When to put your name down for nursery/school etc.

[Quootiepie]

DS is 12 months and I have been thinking about where he will go to school, and pre-school and am not sure how early you go and view/put names down etc. The nurseries start at 2, the schools at 4 - is it too soon to put my name down? Is there a limit to how many you can put your name down with? Any other hints and tips, this is totally alien to me.
Thanks x

In our area, you need to make sure you put a name down for a pre-school place no later than the January prior to the school year they are due to start.

Pre-school places are funded/part funded from the term after their third birthday - in my DDs case her 3rd birthday was April last year, so the next full term for pre-school for her was September last year.

For reception/primary - you need to apply for a place in the same way. All applications in by January 31st for her to start this September (she has just turned 4). Places are offered by priority/criteria and NOT first come first served.

However, I know it does vary from area to area and you are best off looking at your local government website OR the website of a local school you are interested in.

Yes, I was thinking about this as well. Was considering ringing local primary school to ask when people normally put their names down.

Unless the school is private you are way too early - you'll get sent an application pack around a year before he is due to start, with details of local schools, proposed intake numbers, open days, priority selection criteria, catchments (if relevant), the form with any limitations as to how many you put down in preference order etc. (If you want to see how it is done iny our area the library normally holds a copy of the current pack or see LEA website). Preschools I'd look at over the next few months - ds ' name was down by 18 months to start at 2 3/4 as it was popular. They might need a deposit to secure a place.

I'm just moving to a new area where, for nursery/pre-school you seemingly have to put your name down before you conceive to get a place. Schools I believe is the year before the child is going to go, but going to the pre-school attached to a school gives you no additional chance of getting in.

for a nursery i would put ds's name down now

for school you cant do it until the january before he is due to start. and you cant 'put down' his name to any old school (unless you go for private) you need birth certificates for proof of age and proof of residency (for the catchment) you have to enrol in the catchment school, but you can apply to other schools outwith the catchment, but they wont give you places if they dont have room

hth

agree with nursery/pre school place - put name down now if there is a particular one you would like as they fill up quickly.

For "big" school its usually the sept-jan prior to them starting in the next school year so for eg sept 2008 start would mean application sept 07-jan 08 (actual month of application is is dependent on area) also dependent on area is if you get sent the information without requesting it - some areas do on line applicatons nowadays or you need to ring to request application form HTH

Schools have set admissions policies - check with your local council, they should be able to send you a booklet telling you of all the schools in your area and their admissions criteria - for state primaries, the admission process usually goes through the local authority and there is no such thing as a "waiting list" ither than for those who have applied but not got in, they are priioritised on a list by the authority.

It would be worth checking, if you are religious, if the local c of E/Catholic/other faith schools have separate criteria - up until recently, our local Catholic school took the waiting list into account as well as being a practising Catholic or other Christian.

Pre-schools definitely have waiting lists - ask other mums for recommendations, go and see them, get your name down. Consider location - there is an excellent Montessori pre-school a 10 minute drive away, but we can walk to the local pre-school which had a good OFSTED report and was so lovely when I walked in that I went for "good" rather than "excellent" as it seemed the right place for my DD. Check out the OFSTED website for reports but remember that the "feel" of a place can be as important.

Can I just say that if you do put ds' name down, then get some kind of acknowledgement of your application and keep it in a safe place. I put ds2's name down for nursery and they have lost the form, I have also lost my copy so he will now go on the waiting list.

Good point saadia - I put DD down for the 2 local pre-schools, one said she was number 32 and would get in - when all my friends had had their letter, she was mysteriously 40-something without a place! Luckily, we preferred the other one in the end.

Regarding school: definitely don't rely on people here telling you it's the January before they start. Round here, it's the October and you would be bottom of the pile if you missed the deadline. Your County Council website will probably have information.

For playgroup/nursery, it depends how popular they are. We have just registered DD2 for a popular, private nursery school - she will start in Sept 2008 and the nursery was not surprised that we were looking now. But the nursery attached to the local school thought it was truly bizarre that we were looking around at this stage, because they don't take applications for Sept 2008 for months and months yet.

Its never to early - in some areas.
We live in Surrey.
Local Catholic school is the best by far. We requested the application form , filled it in, got application receipt - we did that when ds was 12 mths - some people said, gosh, you left it late !!!!!!!

It isn't too early to start looking, but the application process will vary. This is ideal for nursery and preschool and will give you time to get your head around the different options (playgroup v state nursery v nursery attached to schoool etc etc).

You may not be able to actually visit the stste schools yet as they prefer to take parents around nearer the time, but no harm in doign some initial research. But many things change over time, especially if you get a new headteacher, so don't set your hopes in stone yet!

but Oblomov even so that is unlikely to guarantee you a place . Yes it registers your interest, which is rarely a bad thing, so you get invited to open days and sent the prospectus etc and presumably you are adhering to their selection criteria to improve your ds' chances, but if ,when the applications are processed, there were enough children who met those criteria more exactly or took priority (such as siblings, living nearer) he could yet end up elsewhere, should there happen to be more applications than places.

My daughter started nursery which is attached to a Prep school at the age of 2yr 6m. her name was down on the waiting list from when she was 6m. Sounds daft but it is the most popular nursery in the area and some parents put their los name down from birth but when I went to do this the list was actually closed! due to being so oversubscribed! I am lucky in that I believe I got some sort of preferential treatment as my ds attended here. My friend who put her childs name down before I put my dds down still hasnt been offered a place and my dd is now 3y 2m.

As for schools, if you are choosing Private then there is no harm looking now at a few and registering at the one you like, most take a registration fee which is non refundable, the nursery my dd is at charges £100, and the senior school I have registered my son for is £50. These charges do not guarantee a place as LIZS said. Once offered a place you pay a refundable deposit which for my dd was £400 and the school I would like my son to go to is £800.

State schools will not take names for a waiting list. My local council contacted me with a form in the October, the year before my son started school and his school place was confirmed in the May of the year he started school. All councils do things slightly different so its best to look at your individual Council website for info on the state school process.

the nursery my dd will go to takes them the term after their 3rd birthday but accepts applications as soon as they are a year old. And I have already applied for her place in the primary school attached to it even though she isn't two yet!!

In our area you cannot apply to a state school until the year before they start ie October 2007 to start in September 2008. Yes, you can put child's name down to make sure you get sent the application form, but this in no way gives you priority. Agree that if it is a church school you should be making yourself aware of any entry criteria relating to baptism, church attendance etc. as early as you can.

With privately run preschools/nurseries etc there is no harm in getting their name down. The one my DC attend is so popular, that people are now putting names down at birth . It's a case of 'If you can't beat 'em, join ,em' i'm afraid.