Has anyone had children at different primary schools before, or one at school & one HE?

[SparklePrincess]

We moved area at the end of last year & my dds are both currently attending a very good school. The problem with the school is its location. It is not our local school, & although not a huge distance away its a nightmare journey to get there & park. I would really prefer it if both girls could attend our local (5 minutes walk away) school, so they can walk to school & for social reasons. We live on a housing estate that the school was built for, hence local children go to the local school, this makes it hard for my children to get to know local children without the school connection. Also playdates etc at current school are hard work & always involve using my (unreliable) car. My dilema is that our local school only has a place for my year 3 dd & not for my year 1 dd (infant class size thing) Ive looked into it & dont see an appeal being successful because we have another school about 2 miles away & LEA would expect her to attend there before breeching the class size rule. My options are: A, Do nothing & keep both girls at current nightmare school run (but very good) school, hoping for places to come up in both years at the same time. B, Accept year 3 place & also do nightmare school run so both girls have school place, but putting us top of list if anyone leaves year one at our local school. Or C, Accept year 3 place & HE year one dd until a space becomes available or she enters juniors & class size rule doent apply (almost 2 full school years)
Has anyone here done anything like this before? Option C is my prefered option, but I dont know where to start when it comes to HE.
Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

A boy in my son's class at primary school moved here (Herts) from Camden (N.London)
He joined in yr 4 but there was no place for his younger brother - then in yr1. His mum enlisted the help of another family - dropped yr 4 child with them (at 7 each morning!) and drove yr1 child into London. She had to do this for a full academic year, but because of the sibling rule got the first available place in yr 2.
Of course the priority would be no different for you if you HE, but you're just taking a gamble about how long you have to do it.
I'm sure that other mums would be very sympathetic to your situation - if you accepted the place in yr3 then you would have a network of contacts to build up a social circle for your younger daughter.
It's a very personal choice, but that's what I'd do.

Thanks fortyplus sorry, im unclear on what you are you suggesting. Are you saying its best to do the HE option to allow us to get to know other mums & children in our local area? (which would, of course be very difficult if i had to drop younger dd off at another school) That sounds sensible.

Anyone else? more opinions, please?

why not see if anyone might be leaving the school in the near future for parents' job reasons or whatever, thereby vacating a place? Check for sale boards, chat to school office/mums at gate/estate agents. If you know that say 1 or 2 kids are due to leave Y1 (people move a lot these days!) it would be worth hanging on for the place wouldn't it? Just a suggestion, that's what I would do and I know a family in a similar situation but other way round - it was older child there was originally no place for - got their place in the end. if you can afford it a solicitor could advise on how to win an appeal.

Hi thirtysomething The school & other parents are unaware at the moment of anyones intentions to move house & possibly leave the school There was/is a very faint glimmer of hope. A boy in the class dd would be in has recently moved area (we actually looked at their house before we bought the one we are in now) & although (according to my sources ) they are happy with the school & want to keep him where he is, there is always the possibility that the dc will decide that he wants to attend the local school at the village where he now lives. I did say faint glimmer. Its not enough for us to pin our hopes on though

My plan of action is to speak to the headteacher of our local school to see if there have been anymore developments since we were last in touch, & ask his advice as to what I should do. What would his advice be with regard to the HE idea, & would he be willing to support us with information on what dds year group are doing during the waiting period?

We actually have had another development which ive not mentioned yet. DD told me the other day that she cant always hear properly in class. She had a test done last year at school & they said she was fine, but after speaking to dds teacher (who said "that would explain a lot") I have decided to get her tested more thoroughly. Her swimming teachers are convinced shes deaf & im sure thought "I told you so" when I informed them dd was to have a hearing test
TBH though I dont think its a hearing problem she has, I think she has concerntration problems, perhaps mild ADD even. Anyway im going to speak to the GP`s tomorrow & arrange to get her tested.

Anymore opinions gratefully received.

Bump
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
Please?

SparklePrincess sorry - I'm not particularly advocating one choice or the other - just passing on my friend's experience.
I do think the older dd at your preferred school will give you the opportunity to build up the social contacts for your dd2 whatever you decide. Clearly you'll have more time to intereact with other parents if you HE rather than dash off to another school. It's a very personal choice, but I think in view of the fact that dd2 is only in yr1 you'd stand a good chance of getting a place before too long. Can the school give you any anecdotal evidence? Is the area one where there is usually a reasonable turnover? Or do people move there and stay for life? I think that a short period of HE before dd2 goes to your preferred school would be preferable to sending her to another school and then taking her out when a place becomes available. However, you are taking a gamble - if it ends up being years until you can send dd2 to the same school you may regret the decision. You're clearly not committed to HE for its own sake - there must be lots of advice on mn & elsewhere if you follow that route. Good luck!

The transport problem isn't necessarily the biggest issue - lots of people face that when dc1 goes to secondary school. How long will it take to get from new house to current school? If only half an hour or less then maybe best to leave dd2 where she is, move dd1 to new school and hope for a place soon.
Find out more re: HE before making your choice

Hi everyone, & thanks for replying I think something I found out today is seriously starting to sway me in the temporary HE direction. Apparently the council have decided to make our ridiculous & dangerous school run even more of a nightmare They are planning on serious restrictions to where we can park, which will in effect halve the amount of already seriously limited spaces. At the moment we leave the house at around 815am to go to school (which is only 2 miles away from our house ) But, after they paint all those lovely yellow lines we will be looking at leaving at around 8am then sitting in the car for half an hour waiting for school to start Obviously this will also mean getting the children up even earlier & untold more stress in the mornings. My 5 year old is a nightmare in the mornings, I cant see her happy at the idea of getting up even earlier. & why should she have to when we have a perfectly good school 5 minutes walk away? Its sheer madness. Also I fail to see how the parking restrictions (in the name of safety) will help. IMO it will become 10 times worse & an accident waiting to happen.
I actually really like the idea of HE, but dont feel particularly confident in my ability to teach having gone to a school in a really dodgy area myself with mainly uninterested kids that made it impossible for interested ones to actually learn anything. Surely I cant do too much damage though if it takes the maximum time of 5 terms (when she goes into juniors) to get a place?
Im actually more concerned about how my eldest will cope with another new school at the moment because shes a shy, quiet little girl. However she does already know some children at the school, some who would be in her class (from brownies etc) & being local with local friends, being able to walk to school together etc will hopefully increase her confidence & be the best thing for her.

Sounds as though you've got your answer, then! 5 terms would seem like a long time, but hopefully it will be sooner than that. I can't imagine that it will harm your daughter's education, especially as she's your 2nd so you know what progress she should be making.
But I'd still find out more before committing yourself.

We had. At one point we had aughters at 2 schools - one got into Habs and the other North London which was annoying for 13 years but in the end we managed because of school coaches. Son at another school. Husband teaching at a 4th. That's 4 sports days, 4 carol services etc etc. Different term dates. Phew....

Now I just have 3 universities and one school. Thank goodness the twins were both boys.

Thanks again everyone I think the decision has been made for me. I spoke to the head of our local school yesterday & he said that our LEA had junior classes capped at 30 now, & although it wasnt law yet (as infant class sizes) it would mean that dd wouldnt automatically be accepted in year 3 as id originally thought Also, theres always a possibility that the law could change & officially cap the class sizes in the time we are waiting.
Im afraid its all become a bit to risky for me to chance doing. I spoke to the girls yesterday about how they feel about their current school, are they happy there etc? & both say that they are happy in school. Thats the main thing I suppose. I just dread how bad this school run is going to become not so much for me anymore (ive managed to blag a driveway from one of the local mums so that eases things a bit for us) Hopefully somebody will come up with a sensible solution to that fiasco soon.
Anyway thanks for all your help Looks like were staying put.

At least you won't have to worry about upsetting your dd1 by changing school.

Hi. only just caught up with all this! Just wanted to say that I have a very simiar situation with the school run. School is not that far away but due to traffic and hideous parking availability, we do leave home at 08.00 (for doors opening at 08.40!) We sit in our early bird parking spot and do our reading in the car! It is a pain having to get up earlier etc, and I'm exhausted by Friday, but both kids are very happy with school and school is fab. Also have local school 2 minutes walk away which all neighbours attend etc, but we just make a point of having seperate tea dates with them to keep the links up, and my kids enjoy having friends out of school.

Perhaps you live in the same place as me ruslara? I honestly cannot fault the school apart from the awful journey/parking. We are very lucky that ive managed to secure a driveway which I will be able to use most days so we didnt leave the house today until 820am I anticipate the possibility of having to leave earlier once parking enforcements are in place though.
I suppose I need to look on it as the best of both worlds really. The girls have made friends with a child who lives round the corner & goes to the local school. This will hopefully enable them to get to know other children in the road. They all go up to the same secondary school when theyre 11 anyway. Its just a pig to have to rely on the car so much every day when we have a local school we could walk to.
I was quite looking forward to HE as well It would of been nice to spend some time with my baby.

I know what you mean! I've often been tempted myself, but I suspect that on balance they're probably better off at school! Is there anyone you can car share with so you don't have to do every day? I always feel guilty about using car every day, so I try to fill it up with other kids and mums!

I would love to do a car share, but the only viable person I could share with has 3 children & I can only fit another 2 in my car. I wish id bought a people carrier now

Is there not anywhere slightly further away from the school that you could park, thereby avoiding crush/yellow lines, even 10 - 15 mins walk away, which wouldn't take up any more time if you are sitting in the car for up to 40 mins anyway, and the fresh air would wake the DD's up ready for action!

I wish there were somewhere safe we could park & walk from, unfortunately we have to drive along small country lanes to get to school & walking any distance is impossible because its so dangerous.
I would love to be able to walk to school & so would the girls.
So much for reducing greenhouse gasses & stopping people from making unnescassary car journeys. Our council has people driving all over the place making unnescassary journeys just because the local school is far too small for the area it was built to serve.