Does attending school nursery help with getting a place at the school?

[DR91]

Hello, my child is 3 and not due to go to school until Sep 24. They go to a private nursery 3 days a week.

Our local school (our catchment school) is excellent and we really (really) want them to go there next year. However the school has now opened a nursery attached to the school and a lot of parents we know both in and out of the catchment are now doing all they can get their child a place at this nursery in the hopes it will get them a place at the school (the school is hugely over subscribed).

We didn’t really want to move our child out of the nursery school, they love it and it’s a great nursery, and the school nursery is term time only which would me tricky for us to navigate currently. But I’m worried by not moving I could be potentially ruining our chances of getting him into our first choice of school, would preference be given to those already in the nursery?

Check the entry requirements for the school. For most schools it will have no bearing at all.

Not usually.

As has already been said, you need to check the priority criteria for that school and your LEA.
Round here, it wouldn't affect anything.

No, not usually.

Unless it's actually written in to the entrance criteria for the main school (it's a permitted category, but one that is rarely used)

Our school nursery makes it very clear that entry to the primary it's part of is not guaranteed just by attending the nursery. Equally, the schools own admissions policy does not list attending the Preschool as a benefit/criteria.

Best checking the schools own policy.

If it's a normal state school then nursery will.have no bearing on the school place. Admissions criteria is generally EHCP and looked after kids, then siblings, then by distance. Makes no odds where they go to nursery.

Check the admission policy to the school (why does nobody ever do this instead of just guessing?) IF they include nursery, it will usually be way down the list behind adopted children, siblings, catchment etc.

Some faith schools give priority to nursery children. Check the admissions criteria for your specific school with your local council. Mostly, it won't have any bearing. It's amazing how people are blind to the actual admissions criteria when they want a place, so don't listen to people who tell you different to what the council says. The council allocate the places.

Our school nursery ensures to type it in BOLD on every piece of their literature that A NURSERY PLACE DOES TO GUARANTEE A SCHOOL PLACEMENT

if you’re in catchment then you (probably) don’t have to worry unless it’s massively oversubscribed and their are lots of siblings! Best to check their admissions policy or give them a call

@IglesiasPiggl in most faith schools, the governing body are the admissions authority, not the council. But they have to follow their entry criteria to the letter. Google the name of the school OP and admissions 2024 and see what their own policy states. I'd be surprised if nursery attendance was mentioned. Usually, it doesn't factor into it in my experience.

All schools have to have an approved admissions policy for how places will be allocated in the event of over subscription. It is very rare indeed for a primary school to allocate places more favourably to children who attended the attached nursery but if they wanted to do so they would have to have a public consultation within the next 6 months or so and you could log an objection.

A perfectly reasonable grounds for objection would be that such a policy would be discriminatory in favour of families that could afford a SAHP and that therefore the school would suffer from not having a good demographic balance.

But I doubt you will need to object, most primary schools sensibly have no bias about the attached nursery.

Not usually but check the admissions section of the school website

No it doesn't. My friend last year had her son go to the nursery of the school she wanted, her son didn't get in so she had to move him for the last term in to his new schools nursery so he could try make friends (and she didn't see the point of him staying at the previous nursery)

My son goes to the nursery of the school he's going to in September but it made absolutely no bearing on his school place, we just live very close to the school so think our catchment was the reason.

Just because you and your mate’s cousin’s cat didn’t, doesn’t make it true for the op.

Op - please just refer to the school admission policy. Not randoms on MN who state facts when they don’t actually know the context of your area.

Thanks everyone. I had checked the admissions policy and there is no mention but this could be as the nursery isn’t open yet so there is potential for it to change. I’ll keep a close eye on it.

If it were going to change for entry in 2024 the consultation to change admissions criteria would be underway already.

Actually, if it was going to change for 2024 the consultation would already be over and the new admission arrangements would be on their website. If the admission arrangements for 2024 don't mention giving priority to children attending the nursery the earliest they can change it is 2025, which would require a consultation starting some time between 1st October and mid-December this year.

No, not usually x

@Dacadactyl In my LA, the vast majority of CofE faith schools are not the admissions authority. Only the Voluntary Aided ones which are a small minority. Others use the LA as the admissions authority and are voluntary controlled schools. RC schools are their own admissions authority. So parents should check because you cannot assume anything. Usually nursery attendance is not an admission criteria. Plus there must be notice of changes. So OP should be ok.

We took legal advice over this when drafting our Admissions policies. We asked the question purely because some of our schools had nursery provision and Headteachers asked about it. The advice that we had was that it shouldn't be included as a criterion because nursery education is not statutory and it would disadvantage children whose parents had decided not to use non-statutory provision. We were told that the adjudicator would highly likely rule in favour of a parent, should a complaint be lodged.

Nursery provision that is of high quality and is included as part of the school often gives children an advantage when it comes to transition to Reception year, if tge children are offered a place at a school. Transition can be much better and the children are already known about and are familiar with the school. However, this isn't a given!