Does anyone know if attending nursery attached to a school gives your child a better chance of getting into that school if you don't live in the catchment area?

[LoveMyGirls]

Basically my dd2 started a pre-school nursery a couple of months ago but now I think I want to move her to a day nursery, dp thinks if we do then she might not get into the school later (we haven't chosen which school she will go to yet but we're thinking maybe this one because I am a childminder and currently pick up from there)

Does it matter which nursery she goes to?

Check the admissions policy of the school itself. If the school policy is to give preference to children living in catchment or children who have attended the pre-school then obviously that will be a factor if you want your dd to go to that school.

DD went to a preschool at my preferred school, but LEA and school policy was that that did not count as a factor in assessing admissions. We lived slightly too far away and so ended up at a different school.

I think it's down to the LEA not the school. And most of them don't automatically give school places to the children who attended the nursery. My DS is in a school attached nursery but it's outside of our catchment area...I'll find out at the end of the month if he's got into the school!

Certainly at our school, attending the nursery unit has absolutely no bearing on your application for the school. You are 100% safe to stick with the excellent education she will recieve at a pre-school not attached to a school. hope that helps!

I'm in Surrey, and most but not all preschools have no links to the attached infant school. There is, however, one preschool near us whose children get priority entrance to the associated infants, which then feeds into the juniors, which then feeds into a competitive and oversubscribed comprehensive. A friend of mine realised this and made her decision on preschool with this in mind. Madness, I thought, at the time, but I suspect she'll have the last laugh...

The moral is: check the admissions criteria; they're similar but not identical.

not here.

It's down to the school. My kids go to school in West London (not Surrey) and when DD started the nursery, nursery kids did get priority on the reception applications. That has changed now that DS is in nursery. But, for us, it won't matter because he will get in on the sybling rule. The school probably has the admin policy on the web. And, if not, I'm sure they'd give it to you if you ask for it.

It would vary according ot the published criteria. You could be below those attending nursery and within catchment , then within catchment but ahead of those out of catchment not attending nursery. Most LEA's would state that attendance at attached nursery has no bearing but some schools can apply their own (those aided by Chruch etc) amd may still do so.

Most have fairly satndard criteria now and it's the LEA that make the decision NOT the school.

Only benefit of sticking with the one on site would be building friendships if you're in catchment and meet other criteria

FWIW our chosen school has 5 criteria

1. children in care
2. children with siblings in catchment

3 children in catchment 4 children with siblings out of catchment 5 children out of catchment (in order of distance from school as crow flies)

DD1will be criteria 5 despite attending the onsite pre-school

My DCs both attended the nursery attached to their school before they joined the school itself, but the school made it perfectly clear that attending the nursery DID NOT mean any kind of preference over other children. This is the same in the whole of our area (central London) but not sure if it applies elsewhere. The theory behind it being that nursery is not compulsory, whereas school is, so its not fair to give children who attend the nursery an advantage, since many working parents etc prefer to send their DCs to private nursery or CMs to fit around their working hours.

Almost certainly not.

School admission sgenerally not decided by the school or nursery but by LEA according to strict set of criteria (which usually follow those posted on this thread IME)