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Original poster

Putting your childs name down for school.

45 replies

Newbarnsleygirl · 13/04/2005 14:26

I wasn't to sure which topic to post this under really, but it's a little double dilema thats plaguing me atm.

Last week I had a visit from my HV's nursery nurse and she asked if I had got dd's name down for a Nursery yet. I'm a sahm and don't want to send dd to Nursery till she's 3 which will be October next year.

I was telling my SIL (who is a teacher) as I was a bit shocked because I thought it was too early to be doing this and she agreed with the NN and that when my dd is 2 I should be putting her name down for schools!

So my question is;
Has anyone else done this already and do you agree that this should be done?

Obviously I want dd to go to a good nursery and school so I don't want to miss out but at the same time I don't want to be too premature IYSWIM. I get all upset thinking my dd is growing up!

OP posts:

clary · 13/04/2005 17:01

pamina that does seem scary.
Tho as far as I can see if you put yr nearest school first then you should get in (am I right?)
So you should be OK.
btw didn't mean that people shouldn't move to the area of a school they like....only that the whole school ssue seems to have got out of hand, which is a shame, eg people lying about where they live, moving from big houses they love to tiny houses they hate just to be in the catchment area...does seem a shame.

Pamina3 · 13/04/2005 17:10

This reply has been deleted

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LIZS · 13/04/2005 17:27

NBG, apologies if duplicating info, not read all replies. If you choose a nursery attached to your favoured school they will not necessarily take that into account when you have to apply for Reception place which would be allocated against different criteria. You can put your dd's name down but again in practice all that means is that the school note your interest and send you the application bumpf and prospectus direct nearer the time, in addition to the LEA.

batters · 13/04/2005 17:58

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Amanda3266 · 13/04/2005 18:21

I didn't know what the procedure was either as DS is my first. However, a friend who has one in school and another who is six months older than mine put her DD name down when she was a few weeks old. I finally did it yesterday for DS after finding out where all the schools were locally. Here in Somerset we have a really strange system with a first school, a middle school and then senior school. I wasn't happy about this and have put DS name down for a school 5 miles away in Dorset which is the usual 4/5 - 11 system.

Gem13 · 13/04/2005 18:56

Amanda3266 - I grew up in Somerset and went to a middle school, then secondary and it does have its good points.

The main one (all things being equal educationally) I think for a parent (and child) is that the children are older when they mix with the really big teenagers. I was 13 nearly 14 and therefore not as daunted about being at school with 18 year olds as I would have been at 11. The middle school was a reasonable size so it wasn't too big to cope with and (this more from a parent's viewpoint) I don't think there was so much peer pressure to be a teenager and all that entails. I think my friends and I were younger for longer - not bothered by boyfriends or make up.

It was good too leaving the middle school and making a fresh start when I got to secondary school. I should have made the most of it and worked hard but of course I didn't!

clary · 13/04/2005 23:26

hmm replying to pamina's last post (that's shocking about houses in the same street!) surely what you say wd be true anywhere?
What i mean is that if any primary, even one that went, as ours does, on catchment area, had more catchment area applications than they had places, then they would have to use the criterion of nearest the school.
We have that criterion in place - it's just that we rarely (never?) have to use it thank goodness.
Not disputing your difficult situation Pamina (and hope you get a good result). I suppose what bothers me is that there is a lot of misleading publicity (notably in my office! but elsewhere too) to the effect that you might not get in to yr catchment area primary, which just alarms people unnecessarily as it's just not true here, at any rate.
Maybe others will tell me differntly and perhaps we are just really lucky.

Pamina3 · 14/04/2005 08:55

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halcat · 14/04/2005 10:27

Pamina, where in London do you live? I'm a year behind you and just looking in to all this for my dd to start nursery in Sept 06. We need to move because we've run out of space in our flat but in the area we are looking at moving to, you can live 0.2 miles from a school and still not get in apparently because of siblings etc, whereas it does sound like you have a pretty good chance of getting in to your first choice where you are.

Pamina3 · 14/04/2005 10:30

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

halcat · 14/04/2005 10:37

That makes sense, in Barnet the siblings thing counts for more than distance. Which would be cool by the time we get to no 2 but makes it harder in the short term...

Apparently it's all changing in time for Sept 2007 reception anyway, something about applications being coordinated across the whole of London??!! So by the time I have to apply it could all be totally different anyway.

Hope you get your first choice, fingers crossed.

lunavix · 14/04/2005 10:41

I'm confused - do you mean a day nursery, a pre school or a nursery school place (year 0)?

ds is one tomorrow, and the chairman of a local pre-school has told me if I want a place for him when he's two and a half/ 3, I have to put his name down now as the lists are massive

It's two years away!!!!

lunavix · 14/04/2005 10:41

I'm confused - do you mean a day nursery, a pre school or a nursery school place (year 0)?

ds is one tomorrow, and the chairman of a local pre-school has told me if I want a place for him when he's two and a half/ 3, I have to put his name down now as the lists are massive

It's two years away!!!!

titchy · 14/04/2005 10:47

I thought from this year all LEAs had to have the same admissions critera - i.e. what Pamina posted. Our Home Counties LEA certainly changed its criteria this year so that siblings for whom it was the nearest school got priority over siblings where it wasn't the nearest school. It's a subtle difference to what it was and I have to admit I didn't notice when I sent the forms in (not a problems for us though as it is the nearest school and ds has a siblong there).

Interstingly our LEA suggested last year that the system be changed so that you no longer out 1st choice or 2nd choice, just listed 2 (or was it 3?) schools, then you were allocated a place purely based on the criteria, rather than all 1st preferences being looked at first and you not standing any chance of getting into your 2nd choice school of that too was oversubscribed. They didn't go ahead with it though . But maybe they will in a few years when we come to apply for secondaries as we will be in the position of not being able to guarantee a place at our 1st choice (our village gets in roughly 2 years out of every four), but if we don't our second choice will be full from 1st choices. If we put our 2nd choice 1st we will get in, so do we settle for 2nd best or risk it.....[fingers crossed emoticon].

PrettyCandles · 14/04/2005 23:15

AS I understand it, all LEAs are supposed to have the same admissions criteria for primary schools. ATM in London you apply separately to each primary school, so you could, in theory, have places at several and then make a choice. There is talk of centralising the primary admissions so that you put a 1st and 2nd choice (possibly more? I don't know) and are allocated a school so that nobody gets offered more than one place at one school - like the secondary schools admissions process.

PrettyCandles · 14/04/2005 23:18

You know what is particularly aggravating about our situation? While we live on the last street of the catchment area, my parents live opposite the school's front gate!

We ought to have registered our children - somehow - as living with their grandparents. But the fact is that we never thought we'd still be living here by the time they reached school age.

Original poster

Newbarnsleygirl · 15/04/2005 08:53

We went to see the Nursery yesterday and it was lovely. Will probably put her name down for it ready for this time next year.

As for the schools, I don't know what to do. I haven't heard the best things about the schools in our catchment, thats why I wanted dd to go somewhere else we will be at the bottom of the criteria list so I don't see that we have a chance.
I'll probably start the search for School next year.

Thanks for all your advice it has been very helpful.

OP posts:

flamesparrow · 15/04/2005 08:59

I'm off to school with DD today She is so tiny, but I need to get her name down now because they are cutting class sizes there soon, so there will be less places!!

How did my baby grow up so quick???

Original poster

Newbarnsleygirl · 15/04/2005 09:01

I know, I was a bit shocked to start with thinking that I'd to put her name down 2 1/2 yrs in advance but at the same time these first 18 months have gone so quick.

OP posts:

flamesparrow · 15/04/2005 09:04

It will be quite good as it won't be too much of a new and scary place for her... we go to toddlers there already, and her name is down for nursery when she is 3, and her Gran works there too .

Nice for me too... tis my old school!! If we're allowed, we're getting our wedding photos taken in the nature area there too!

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