Greenwich primary schools waiting on council decision

[Eggs]

We just moved here from Ireland and I have sent my application to the council, I am looking for places in year 1 and year 5. I cannot get a definite answer from the council on the time frame for processing our application, one lady said next week another said they have to go to our school in Ireland to get their previous reports. I have these but they said they wanted to contact them directly. My concern is my 2 children have no school at present...how long will it really take? Any advice? Thanks

They do not need the reports from Ireland to process your application. The allocated school may want to see the reports but they have no bearing on the admissions process.

They are supposed to process your application without delay. How long it takes will depend on their workload but I would start chasing them if you haven't heard in a week.

Thanks for that, I didn't think that the reports from the school in Ireland would be required either. Will chase them again in a week.

Maybe someone seeing this who works in school admissions could give you some insight into how the system works, its very hard moving to london anyway from a smaller place and then dealing with the stress and lack of control you have in getting your kids into school makes things really difficult. I hope you can get some more advice or hear from some people who have been through this waiting game before, maybe try posting in primary ed.

Ask the LA if they are processing your DC under the In Year Fair Access Protocol, which for many councils includes provision for getting children just moved into the borough into schools asap. If so, get a copy of the Protocol (it may well be online) and ensure they follow it to a T as it will have guidelines on timescales, threaten to go to the Ombudsman if they don't. If not, ask why not.

IME (as a parent who's been through a few moves, not as a specialist of any sort) the council should indeed process asap and don't need reports before they do so. Keep copies of all correspondance - email is great for that - and if you feel it's necessary cc to your MP for their information in case you need to push harder and need their help in future.

HTH and good luck. :)

Thanks for all the information, have looked at the fair access protocol and am going to see that they are following this. Will post in primary education also.

Many thanks