places to be taken by younger siblings. And I was under the impression that 2001/2002 were low birth rate years?

Lunersea, would just point out that here siblings include step-siblings living together. Ends up with an average family size >1.8 kids IYSWIM.