Son cannot get a place at his Brothers school.

[Cymba]

Hello, have browsed here for some time but never joined. I just wanted a little bit of advice so thought I would post.

My youngest son goes to private nursary as I am doing a degree and my husband works full time, just before Christmas it suddenly occured to me that he may not get a letter (like my eldest child did) about school admissions as he attends a private nursary. Sure enough I ring the LEA to find the dead line was a week earlier.

So now my older childs reception class is full (30 places) and my youngest has no school place at all yet as they apparently didnt recieve my appliaction (I am told this wouldn't have made a difference once its late, its late).

As the class size is 30 legally they can't take anymore children so basically I have been told even if I appeal I will lose.

I will appeal on the grounds that it is psyhically impossible for me to get my children to 2 seperate schools on time and that my oldest child has SEN and moving schools would cause serious disruption to him.

Just looking for any advice on this, thanks

oh dear. VERY odd that you didn't get a letter - no excuse for education authority that your son goes to a private nursery. Surely you are registered with doc/HV?

Hope appeal works, think SEN is an excellent reason for it. Any chance not all 30 children will take up the places that have been offered?

I didn't get a letter as they "don't do that" in case people move house. This really infuriates me as I get letters about vacciations and even got a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush through the post a couple of weeks ago for my youngest. Apparently education isn't as important as brushing your teeth.

Apparently their master plan to make parents aware of the admissions date is posters in schools. I didn't notice any although the school assures me they had some up.

Can't seem to edit posts here, my oldests letter came via the school not through the post.

how very odd. I'd be contacting my MP if I were in your shoes, as well as appealing.

By your reaction I am assuming other LEA's do post letters?

Although I am livid that the LEA don't send letters out alerting parents to admissions deadlines I don't think this will help with my appeal.

This is how my LEA as done it for at least 4 years presumably if appeals were won on the grounds parents were not aware it would have been changed.

Yup, we got one. (Am in Herts.) Ds is in Yr1 so they may have changed the system since we were applying for him, but they MUST make an effort to contact all parents, not just those who happen to have older siblings or children in certain nurseries!

The education authority here doesn't send out letters. Hope you can get something sorted. My advice would be to be charming to everyone you encounter, especially the headteacher.

And just to let you know you are not alone: my friend was working as a teacher at her DC's school and still managed to miss the application deadline for her youngest. THey had moved, and her new LEA did not send out letters.

Not sure the unable-to-deliver-to-two-schools-at-once argument will work, I'm afraid. Many parents end up in this situation sooner or later when the older child moves up to the next school. There are various solutions: childminders, breakfast club, getting a neighbour to take one child in etc. Doubt that would sway the LEA on its own as there would be so many parents in this situation.

SEN will work for the child that does have SEN, but not necessarily for a sibling as the child with SEN doesn't have to have his brother in the same school.

We have never received any communication from the LEA.

Even at a private nursery there should have been a notice up or letters sent home about the deadlines. The local authority are supposed to advertise the deadlines so no-one gets missed. I am really shocked that nothing was done through your nursery.

As for class sizes, I think they are obliged to offer you a place if youare in the catchment and if that increases numbers they have to provide a TA for the class.

I am not dure late admission is really an excuse as you could well just have moved into the area or something that would mean your forms would still be late but they would still have to provide a place.

KingCanute: that's not strictly true. They have to provide you with a place and provide transport if it's over a certain distance away (I forget the exact distance now). However, in oversubscribed schools it's pretty common that being in catchment doesn't guarantee you a place.

What I mean is, they have to offer a place at a school, not necessarily that particular catchment school.

Cory surely the LEA cannot tell me that I have to either fork out finicially or leave my child in care of a nieghbour? When children move up in school there are generally bus services run to get that child to school so I don't think its the same situation at all.

Does anyone know if the LEA can force me to take a place at a RC CoE school?

What an awkward situation
FWIW our LEA don't send out letters.
However, if I were you I would go ahead and apply direct to the school - get your name on the waiting list - there is often a bit of a shakedown inbetween places being allocated and start of term.

The notice is not put up at private school nurseries in my area (they are not going to encourage people to apply for state schools for reception and I can understand that). The only way I found out about applying for school places was phoning the council and requesting an application pack.

I think it is wrong that information is distributed to certain nurseries only. All children should be sent information on applying to state schools by the LEA in the same way that you are sent a note by the docs reminding you to take your child for an MMR jab or whatever.

I would try appealing on the basis you were not informed how to apply for a place by the council. If this fails put your son on the waiting list for the elder childs school and hopefully one will come up - surely siblings are top of the priority list?

From my conversations with the LEA I have been lead to believe the school has little to with anything. I am going to go and speak to the LEA this afternoon but when I spoke to them on the phone she told me that the LEA make the waiting list (and the order of it) not the school.

Thanks Mazzy I am really hoping that I do get a place before the start of term but obviously until them I will be a wreck. I don't know what I will do about my degree, my husband starts work at 7.45 so he cannot even drop one of them off at breakfast club. I don't drive and have noone else who can take them. I am just so worried and frustrated.

ps - didn't your elder son's school put a notice up reminding you of the application deadline for this year's reception? If not I would also mention that when you appeal.

In my area posters are put up in libraries, at all nurseries (we don't have state nurseries here) and at all schools. I don't think we get letters.

Your ds2 should be at the top of the waiting list as a sibling. There is plenty of time for one child to drop out. You may find that you get a place before Sept/Jan (depending on when he'll start). Certainly at our local oversubscribed primary about 3 or 4 places came up before the year began (2 form entry=60places)

I would get the school involved. They should have sent a form home with your older DS anyway - had you told them you had another child at some point? When my younger child was that age the school automatically gave me a form in DS's bookbag as we'd registered DC2 with the school. This happened to a friend's DD2 by the way as they forgot to send form in. In the end a few children rejected places at that school as they moved house or went private - this may well happen in your case?

Yes - you may need to appeal to the LEA rather than the school unless it is a Voluntary Aided school (some of these control their own waiting lists)

Rubberduck, really? in our area they provided TAs to oversubscribed schools so that 5yos did not have to go to school out of catchment... You are probably right though, I know our Local Authority does spoil us when compared to other local authorities.

There are at least 2 other schools in my catchment area. One is RC and I really don't want to send my son there for numerous reasons. The other one is state and is a nice school. Despite the fact that all 3 are in walking distance from me they are all in opposite directions so getting both children there on time would involve either breakfast clubs or taxis. Getting both children there on time and me into uni on time would be impossible. If I did leave uni and would have to get a job and would be in the same situation, I will be starting my 3rd year in Sept and obviously having to leave would be terrible.

I don't envision the appeals panal caring one way or the other about me dropping out of uni though.

We haven't had anything from LEA for either of the DSes applications. The only thing we had was a pack from the LEA where DS1 was at nursery - not the LEA where he would be going to school!!

Just found out that the closest school with places left is 2 bus rides or an hours walk away. I have no idea what I am going to do besides hope to God that I get a place before hand.