Moved back to UK from another country - LA says no school place at all for twin DCs, is this legal?!

[juliettef]

We have just moved back to the UK from another country. To north London, Haringey is the Local Authority. After many phone calls etc. I applied for school places following their instructions. We have twin 7 yo DCs. Got a reply that there are no places in any of the schools I listed and as it stands, my children have no place in any school. Surely they are required by law to offer us places in some school, somewhere? I know they might have to wait to get into preferred schools but they can't legally just be left to stay at home unschooled? Does anyone have any experience / advice / good words to talk me off the ledge of panic? I don't need negative comments on why are you moving back, UK is such a mess, what did you expect etc. etc. it's been a long road and is the best decision for our family. Thanks!

@juliettef

Got a reply that there are no places in any of the schools I listed and as it stands, my children have no place in any school. Surely they are required by law to offer us places in some school, somewhere?

What did they say when you asked about places in other schools?

You say schools you have listed, what about all schools in the local authority? You can also ask in a neighbouring local authority.

Yes, they have to find you a place.

As you have applied for and been rejected by a few schools, I think it is now time to get on to the Admissions team again, and find out how to make a request that the Fair Access Protocol (FAP) be activated for you. This is the mechanism by which the LA can force a school to go over numbers for pupils who are hard to place for whatever reason (your reason being no damned places that you can find, because everywhere is full). The school will be the one the LA considers can best cope with additional pupils - you don't really get any say

Fly in the ointment is that everything to do with school admin can end up moving glacially slowly during the long holidays. So your frustration may last a little longer. But keep with it!

We had this a few years ago... the letter we had the council said "no place allocated" but they were in the process of checking with each school in distance order from our address.

At the moment schools are closed so they may not get answers until end of August.

They may also be given places in different schools.

Do you have a firm address in UK? Have they offered any alternative schools? You don't get to have your choice but the LA are obliged to find places somewhere once you have arrived, although this could be a distance away from your home or a less "good" one . You can still appeal for your preferred one/s , assuming it is for year 3 you are beyond infant class size limits.

You're right OP, they have to offer you something.

In many areas schools are full and already going over PAN (published admission number). Waiting lists for each year group often have over 50 names.
It is a tricky situation and I feel for you.
You can appeal after receiving a no offer letter but make sure you keep an eye on timescales and you must build an extremely strong case. I don’t have any experience of making an appeal so can’t help but do keep an eye on the calendar so you don’t miss deadlines.
Good luck

You almost certainly won't get anywhere over the summer holidays. It took until early October for DS to get a space last year.

Unlike others I am surprised to hear this because, due to low birthrates and migration changes, many primary schools in North London are now undersubscribed at entry and have places available in higher years. When my primary-aged nephew was relocating from overseas to Haringey 3 years ago there was a whole raft of primaries with places for him. (Haringey were very good at providing a list to consider, and it was at exactly this time of year). I remember that St James’ in Muswell Hill and St Michael’s in Highgate were on the list. In the end plans changed and he went to school in Hampstead.

It will be all right, OP. Ask them for a list of which schools have places, and go from there.

Try not to worry, as you said they have to find you a place. With twins I assume you want them in theh same school which might take longer.

A school that is full at the moment might not be after the summer holidays, children move, change school and leave for home ed.

You have had some good advice about the procedures.

They should make you an alternative offer - the nearest school that can offer space. If they are already 7 and going into year 3 this should make it bit easier because no max 30 infant classes. Good luck

Thanks for all the advice and reassurance. We do already have a place to live and are registered for council tax and electoral roll etc. I called again and they said wait until 1 September when they'll be back from summer break and will look at the lists again. I know our kids might not get our preferred schools immediately but I want them to be in some sort of school rather than none! So I guess I sit tight until then and hope they are offered something and if not I'll activate Fair Access Protocol. Thanks again everybody.

Even if a school only has one place it is possible the second twin will be offered a place as an excepted pupil, even if it puts them over numbers. Ask LA their policy on this.

As PP have said you can apply to a school in any borough so if you are close to the border and there are schools that would be accessible by a good bus or tube/ train route, apply to them too.

But in the end, they do have to find them a school place, yes

As others have said, they have to come up with places somewhere.

Right now, you have a very strong case for appeal. You can appeal for any of the schools you have named in your application. Given the age of your twins, this would not be an infant class size case and the detriment to your children from not being admitted is that they don't receive an education at all. If you do appeal, I wouldn't be surprised if the LA come up with places at the last minute. They wouldn't want to face an appeal panel with no offer having been made.

As @meditrina says, you should also talk to the LA about their Fair Access Protocol. Once your children have been out of education for four weeks they qualify for consideration under the FAP, which allows them to be allocated places at schools that are already full.

Are you available to deal with a longer than usual primary school run in September? That might be better if you would otherwise have to wait 4 weeks to invoke the Fair Access Protocol.

Actually a lot of Haringey schools probably will know that they have spaces in September - the last bulge year is moving from GCSE's to post 16 education (DS1 is in that year) - even many of the normally oversubscribed schools are struggling to fill places.

I'm still a primary school governor though my kids are teenagers and older one going into sixth form. However, funding (and cuts) means that state schools which are undersubscribed on places at current size have to try and work out how many students they have coming in September and plan staffing accordingly. Financially it's very difficult to budget on unfilled places and students coming and going. Schools are reducing their forms of entry etc.

Are you looking for year 3 places? Are you able to deal with a longer than ideal school run if places are available not in your own part of the borough, whatever that is?

@elkiedee thanks for this encouragement - some other locals have been saying the same re. undersubscription. I have been wondering about trying to phone schools directly to see if there's space but also I've heard they won't really know until term starts. 😬Yes, they'll be entering year 3, and yes, we can manage a longer school run - would rather that than no school! So I need to sit tight I guess for a little while longer and then start phoning around. Even if it's just to make me feel like I'm doing something.