might sound stupid, when and how do I get my dd into school?

[AimeesMum]

Hi. I'm mum to Aimée, and she will be 2 in October. I know I might sound totally stupid, but when and how do I get her in to a school, or into the school nursery?
There are three schools in our area, I'm not sure which we qualify for, but I don't think it is the one I want her to go to. Any help please??

Aimeesmum, ring them all up and ask them to send you a prospectus. These should have details of entry criteria and nursery fees etc. Then make appointments to go and see all the pre-schools/nurseries/schools and choose one. You might decide you want to choose different nurseries and schools. It is illegal for a school to only offer you a place based on attendance at their nursery/pre-school but you may want your dd to go to the same nursery/pre-school as school since she will get to know other children there.

Nurseries differ in when they will take children but most will take them from 3 (and you can usually leave them if you're happy to). Some will take them earlier. You may also be eligible for a funded nursery place later on. This is not dependent on income in many areas, it's just a free govt funded nursery/pre-school place for 3/4 yos. HTH.

Thanks for that. I'll ring them up and ask them for the prospectus' etc. Being a first time mum I've never dealt with schools, nurseries, etc..and I think many people just assume you know all about it! lol!
thanks again

WWW,
Couldn't have put it better myself!

You could also look in your local library or ring the Education Authority Office(LEA) as they should be able to provide a list of Ofsteded nurseries and schools. There may be a booklet including application forms in your library showing the schools within the local education authoriites jurisdiction and outlining the application procedures and any specific criteria opted out schools may apply.

You are wise to look around now for a preschool place but probably won't be able to apply for a school place until the year before your dd is due to start. The LEA will usually contact you at the appropriate time.

If you give the LEA a call I'm sure they will be happy to clarify their particular procedures.

i have found something out recently in my search for a nursery place that may be useful to all of you.

Due to the serious lack of availability of pre-school nursery places, Local Ed. Authorities now have a system whereby if you can not get your child in to one of the local state funded nursery's you can send them to a private nursery and they will pay the equivalent of 2hrs per day of fees. This is because every child over 3yrs is legally entitled to a place for 2hrs a day. Granted, at a private nursery this small contribution doesn't go very far BUT every little helps...... The application for funding has to be done by the nursery, some nursery's are not aware of it as it's a fairly new scheme. I'm afraid i do not know the name of the scheme but your LEA should be able to give you more info, obviously this only applies to private nursery's.

I have also been told recently abouts 'Teds' which is some kind of nursery school tax relief which can be claimed if your employers pay direct for the nursery - has any one had any experience of this?

Emily's - (puts power suit on)- Ordinarily any benefits provided by your employer are treated as part of your taxable pay. However, in certain circumstances, child care provided by your employer does not form part of taxable pay.

I suspect the difficulty comes in that care provided by your employer is quite tightly defined (Income & Taxes Act 1988 s 155A - just in case you were desperate to know)- so (very broadly)unless your employer has set up a nursery in premises which are only available to the children of employees, e.g. an on site creche provided by a hospital, you do get child care included in your taxable income if your employer pays for it.

I haven't heard of any scheme whereby you get a tax deduction, i.e. you can deduct the cost of child care in arriving at your taxable income. With two lots of nursery fees, I certainly wish there was one.............

thank you gumdrop - sounds like you know what your talking about! If you have a spare sec. could you have a look at www.teds.uk.com which i found and seems to be what i was describing - sounds a bit too good to be true so would value your opinion.....
And also maybe of use to others.

Hi AimeesMum

A good website is upyourstreet - it has the league tables of schools in all of the country, so it will give you an indication of performance.

I'd be a bit suspicious of the TEDS scheme - it doesn't say anything on their site about the scheme being Inland Revenue approved, and until it is I'd worry that you could be in for a nasty tax shock. Have a look at this article and this: www.ippm.org/artilcles/payadvice_2001-0502.html (why won't this site let you have multiple links in one posting???) and make your own judgement.....

There are some approved schemes (though they only save you NI, not tax - I posted details of them a month or so back in this thread: www.mumsnet.com/s/Talk?topicid=6&threadid=3266

Emilys

Sorry for the delay in responding but I needed to look up a couple of things. I agree with Gill W.

From what I can see the " tax saving" on the TEDS site comes from your gross salary being reduced because your employer is paying the cost of childcare directly to TEDS.

My speciality is company tax rather than personal, but there is a general charging provision for employees which says that where a benefit is provided "by reason of (their) employment", the cost of that benefit is treated as part of the emoluments , i.e. the salary. (s154 ICTA 1988).

Otherwise, my employer could pay 25% of my salary to Sainsbury's or Oddbins, 15% to my mortgage company, etc etc and magically my taxable salary would disappear.

I can't see anything in the legislation which exempts childcare - other than the section I referred to earlier, i.e. the bit about provided by employer to employees children etc.

I suppose the $64,000 question for any interested parties would be whether or not they have Revenue approval of this scheme..........and get the confirmation in writing from them (TEDS).

thnak you so much gumdrop, and thank you Gill W too - i'll do some more routing around...... i'll let you know if i found anyone who the scheme has worked for.

The info on the financing of childcare places for 3 year olds (currently £406/term) is here

It's not the term after they're three everywhere though. In my area it's the term of their 4th birthday (which by accident of birthdate in DS's case means he won't actually get "3 year old funding" until he's 4).

I have looked into this, and agree with GillW that it is not the same everywhere, as where I live it is the term before the child turns 4. My understanding is that currently it is up to each LEA to decide exactly when they give the funding, hence the reason some give it at 3, whilst others do it at 4. I think I am right in saying that in the near future it will be offered to all 3 year olds.

Does anyone know offhand how to find out if your local lea deals in the nursery vouchers at 3 or 4? Is there a list somewhere?
cheers

I don't know of any list - but putting nursery education LEA xxxxxshire/city into Google would probably find the answer for you.

So depressed today. Took the advice on contacting the school to find out the catchment area and ahve just found out ds almost certainly won't be able to get into the local decent primary as we live too far away. Which leaves Oliver Goldsmiths - the school Damilola Taylor went to. Feel quite upset really (ds is nearly one, but can't see the school turning round in 3 years). I don't want to move away from my friends and support network (and nice house) but can't see us affording private school, esp if we have another baby.

I don't know of any list - but putting nursery education LEA xxxxxshire/city into Google would probably find the answer for you.

What happened there? I definately didn't post the same message again half an hour later!

aloha - it's v. depressing isn't it. I am having this problem as there is a fantastic school 7mins away from us but we're just outside the catchment area - BUT having spoken to others parents it is worth persisting. (i have in fact become obsessed with the school - i even dream about it, am thinking of stalking the school secretary!!) . for a start the catchment area's change frequently - this may apply to the school you want - so that they get a broader cross section, also when the time comes for me to apply for my ds (2004) I am going to literally send begging letters saying what a fantastic family are, the great contribution we will make to the school and send some letters of recommendation from people we know that have children at the school already, if that doiesn't work we'll resort to bribary and corruption!!! Please don't nick my ideas anyone if you're trying to get your child in to a notoriously good school in west london in 2004 - anywhere in the rest of the country feel free to nick!

Good points! If we're still here in a few years I might well nick your excellent ideas. The thing is, the two schools take from a very similar social mix (quite close together), are almost certainly funded in the same way, yet one is a good school and the other is so awful and scary I would feel like a child abuser if I sent my ds there! I can't understand really how this could happen.

hi gillw, I've tried that kind of search in google and got nowhere. It's just on the county council website I've found contradictory education - one bit says they fund from four and the other says:
"As free nursery places are available to all three years olds in Derbyshire" so I don't know what the position is, or when I might get the funding. That's the way it goes I suppose.