Admissions Y1 -Amazed and a little despairing

[rushingrachel]

This is a bit of a long one! After nearly 10 years abroad I have recently been offered a job in the UK. It seemed perfect, near to the area in which I was brought up (Suffolk/Essex border) very rural. Although the salary is not great, and my DH would need to continue to split his time between Brussels and London, we thought we'd find a property in a village near to a good village school (such as the one I went to) and we would find a good balance. The property we found was lovely and four doors up from the local village school. So we rang to check. Year 1 full. Then we spread the net to 5 other schools trying to find a place. Nothing. It has made making a decision about the move virtually impossible. To apply you need an address, but to commit to an address you need to know your children will be placed, and in my case in a school with extended school cover. The fact is only awful schools, which were awful when I was around and still seem to be, can commit to having a Yr 1 place and then if the place is miles from where you live, and you work, how can you organise to collect them?

I wonder if the government ever thinks about people like me. They say they want to attract skilled expats to return to the UK and yet how can we with this uncertainty? My DH and I are both solicitors, we should be able to contribute to tax and community. But if we can't even be allowed to understand where a place might arise before we commit to a rental we might as well give up.

Something has gone wrong here. We have a lovely, clever, well educated son and the UK has nothing but the worst to offer him in terms of state provision.

I really, really, wanted to come home and build a home for my family and I feel very let down.

Thank you UC. It's not done and dusted. I have an appointment to see the school on Friday which is as soon as so can get there and have signed papers for the rental. So have to pray no usurper comes up in the period it takes us to get our ducks in a row. What a house of cards!

This school is not Ofsted outstanding nor do I set so much store by that. My mum was a teacher, a really inspirational one, in a hard area. At one point her school even failed an Ofsted. But she was an amazing person in front of kids. And inspired me and my sister from a dodgy comp to Oxbridge. I have quite simply been constrained by the very small number of schools with a place.

It speaks volumes for your commitment as a governor that you bother to keep posting to the unknowledgeable like me.

And in general the kindness of strangers for pointing me in the right direction, hauling my expectations back in line and putting all the pros and cons before me is much appreciated.

Hi RR, Stoke by Nayland is a lovely village (though I'm biased as we got engaged on our way to a restaurant there in the 1990s called Martha's Vineyard). I am sure the school will be fine. My son's primary school was Ofsted "Good" and I felt that they had a wider educational agenda than just SATS and Ofsted. The Suffolk border villages are very handy educationally as you can easily choose secondary from either county. My son got a place at CRGS but turned it down due to the more than 1 hour's journey each way.

That's really nice to know. And your son must be great to have got into CRGS. I knew loads of people who went for the exam even in my day but never knew anyone who actually got in. Brilliant achievement even if you did decide to turn it down.

rushingrachel, I know that when you're at the KS1 stage, secondary schools aren't even on your mind. But I think that, in general, you can make good on any primary school problem - so it doesn't matter if the primary school isn't really very good. In your position, I'd be looking to get a house that will have good secondary options.

I wouldn't worry about secondary yet, Rachel. As you are renting at the moment you can easily move before secondary stage if need be to get into required catchment

You have plenty of time for that, just get yourselves settled with the immediate primary options. Schools can change so quickly no point looking at secondary just yet.

No point I our case really worrying about secondary when totally constrained anyway in choice of primary by finding a place. Even the nearest independent school is full. You can't pay to buy peace of mind even if you wanted to.

We have a meeting with the head of the only available school on Friday and have papers ready to go to LEA immediately after that and tenancy signed. Means we have to pay to rent 2 months before we need the house but then means we have time to get an appeal in if there are further hitches on the school place problem.

House of cards so trying not to get over excited that my long hoped for move could actually work this time.

I'm pleased to hear things are moving forward for you. We moved (200 miles within the UK) in 2008 when my DD was at the end of Reception Year. Trying to find a Reception place was very difficult and we also had to find schools with available places first and then find a house to rent as close as possible.

We ended up being 3 miles away from the school and it was difficult to integrate with the other parents. The school was in a very insular area. We decided we did not want to buy a house nearer to my DD's school so when it came time to apply for a school place for DD2, we checked the most local school again, and they had a place in Y2 for my DD1. I dreaded moving her from a school (again) where she seemed happy. But we did move her and she thrived in the local school - which is actually a very large primary school, a school I'd never have chosen for my sensitive DD1 her when she was 4.

My point is that children can be more resilient than we imagine and it is sometimes difficult to see which schools will be a good fit for our children when they are so little.

We found it much more stressful moving to a new area than we had imagined. Small things got to us like knowing where the nearest X was or building up known walks or knowing where to go to eat on a precious night out. At least you have some familiarity with the area you are moving to.

I'd think most carefully about where you live in terms of work commute, distance to school, finding like-minded people, living close to activities you enjoy. And yes, do think about secondary school. It comes around faster than you think.

Bryte thank you for sharing your experience.

I confess as the whole thing takes shape I am getting nervous as hell. Sleeping badly. Having mini attacks of panic. My DH has pretty much made me insist on this move. If it goes wrong he will squarely be able to lay it at my door. The idea of taking apart a perfectly settled, well arranged life with kids happy in good schools for something partially unknown in an area where I have no friends even though I do have family is very scary indeed. Could be a mistake. What I would give for a crystal ball.

Hi! I'm in exactly the same position, moving back to Suffolk this summer 2014 from 8 years in Texas. I'm skimming through your post and can totally relate to what you're going through. I agree with the person who said don't write off schools with bad ofsteads, ideally you need to visit them ( not easy from 5,500 miles) or at least call and chat to them I have found people to be incredibly helpful. One primary school i am considering has a shocking ofstead but turns out the head was having an affair with a teacher and thus neglected the school. Now it's pulling out the stops to recover so consequently bears no relation to the ofstead. A word of warning. As of 1st Jan, without any warning, Suffolk County Council has changed the goal posts and you can no longer apply for school places until the relevant children are resident in the UK. This is a total nightmare and I'm contesting it. We dashed back from US last summer to look at schools and buy a house to have an address to apply for schools, I've had regular contact with all the relevant schools and the Council admissions department ( none of whom knew this change was coming) and now I can't submit our applications and reassure our children where they will be at school. Moving is stressful and I am happy to share what I've learnt so far if you need it! I too feel homesick, want roots, don't want to live the rest of my life in the US ( yes I know the benefits but there are also huge draw backs). Focus on your progress and make sure your DH knows what a mammoth job you are doing researching and organizing all this.

Hello!! So nice to hear from someone in a parallel position.

Re SCC WHAT??!!! Nobody told me that!!! And it must be wrong, it means that the county council are obliging children to go without education despite education being compulsory? Although I can see how it isn't actually discriminatory, it is just a pain in the arse.

Obviously in the current climate I see what they are trying to deal with but still. We are hopping along as fast as we can with our tenancy and have found an ok school place but I wasn't prepared to have to whip my son out of school now and leave him uneducated for a month or more while we sort it out.

That is crap.

As you say, all I am looking for is to be able at a certain moment to say to my DS, "I know it will be hard, but we are moving to England, near granny and grandad, and we've found a nice house and you'll be going to x school and I can't wait to show it all to you". Personally I am finding this the roughest aspect as my son LOVES his current school and will definitely be gutted to leave.

I see this is on the feckin website now. Hell. So what are we to do. Move my son out of school mid January, have him sit in an unfurnished house and not put him in school until March? Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.

That's a standard policy - am surprised Suffolk didn't insist on child being in situ before! I'm not sure it'll really cause a problem though - you couldn't have applied for a place anyway unless you were resident as the place has to be accepted and the child started within a week or two anyway. You couldn't secure a place then wait half a term before taking the place. Or if you did you'd risk losing it if someone else applied and started before you.

I thought that the only people who had the right to apply from abroad are Forces families about to return from an official posting (there's a separate procedure for them to apply for schools on strength of posting order), and that in practice this was often extended to other government employees.

No-one else has ever been able to, so if SCC have changed a guideline, it's to correct an error.

That's not right. You had to have an address, not actually to have brought the child to live, uneducated, at the address.

All we were expecting on this principle was to be able to commit to the move and apply for a place so that we would know where we were sending our child, before hauling him out of good education with nothing to go to.

I agree with the OP- I think it bloody ridiculous that LEAs seem unable to offer places in the nearest school to where people even when the birthrate has gone up. This information is available- they need to access NHS figures on births each year and factor in an extra few % to account for migrants. To say they are taken by surprise by the projected intake every single year for several years is absurd.

And if some schools are not so popular with parents, maybe they need to work out WHY and address that...

If you've got a signed tenancy and you are yourself physically in the UK then they have no way of knowing that the child isn't resident right now, provided that you don't tell them. They will expect you to take up the place more-or-less immediately, though.

I accepted a waiting list place in reception in September last year for my DD - 3 weeks into term.

I got the call on the Wednesday evening, had to sign all the paperwork on the Friday and they wanted her to start by the Monday morning!

Good luck with the move.

Is your DH going to come round to the move and embrace it? It's just that a bit like having another baby when one party isn't on board, making a major move can put huge additional stress on.

Having moved back to the UK myself after 8 years overseas, I know how many things were stressful, different and niggled. I was on my own, but a reluctant partner would have made things much worse.

I would be tempted to insist that he decide that he is going to participate 100% in the change before going ahead. Not fair to you that he is already wanting to put the blame for any failings at your door IMO.

SCC changing the rules might bring them in line with everyone else, but to do it mid school year is throwing people under the bus who are having to move mid year. Their criteria was you need an address to be able to apply for schools and if it's mid year you apply the term before you are coming. This all has to be arranged well in advance so to then abruptly change this ( none of the admission staff new til 1st jan) and with no explanation is terrible. I don't understand why this is a good policy and it includes military families too. V low of them. If you are moving to Essex check with them as it may be different. I talked through all the permeations of getting around this new rule with a very nice person in the admissions place, who was baffled as to why it's in place. Places take 10 (school) days to allocate and if you need to appeal you have to give it 6 weeks. I was trying to return at the end of USA school year, beginning of June and then on advice from the head of the UK school one of my DD would go to , shove them all into UK school for the last few weeks of term to aclimatise, make friends and thus not stress over the summer holidays about what school will be like. The primary we like is over subscribed but we could appeal, but now that we have to physically be in the UK we have to work out which school has space or do we cut short USA school year come back in May with time to appeal before the school year finishes. Suspect teeth, hair and sense of humour will have fallen out by then and will be dribbling quietly in a corner.

It is normal to say that people from overseas cannot apply until they have actually moved to the UK. The only exception to this is where the parents are on Crown service (not just armed forces). If Suffolk have previously allocated places to children who were still living overseas they may have been acting illegally.

There is no change to the rules for people moving mid-year within the UK. You need an address and you cannot normally apply more than one term before you want your child to start at the school.

Well that was the rule. And the previous guidance is still there on their website for all to see with a note about the change from 1 January. And that was the basis on which we were working and nobody mentioned the change to me at SCC when I spoke to them on 27th December or 3 January immediately before and after this change. So, frankly, stuff what the motivation is, for those of us unlucky enough to be planning a move, it's shoddy.

And it does mean unless you can hold a job offer to move during the holidays you are obliged to take a child who is of compulsory school age out of education. Which is also illegal no? Also shoddy.

Suffolk only allows you to be on 3 waiting lists, so my cousin tells me (she lives with her garden backing onto the school field of the school she wanted her DS to attend, got one 20 mins away instead).

Essex allows you to go on 5 waiting lists.

Unfortunately, if you are where I suspect you are, Colchester is probably your nearest town in Essex, and we are a whole
Primary school short here, which means that some pupils are sent out yo village schools as there aren't even enough places in the town.

And in your 2.5yo's year (I have a DC the same age), Colchester is going to be 157 places SHORT and will be ferrying 4yo DC's by taxi to schools up to 30 miles away...THAT is their plan for covering the shortfall, as even the new Primary school will only be able to take 60 of those 157 pupils.

Bad area to pick, if that's where you are looking!

Colchester nearest big town but if we live where we plan to live hopeful DS2 would get into the village school near the house. No telling on that one but as we would be resident and very close we would be more hopeful. No certainty on any of this.

When I was ringing around it is certainly so that in Essex schools the waiting lists were much longer than for the Suffolk schools. One guy I was on the phone to for ages whilst he was telling me how much he hated turning people away and it shouldn't be like it is. Really nice fella. But 11 on his year 1 waiting list already.

A tricky area so it seems. Hard to believe when you drive through small sleepy villages in the country.

I'm dreading school applications in October, as there is only one school I can PHYSICALLY get DS3 to, and it is an outstanding, oversubscribed school. And Essex no longer takes the Parent's disabilities into account when they are placing a child. I already have no nails left.

I'm already paying transport out of my income support for my two eldest children because I had to move to an adapted (for disabilities) house and the local Secondary schools near my new house had no spaces for my 15-year-old and my 11-year-old so they had to stay in the old secondary school right across the town. Essex now only pays transport for children who are over 3 miles away from their secondary school and are attending the closest school regardless of whether that school has spaces or not! So I am paying £30 a week to transport my eldest two children to school. Having to pay for my two year old when he starts school will just break me financially, as by that point I will probably be paying for my 10 year old to attend that secondary school too, as well as transport for my eldest child to get to college.

It's also complicated by the fact that my two year old's statementing process will not be finished before I have to apply for primary school, meaning I will have to apply in the normal way rather than be given the school that I require for him. Did end up being taken by taxi to Clacton every day.

I have no nails left. it's an awful situation for school places in Colchester.

Please excuse my lack of punctuation Siri doesn't seem to add it, and doesn't like my accent! I can't type too much at the moment.