Any admissions people around please?

[sharksinthegrass]

DD is on 96.53 attendance. The intervention point at her school is 96%. Following bullying most of the year, some of it awful she has a new school for September. The council will only allow transfer if above 95% and the new school will only take if over 96% (not council)

DD has AGAIN been threatened today and I am totally fed up. Considering submitting the deregister letter Monday morning and home ed for the last month of term, does anyone know if that means they have to take her off the register from that day meaning her leaving attendance rate would be unaffected and would transfer to the new school be complicated because of the break in between particularly if second school is not in same borough.

i.e dd moves from school one
Is educated at home for a month and lea informed
Moves to school two in different borough.

I think that would suit their nonsense (IMO) criteria perfectly.

It's game playing, and what I would do.

But the new school seriously won't accept under 96% attendance?

I not doubting what you say, I just think it's a bit, well, silly.

Is there a space at the new school now? We moved dd around this time of year for similar reasons and it worked well because she had a chance to put her old school behind her and realise that this school was different, she was then able to relax over the summer. If there is space then I would transfer now.

School cannot take her now. They don't take children until a set age/school year.

I suspect they would take under 96% but they are VERY strict on attendance.
I.e if you take 5 days off in a 10 week period they take action apparently.
The rest of the school is thankfully very very good so I am willing to put up with it.

Dds attendance is usually 98.9% to 100% it is just this year which has been crazy with illness.

The council will only allow transfer if above 95% and the new school will only take if over 96%

Both the council and the school are breaking the Admissions Code. The Code specifically states that a parent can apply for any school at any time. It also specifically states that schools cannot take account of reports from previous schools about a child's attendance in determining whether or not to admit a child.

It really annoys me the number of admission authorities that seem to think they can ignore the rules when dealing with a request to transfer schools locally. They can't. A transfer request is an in year admissions application and all normal rules apply.

They don't take children until a set age/school year

Also contrary to the Admissions Code. If you apply for any state funded school they must consider your application and, if there is a place available, offer it immediately. It might be convenient for the school if they only take new pupils at the start of the school year but it isn't allowed. Imagine if all schools in the area did this. Any child who moved in, say, October would be without a school for nearly a year.

To answer your original question, if you write to the school and tell them that you will be educating her at home she should be removed from the register as soon as she stops attending the school. But these silly games should not be necessary. I would be kicking up a huge fuss about this.

Agree the attendance rule is against the admissions code and would not be upheld at appeal ( I sit on such appeals.)

Am assuming the school age thing means that she is moving key stage, eg infants to juniors?

prh47 i assumed the OP meant that the school only has pupils from a certain year group? Like a junior school so year 3 to 6 but the OP's DD is currently in year 2 or a similar situation. I could be wrong though.

Yes sorry certain year groups like isawahatonce described.

If under 95% from what i gather they let them move but it Is a managed move. I.e they only move at start of a term and stay on the roll at the old school until 95% is achieved over a certain period of time or something strange.

Sounds highly illegal.

But my practical advice is if your DD refuses, you take her to see your GP, and get them to assess her mental state. School refusal is usually due to anxiety or similar - if you can get the GP to put that in writing it will make any attempt to "refuse" her the right to move even harder to justify.
I also suggest you talk to the new school about her past experience and how they plan to help her have a more positive experience in the future.

To be honest if they don't have the pastoral ability to help a vulnerable child then it probably isn't the right place for her. But you can always fight.

Yes sorry certain year groups like isawahatonce described

That's ok then. Sorry - I thought you were suggesting they only allow pupils to join at certain times of the year.

Your description of what happens if attendance is under 95% still sounds like a breach of the Admissions Code.