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.

This whole thread just makes me wonder why anyone would ever choose to work in farming? If it’s true that you earn so little you can’t afford any staff or to pay for wrap around childcare, and you aren’t ever able to leave the premises, even for 20 minutes to do a school drop off, then I assume holidays are out of the question too….

It sounds miserable.

@Muthaofcats Im a farmer’s DD. What holidays? We didn’t have any! However other farmers employed agency staff and there is respite as you are self employed. It’s possible to have some time off at odd times of the day. Earlier starts and later evenings also help. It does depend how labour intensive the farming is. The OP has a Council small holding with a tied house. Not sure what the acreage is but it’s probably too small to make much money. It’s possibly not viable at all. Difficult I agree but choices have consequences. Farming for small farmers is a struggle but the op applied for this farm, so it’s choice.

Full sympathy. You’re doing well to get a response within 5 days, ours take anything up to a fortnight and then like a politician they answer the questions about process that they wish you’d asked rather than the ones you actually did.

Feel free to DM if you’d like to vent.

Could you try your 4 year old in wrap around care two days a week? He may be fine. My 4 yo and 2 yo are in nursery 4 days a week 8-5. 4yo dropped his nursery nap at 3 and just has earlier bedtimes. Appreciate you are now looking at another school in a different county but is it worth sticking with the catchment school with an eye to easier logistics in the future if your daughter also gets a place? Though I have sympathy with other posters pointing out this situation is of your own making, you're not wrong that the "everything is shit and that's the way we like it" attitude is very annoying.

This country is suffering from long term disinvestment, and this is one of the consequences. Had we built enough housing more than likely you'd have even nearer schools to consider, for example!

OP I don’t understand your argument about not being around to put your youngest on school transport to his catchment school and also him not being old enough to cope with before/after school care.

Lots of 4 year olds use school transport- my own did and they loved it. I don’t buy that argument.

I am a TA and we have lots of Reception children use morning and after school care 5 days a week. They get plenty of down/rest time during this care. I don’t buy your argument that 4 year olds can’t cope with it.

You say you can’t manage the transport as you will need to be there to put them on and off the taxi but you can’t because you are working. If you are working how will you manage without wrap around care which you say your child can’t cope with?

OP has said wraparound care not suitable for a reception age child. Despite the fact that most kids with two working parents have to use some form of it in reception. His child is special.

Lots of kids get school transport/use wraparound from reception age.

We’re in Scotland so the school start is a bit later but my DD was 4 when she started P1 and she got the school bus from the first day. As did lots of her friends.

Our school doesn’t have any wraparound care, but I have plenty of friends with reception age kids in before/after school clubs. That is assuming the school allow them to join it of course.

@Ruralparents As half term approaches I wondered if there have been any developments and how you are getting on if not?

Youngest ds is at the school over the border into Suffolk, he seems to be enjoying it which is great, it took all summer but we had confirmation he had a place there the day before term started!

My Mum is generally doing collection 3 days a week, I do 2 dropoffs and my wife does the other days. It takes an hour to do drop off with both kids by the time you’ve parked twice and walked both children to the gate.

The ds school doesn’t offer wraparound care until he turns 5 in late May so the eldest does breakfast and after school club each day and we’ll juggle it till then if needed.

So we’ve got a routine going, but we know now that we can’t do this for 5 years till the eldest dd goes to secondary school, the schools are still 8 miles apart, a 24 mile round trip and it’s just draining for everyone, plus all the duplication of everything.

The LEA have made it very clear that they would rather write expensive reports about the difficulties of retaining teachers rather than actually do something to help a teacher out so there won’t be progress in that direction. The governors have had a meeting about admissions and oversubscription but it seems that unlike academies they are bound by the LEA. I need to request the minutes of the meeting really.

I think we’ll end up putting the eldest at the same school as the youngest, she’ll miss her friends but will soon bounce back, investigation has shown there are more flexible job options, in terms of hours, locally for my wife. But it’s all very sad and she feels she’s been forced out after making the best decisions we could in terms of juggling work/life/children’s schooling along the way.

There we are, you can’t bang your head against a brick wall forever, onwards and upwards!

Well done for making the best of a rubbish situation.

You are frustrated because you are mixing up too many different policies and circumstances.

Admissions policies are never going to include a clause around ‘ teacher jobs’ the two are not linked, whether we have a shortage of teachers or not.

Governors are bound by LA rules - of course they are, they are a statutory body, bound by the terms of governance office.

All policies are written to de-personalise. They have to. Can you imagine the chaos and unfairness if the ins and outs of every families careers had to be included in admitting every child to school - shortage of nurses, - preference in a particular school, shortage of carers - preference, shift workers - preference.
It is just unworkable and very unfair.

Just to round this off…..

Today was my wife and daughter’s last day at their school. A headteacher in another school had heard about the situation and got in touch via the grapevine to let dw know of a flexi time position they were looking to recruit for, which helps no end with the school run.

Daughter is moving to our sons school from January, having juggled two schools miles apart for a term it was quite clear it couldn’t go on for 5 years. She seems excited about the new school which is good.

My wife’s position hasn’t been filled, the year 6 class will need other staff within the school to cover the position. 🤷‍♂️

Relieved to put it behind us tbh.

Firstly, I'm pleased your children and wife have had a happy outcome.

I hope the fact a school has lost a much needed staff member due to this sort of situation encourages schools in your area to consider moving up staff priority in the admissions criteria.

I’m relieved for your family. Good luck to your dd and dw for their new schools next term.

Thats brill.

Good news.

Sad to hear that it’s come to this. I’ve just heard this week that staff children have been moved to priority 3 in our county, to address staff retention issues.

Given the growing teacher shortage and the hours required to do the job during term time, it makes sense for children of staff members to be allowed to attend that school - if only to ensure that 30+ can be taught by an actual, qualified teacher.

Great news.

For what it's worth, you should be entitled to free school transport for both children to the catchment school.

Which county is this?

Cambridgeshire were quite happy to lose a teacher, despite their report into the difficulties of retaining staff. I hear that the director of education is moving on, maybe the incoming person will do something about the issue rather than look the other way.

Glad it's been sorted and thanks for updating.
I thought the outcome would mean your DW would have to move school. The old headmistress was utterly wrong in giving you false information in the first place.
Hopefully the admissions criteria will change in favour of teachers in hard to recruit areas.

Great news for your family.

Great outcome.

@Ruralparents Schools don’t have to follow what a Director of Education thinks about admission.Or indeed any report. They can write their own policies to suit local conditions even if they are a LA school. This is why you see variety. Many mats are completely separate from LAs anyway and will definitely do their own policies. The admissions policies have to be lawful but what’s in them can and does vary.