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.

Whatever the rules are, a system that places two siblings of primary school age 14 miles apart is not a system fit for purpose. And if the OP was truthful (and my memory is correct), they didn’t have the choice of picking up the catchment school for the eldest, as they couldn’t take all catchment kids that year, so they didn’t really have any other options so far.

Sorry I meant that the LEA should place both kids in the same school. The rules are bonkers.
Our local authority gives siblings priority to be together over other children’s proximity to school.

Common sense should apply. Look at the state of the replies on here, since when have we become robots to the rules and not question them?

@mycoffeecup Actually, you can give loads of reasons where I live. Working at School A would be considered an important enough reason for example. Difficulty in doing two school runs would also be considered.

If thousands of other parents need 2 parents to do the primary school run then they shouldn’t.

I’m not special.

The op would have got into their catchment school in that year IF they had applied to it on time and put it first (though the school is now full).

If by any chance they had applied to the catchment school for their eldest but not got in, Cambridgeshire would have treated their younger child as an ‘in catchment’ sibling for whatever school the elder one was placed in.

The problem here is that OP actively chose and placed first an out of catchment school for their eldest, which ALWAYS carried a risk for the younger child (op has since researched and found that this problem would have occurred in 2015 and 2018 as well as this year, so a roughly 1 in 4 chance).

Hang on a minute, thousands of parents do 2 different primary school runs in the mornings and 2 in the afternoon?

Can you show me where you find these mind blowing statistics?

We manage a complicated school run but it’s tough.

Its a 27 mile trip to DC2 school in one direction and 14 miles to DC1’s school in the other direction. We live in a big village not far from two towns. DC3 goes to a school in between. This is down to having children with SEN and a lack of choice in terms of provision in our county, so our circumstances are not typical for everyone but very normal for parents with SEN kids whose needs fall outside of mainstream. It’s madness but we manage. Your situation isn’t ideal but you’re not alone. That said I hope you get it sorted because it’s bloody exhausting!

No it wouldn't
That's not allowed under the admissions code
@PanelChair and @prh47bridge will confirm

(unless you're not in England @pollymere )

Of those people who I know with school age kids, I would say at least a third have kids at two different schools.

No, she would have got into catchment school, just, but what we chose to do did happen to help the LA with its oversubscription situation that year. Not that it counts for anything now.

Also, I haven’t seen anything which obliges the LA to put our second child into the catchment school even with a sibling there, if it was full before it reached the end of criteria 3 (sibling in catchment) which I have found has happened in various local schools over the last few years.

Not that this applies here, but I think they can just do as they please.

You have my full sympathies!

I think you’re the first poster here who finds themselves with a worse commute, in answer to my OP, it must be awful.

Is there a breakfast club at the catchment school? A solution might be for your wife to drop DC2 to the catchment school and then go straight to work with DC1. We also live on a farm, and have two children at different schools. my husband can’t do the school run, like you so as I work from home I set off with both children in the car and drop one child at the further school 5 miles from our house (he is there early but just plays in the playground with a couple of teachers children). Then the other child and I head off to their school 5 miles from the first school and 4 miles from home, and I drop them there again a bit early (in case of traffic) but they don’t mind. I then head home to start my working day. I appreciate a 4 year old can’t be left early at school unless there is a wrap around care provision. It’s not ideal but might work just while you wait for a place to become free at either school for the child not attending that one.

No I think when she first applied she could have pointed out the flaw in the policy to all staff, as she noticed it when applying for her own. Most schools accept staff children above others, its not some groundbreaking change.

I know ours was changed when lots of staff were being priced out of the area, so that we didn't lose staff. It has to be changed at some point and why would they change it unless a staff member pointed it out and, in turn, benefited ?

This.

I don't mind copping flak on here, I’ve got a thick skin and can give as good as I get.

But I cannot fathom the responses who say the system is fine and it doesn’t matter that it can send siblings miles apart. It simply shouldn’t be allowed, the council have trousered masses of development cash over the past couple of years and not spent it on infrastructure, despite a clear request for two form entry.

Does anyone think government ministers fall foul of these systems? Of course they don’t, Rishi would just buy his way out of the problem.

If you think about it, the problem is OP and wife don’t really want to do a school run at all!

And that’s the issue - if their older child didn’t get into the non catchment school they would essentially be int the same position

No, you didn’t think about it, or read the thread.

Once the eldest sibling is in a school, families plan their life around it, as they have to. Jobs get moved, wraparound gets planned, childminders are engaged. One parent can do the school run, or place them in the bus/taxi.

Likewise, if you want teachers in a rural location, always best to support them where possible. If you don’t want to support them fine, just don’t moan when your kids gets endless supply teachers. And if there’s something guaranteed to bring in complaints to the school office, it’s regular supply teachers.

Are you saying that there is no sibling rule in Cambridgeshire and therefore loads of kids are at schools which are different to their siblings? This can’t be possible?!

I’m sorry OP that sounds a total nightmare. No helpful advice as afraid - but just wanted to say it sounds ridiculous putting siblings in schools 14 miles apart - totally unreasonable :-(. Good luck I hope you can find a good resolve

RTFT - OP chose to send first child to a school out of their catchment area and so priority for siblings out of catchment is lower. This wouldn't be an issue if they had chosen the closer school.

I don't think it's the council's problem to be fair really though. It's hard having more than one child - partly because of things like this.

The government taxes the people harder than at any time for decades. It taxes the developers who build the houses. It taxes everything.

When it wants to find billions for white elephants like HS2 it does, when it wants to find billions to fund furlough, it does. When Cambs council want to find millions to install 20mph hour zones that none of its residents voted for, it does, when a school demonstrates a clear need for, and requests funding for, two form entry, it tells them to sod off.

Appeal again to the ombudsman or who ever, I’ve known people for whom it has worked. And apart from the logistics but on a personal note, I just think it’s sad when they don’t prioritise siblings and they end up at different schools.

The birth rate is declining, so to be fair expanding schools is probably not high up on the list of priorities. You don't have a right to live whether you want, have however many kids you want and expect the government to make your life super simple for you. There is some personal responsibility there.

Farmers might be self employed but their working hours are long, tied to certain times of the year, weather dependent and also on 3rd party contractors

OP is an arable and poultry farmer - certain times of the year yes can do school run but during busy periods will be lucky to get 5 hours sleep and time to eat 2 meals