Understanding uk and school places

[Ponderingwindow]

As a person not in the uk, I don’t really understand how it is possible for a child to not have a school place.

i know there is an application system where people list their preferred schools. I understand that part.

what I can’t quite grasp is that sometimes children end up without a place. Or that someone new moving in isn’t guaranteed an immediate place somewhere, even if it’s not the first choice school. That a special needs student isn’t entitled to a full day of education every day.

is there no legal obligation for the government to provide a certain number of days or hours of education to each child?

It depends what you mean by 'immediate '.

In our case it took 3-4 weeks for an in-year move, but that was complicated by various COVID 'bubbles', plus DD having some SEN so the school did 3 sessions of assessments to come up with a personalised timetable and support plan in place from day 1.

Without those constraints I would expect schools will want to get the new year 7s through their first few days, plus the continuing students back, and then turn their attention to the new ad hoc pupils.

That might take a week.or two. Plus some families wait until the last minute to.inform a school their child/ren aren't returning, so there is a bit of last minute movement in waiting lists.

Better a calm and planned start a week or two later than falling through the cracks in the busy first few days.

SEN funding is a different - and huge, sadly - issue.

By immediate, I guess I am thinking a business day, 2 at the most.

State schools don't have the spare staff capacity to accommodate random admissions within one or two days. That wouldn't be a good use of scarce resources.

Even if there are places it can take time to chase up frequently missing information and proof of address etc.

The requirement is to offer a school place which does not need to be one parents necessarily want. We have lots of parents appealing and holding on to a place but not attending. Being SEND makes no difference to an offer of a school unless you have an EHCP. Even then it can take time to find the right setting. We have spaces in schools parents do not want for many reasons, not necessarily because they have a poor Ofsted rating.

I know where you're coming from, in the US you can rock up to a new town, register your kid and a couple of days later, they're in.

I don't know what they do if there's no space left in the classrooms. Our school is full enough that there's a one-in-one-out thing going on.

It is because in England for the youngest students there is a limit to the number in each class. Legally (except in certain rare circumstances) a class cannot go over 30 students for the first three years. This is so that there is a chance the teachers can have enough time to teach all the children. Often in the youngest year groups there will also be one or more teaching assistants who do not have a teaching degree (or are choosing not to use it) but might have other specialist knowledge.

Generally most classes throughout primary and secondary are limited to about 30 students. There will be 30 pupil desks, 30 pupil chairs, a room just big enough to accommodate the right number of desks etc. It can be logistically hard to squeeze extra pupils in. If there has been additional houses built, high birthrate, lots of siblings etc then a class might be too full to accommodate the child. This can mean that a child is allocated a school far away.

Also some parents don't fully understand the system and they think they have a choice so might decide not to apply for their nearest school, thinking that they must be given one of the other schools they apply for. If the other schools already have 30 children per class and their nearest one which they would have got a place at is full with people who did apply then they might be sent further away too.