Moving from NZ to Hastings/St Leonards - what do you do if you can't get a place in a good school?! And which are the good primary and secondaries?

[nzbabies]

Hi we are a family with a 4, 9 and 11 year old, arriving in July this year. We've applied for school places but been told we are bottom of the waiting lists until we have an address. We've applied to St Leonards academy and Silverdale primary school but both are oversubscribed. I'm just wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation, and what do all the parents do with their kids whilst they are waiting on huge waiting lists?! Thanks - any knowledge about local schools and advice appreciated :)

I don't know the local area, but basically you take the place you're offered and go on the waiting list for all the schools you want. Once one child has a place at a school you want the others will be siblings and zoom up the list. You might get them all in the school you want within a few months or it might take years. There's no real way round it.

The LEA has to offer you a school place, but it doesn't have to be the one you want. Or you home ed or go private, in which case you need to check the entry points for the local private schools and what they require in the way of assessment.

Thank you for the advice pigshavecurlytails. I hope it will all work out somehow!

All your children will be treated as mid-year admissions so they'll be offered a place wherever there's a space and the commute is deemed reasonable enough, don't know about the specific area but it doesn't always pay to accept the first place (if it isn't the school you're after). If you do, you might end up not a priority on the waiting list for your school of choice.

Once your oldest gets into a secondary, the next child will most likely have a priority for a place there when they move up from primary.

“If you do, you might end up not a priority on the waiting list for your school of choice.”

You need to check the policy for in-year admissions and waiting lists with the LA. As far as I know they keep all lists in order of the admissions criteria for the school and can’t de-prioritise someone because they are in another school.

Tammy, they might not do that officially but I've come across LAs that had to many children on their waiting lists. They'd place the ones that were 'out of school' (so they wouldn't be in trouble for not providing a school) but 'somehow' spaces didn't come up for those that were in education somewhere. Probably unlikely in most areas but it's worth checking that th local LA is t struggling to place kids as all sorts could happen behind the scenes.

I don't know anything about mid-year admissions but those wouldn't be my choices for schools, sorry. Have you looked at St Paul's or Sandown? They'll both be oversubscribed too but worth getting on waiting lists. Depends where you're planning to live of course. Secondary schools are not great I'm afraid.

"They'd place the ones that were 'out of school' (so they wouldn't be in trouble for not providing a school) but 'somehow' spaces didn't come up for those that were in education somewhere. "

My understanding is that, once the LA has offered a school, if the parent declines it, the LA has no obligation to offer another school place that the parent will accept. So I would think very carefully before declining a place.

Does your 11 year old turn 12 before September? If so, they are going into year 8 (second year of secondary school). If they recently turned 11 then they will be going into year 7 - there is more likely to be movement on this list as some state secondary applicants go private etc.