Totally shocked by all these appeal / no primary place threads

[eggsit]

Wouldn't it be easier to send all children to local schools? They would even know the number of children requiring places within an area.

At the moment our school has 35% out of area children clogging up the local roads.

It really isn't always that simple.

In the town where I work they have massive problems because of the housing issue. In the 1980s, a large new housing estate was built to the west of the town. Cue loads of families moved there and there were not enough school places for all the children who lived there. However, these children grew up and now they cannot fill the school places, and in recent years they've had to merge / shut some of the schools over there.

However, there is now a massive housing estate to the North of the town (about 10,000 homes). Sure enough, it is full mostly of young families and people cannot get their children in to their local schools. It is a mass scramble and a huge problem, but everyone knows that in 10 years time or so, they will not be able to fill those places.

I know that many of the parents would love to send their children to the local schools - if they could only get in to the local school. However, when there are more children than school places then it really is just too simplistic to say "to send all children to local schools"

Of course it is, and more some degree of flexibility is important for the atypical famillies. If ds1 hadn;t got his snu palce there was no way he and ds2 were going to the same school; ds2 has no friends and is lonely as hell becuase ds1 (ASD) latches onto anyone who ds2 befriends and makes their lives hell. Why would I put him through another few eyars of that? Can't wait until ds1 goes to Base iNS eptember, and then a year after ds2 goes to a comp with plenty of kids that don't know ds2. Thank goodness! (they;ve discontinued the sibloings part opf youngc arers so he gets no help you see).

not sure moving is always a choice though; if we lose this palce it's LA housing I suspect for us and there's none in catchment. I wouldn;t want to ahev ahd to mvoe ds2 in his final year of primary and couldn;t be in all aplces at once so soemthing would ahve to give! it's four differents chools from 2012 as it is, not looking forward to that!