Primary school admissions - 14 miles apart

[Ruralparents]

Hi all

I thought I’d join to mine your collective wisdom!

We live in rural Cambridgeshire, 6 miles from our nearest school in one direction and 8 miles from the next nearest in another.

Back in the depths of lockdown we had to a choose a school for our eldest to start at in Sept 2021. My wife teaches at the school 8 miles away and so we chose it because it would be handier. We didn’t know if our eldest would get in there but she did. And it turns out that her catchment school, 6 miles away, was oversubscribed.

Now, in 2023 our daughters school is over subscribed and our youngest has been placed at the catchment school. These two school are 14 miles apart! We lost our appeal and have now got the prospect of trying to manage a 28 mile school run, twice a day.

Cambridgeshire council don’t care, they are hiding behind their protocols and passing the buck.

We asked if our eldest could move schools to be with our youngest and they’ve refused because her year group at the catchment school is oversubscribed.

Out of catchment siblings get the same priority as in catchment siblings in Suffolk and Norfolk, but not Cambridgeshire. And when you live 6 and 8 miles from the two schools it’s fairly obvious you’re going to be at the bottom of the admissions list when either school is over subscribed.

Has anyone had any joy appealing on the grounds of unreasonable journey times etc? I just don’t think anyone should be made to do over 10000 miles a year on the school run. School transport hasn’t been offered but even if we can get it, someone still has to be available to put a 4 year old in a taxi and to collect them etc, it doesn’t help the logistics.

There is an ombudsman, but I think they have just rigged the whole system in order to do as they please and screw those who live out in the sticks.

I get that this is a huge pain however the school run part of your travel is 6 miles each way, even if both your children went to the nearest school you’d still be doing 56 miles a day as your partner would then drive to work anyway.
so you may struggle to appeal on this mileage front.
what I would appeal on is the times and location - for example how can you be in 2 places at once to collect your children? This is why siblings are usually placed together.
also ask your partner to speak to her headteacher. A head can accept a child without them coming through the council placement system. I’ve seen it in the school I work in when a staff member wants to bring their child. The child starts almost immediately without needing to go through school admissions. Has she spoken to the head? If there’s no possible way of getting her in due to numbers this is what I would do.

• accept the place and put the youngest on the waiting list Atika school to be transferred as soon as there is space. Again tell the Head.ask them to keep you updated
• you take the youngest child to school- you haven’t said where you work. Could this be possible? Work hours changed? Work from home?
• arrange a childminder to take your youngest to school who lives closer to you than school is
• hire an au pair / part time nanny to come to your house in the morning and collect the youngest to take her to school and do the reverse in the evening

hopefully this can stop when a place comes available and you can move the younger child

Hard to believe that there is no-one on the farm who can be spared, doesn't have to be him.

Having read your posts OP it does appear that rural children are at a disadvantage with any school due to distance and I would consider going to your MP’s or even the education minister to look at these issues.

Which ever school you chose you are out on distance. We need farmers! We also need teachers and it’s appalling you are having to struggle to get school places.

In this instance would you wife not home school the kids?

She could then tutor in the evenings and make more than she currently does?

Or he does what everyone else does and pays someone to do the school run. Such is life for working parents, unfortunately, and of course the child is on the WL for the school where the wife works so hopefully will only be for a year or so.

You mention that your son is May born. This means that legally you can defer his school entry until the term after he turns 5. So you could keep him out of school until next year and reapply. You might get a different place next year and/or be able to move your daughter’s school as she will then be in year 3. At the very least you could accept the place for this year but not send him until the final term and that would reduce the school run for this year and mean he was older and more able to cope with it when it happens.

The OP needs to get out of the outraged mindset - they aren’t particularly special, nor have they been singled out for unfair behaviour. Farmers are not some sacred caste - if it’s tricky for a farmer to move their day around, why is it seen as easier for his teacher wife to do so when she has no chance of moving the start time for a school class?

Employees of the County are not a special admissions category so I don’t know why you think that would make a blind bit of difference. Sometimes teachers are, but given this would now be an infant class size appeal I don’t think having a parent teaching at the school will matter either.

And to the poster who was outraged that parents might make up part of the appeals panel - don’t be so bloody ignorant and offensive. I was a governor at a primary school for years - in Cambridgeshire - and sat on appeals panels. We gave our time freely and undertook a considerable amount of training to ensure we were acting legally.

The OP needs to do what parents up and down the land do and find some kind of paid childcare for the couple of days that his wife works.

I have some sympathy.
Cambridgeshire is in a bit of a bind in terms of school places. There are pockets of places with massively falling roles and places where there aren't enough places by a long way. There are also a shortage of teachers.
I'm really not sure what to suggest except keep trying on the waiting list and get a temporary solution in place in the meantime. Could you afford some childcare help? Or join up with another family to share support?

Waiting list places often come up 6 months into the year. Do you know where you are on the waiting list?

There already is staff criteria but allocations did not get that far.

Op , did you appeal for dc1 to be admitted to catchment school or just dc2 to dw one? Have you submitted an in year application for dc1 or just been rejected verbally? Was dc2 application submitted on time (since you mention May for finding out the outcome)

I think this is the best idea, too.

Someone who moved into my area couldn't get a place for their child at any of the 5 primaries here, and was taxied to a rural primary as it was the nearest school that could take them. Their sibling at got a place at the same school though.

I feel for you, what a mess, of course it’s not of your own doing. Placing siblings apart is just bonkers, especially if a parent works at one of the schools. People saying ‘you should have thought about this when buying a house’ obviously missed the part that your home is tied in to your job.

There is no way on God’s earth I would consider putting a 4 year old in a taxi to school. I think for the two days your wife works, you’re going to have to tag team it, I.e your wife goes to one school with one child and you will have to do the other one and keep them both on waiting lists. You are kind of limited with options.

I haven’t read through all the replies but I work in a local authority and by law you will be entitled to school transport for the catchment school if it is more than 2 miles away (for an under 8 year old) or 3 miles away for over 8.

You’ll have to find someone to either wait with your child until the bus or taxi comes or your wife will have to drop your child somewhere to wait for the transport on her way out of the house.

As your wife works at one school you only have one school run to manage and that one will be done by the council so the situation is doable.

Many people on this thread have explained why, in some areas, siblings are no longer automatically given priority in admissions criteria.

I don’t work in the same Local Authority so it may differ. However, in my LA, the school can make whatever adjustments to their own admissions criteria (even within the LA criteria) that they want to, at any time and for any reason.

Several of the good schools around here have added ‘the children of staff’ as first admission priority as a way of attracting staff during the recruitment crisis (seems to have worked too). It works in the same way as church schools adding in a clause about practicing a religion. The school is still listed on the LA page just with ‘schools own admissions criteria’ so that it is transparent.

I could make this change at my school in time for a September start for the child of a staff member (would just take a call with the CoG to agree and then retrospective ratification at the next governors meeting).

Admittedly I am not a farmer, but my DH’s good friend is a single Dad and a livestock farmer with full custody of his daughter. He, like yourself, works with someone else on the farm (his Dad). He manages his time and his Dad holds the fort so that he can do the school run everyday. The good thing about being a farmer is you are your own boss. In effect you just need to be present to put DS on the taxi as you can access transport. Can your partner on the farm be flexible and hold the fort on 2/3 days per week while your wife works to release you when she has to leave and wait for the taxi to arrive, or could DS come with you so all you’d have to do is run him to the end of the drive for pick up? All the farm kids I know muck in! On an afternoon you can look for after school clubs where then your wife could pick up on the way back from work. It’s not ideal but there will be a way!

This.
It's a wonder we have any farmers left who are actually parents. Or that we have teachers for rural schools. Or that anyone dares ask for advice on MN and braves the pile-on and criticisms for not knowing everything.

Firstly I think you are getting a hard time and most people on MN have no idea what it means to be rural, or the fact that without farms our country wouldn't be food secure. We farm (and work elsewhere) but if one of us had to give up our job it would be me, simply because I am physically not strong/tall enough for some of the work required.

Also laugh at the pp who said just get a childminder for 1 hour.

Anyway have you looked into the transport? Only that where I am it isn't taxis it is a school bus that goes all round the farms and villages which means that they leave early and arrive back late, takes 45 mins each way to get to school (over 1 hour for the secondary) reception ages to go on it and are buddied up with a older student. Mine always slept on the way home and was woken up by his buddy.

In the meantime I would put both on waiting lists for any schools that are manageable but especially the eldest into the catchment school as your wives job is unsure.

one of what men? He works full time in a profession that brings the literal house they live in. She works 2.5 days.

I guess if he quit they would get evicted and then drive the epic journey without any worries? Although I’m pretty sure a teaching salary 2.5 days isn’t going to cover petrol.

I actually feel sorry for you because that's so stressful, to have 2 children at schools so far apart. This happened to someone I know, the council paid for a taxi to take one, while the mother took the other. She asked to be put on the waiting list, it took 2 years but she managed to move one over successfully.

Not sure if this has been suggested but why not Defer your may born DC. ? As a summer born you have the right to defer u til the term they are five. You could defer there start of school a year then try again next year. As your older DC will not be in infants then there is more chance of them getting a place at your closest school.

You chose the 1st school due to convenience as you work there. Second one didn't get in so effectively the school run for child 1 is your commute to work. My husband is a teacher and drove 25 miles to work at his old school, so 50 miles a day, our children's school is 1.5 miles away in the opposite direction. So that's 56 miles a day school run (there back x2) plus commute. He took himself to work and I sorted the kids, I work too but from home. Surely being a 2 parent family you sort it between yourselves? Your husband takes the child to the 6 miles away school, there's probably breakfast and afterschool club, ours is 7.15-6pm, it's a long day but people leave nursery aged kids for the full day (school has a nursery part of it).

We also bought our house due to proximity to a good school, before we even had children, most people who plan these things look at proximity to schools when buying a house.

This is the gross thing about admissions where you are frankly. Teachers have it hard enough. This is a basic way of making life easier. It should be higher up on admissions criteria. It is in most places for this reason.

sorry for you and your wife. It’s crap. I’m surprised so many people are being so unpleasant.

I get the frustration and the distance is far, but honestly a large part of this is that you live remotely. You were already prepared to do the further school so thats a none thing, the issue is the additional 12 miles for your second child but saying 56 miles is unreasonable is a bit out as you'd have had a 32 mile round trip regardless due to the circumstances of your living. I get it, I am in a similar loation but unfortunately fully knew my options before I put us in that direction.

The long and the short of it is that their is an easier route for you if the children were at the same school, but its not available, its a gamble that hasnt paid off, so you need to start to look at other options.
Could either of you change jobs, could be you or your wife,
Have you spoken to your employer about flexibility, there could be more than you think.
Id talk to the schools and look at the wrap around care, If not available then explain one of the children is going to be late to school and early picked up.
And hate to say it but move home, there maybe somewhere that has a school that both children can attend.

Surely that is a more rational solution to rural school admissions than people changing jobs and moving, do we not need farmers?

Crikey - who are all these people who researched entrance criteria for their local schools before having children?!😂 ….. and those who can’t imagine living 6 miles from the nearest school?! Ffs - there’s a big world out there🤦🏼‍♀️. Yes op, your best bet at this point is to go on the wait list at both schools and in the meantime start jumping up & down about what transport will be provided for your youngest…it could end up being quite convenient!!

You've been rather unfairly treated in this thread, OP! But I think if you'd sent your 1st child to the nearest school (6 miler), then both your children would be attending the same school this September. It was a risk you took based on the information and situation you were in at the time. I really feel for you. Hopefully a space comes up in either school soon. I don't think appeals will work as your younger child is being sent to nearest school. Good luck to you, not only the insane school run, but managing the admin, school requests etc for 2 different schools is not fun! Fingers crossed things become easier soon.