State School Admission - How Does It Work?

[NotQuiteCockney]

This is really just out of curiousity.

State primary school admission is by proximity to the school/siblings? What happens if you move cross-country with kids of primary school age? What if your nearest school is full? Do they just add one to the appropriate classes? Or is the local education authority obliged to find you a place somewhere?

Admission is not purely by proximity - someone can get in from further away than you if it is their closest school and you have another one closer.

I think, if you move, they find you a place somewhere. They won't necessarily add one to the class if they are already at maximum though.

There are other criteria such as siblings, special needs (and, if appropriate, religion). I think the order of criteria is siblings, special needs, proximity.

Depends where you go. In our LEA it;s special needs, siblings then proxomity. But in a neighbouring LEA is Special Needs, siblings as long as it's the younger one's closest school, then others as long as it's the closest school, THEN siblings fro whom it isn't the closest schoo then anyone else. Within these categories it's ordered by proximity.

I think if you move it depends on the year group. Reception,Year 1 and Year are capped at 30 so even if you meet all the criteria you won't get into your closest school. However higher up there is no statutory limit on class sizes so they might take in a child even if it means their numbers go above 30.

In our school (I am a Gov) they will only give you a place if they have one! The LEA will find you a place an a school but not necessarily your nearest one (if you move). You would be put on a waiting list for your prefered school.

The LEA's obligation is to find you a school place/places within the schools in their area but offering you any place satisfies their statutory obligation - whether you like it or not! If you are not happy you then go on the waiting list for the school(s) you want. Most LEAs will not overcrowd a school if they have spaces in any other school (and most areas have at least one school that nobody wants to send their kids to so always has spaces!), even if what they offer you is miles away or inconvenient for any other reason - believe me I've been there!!!

Each LEA will have an admissions policy for state schools under their control. It is usually some variation on

siblings
special needs
children in care
distance from school

but the priority of these criteria will vary in each LEA, as may the way in which they measure distance from school (nearest walking route, in a straight line, using GPS mapping software etc).

Voluntary-aided schools can set their own admissions criteria, but must be seen to follow their own rules.

Ok, that all makes sense. Do they ever un-admit people, say, if they move (but don't want to leave the school)?

I didn't know there weren't limits on class size in the higher grades. How does that work?

I think once you're in a school you can stay there.

There may be an exception if you move outside the LEA - but I managed to stay on for my A-Level year, even though we lived 40 miles from school then.

I don't think they can throw people out for moving house, unless they have grounds for suspecting that the original catchment area address was some kind of fraud.

But the sibling thing might not apply where a family has moved house since the older child started school. Religious schools can also override the sibling criterion if the family have changed their religious practice since the admission of the first child.

The sibling thing can be a bone of contention, especially when families move within the catchment area briefly to get a child into the school then, having moved some distance away, send subsequent children there on the "sibling rule". Where we live it has now been changed to make it clear that families still need to live within the area to use sibling preference.

We moved cross country (well, Somerset to Wales)to a primary school that has lots of competition for places, and got a place there five weeks ago for ds1 in Reception, and for DS2 to start in September and to have a few weeks in their nursery class to settle. They just added DS1 to smallest class.

We were within the catchment area and the LEA said they would have to fit us in, not that we had a single problem anyway.

Will stress DID NOT MOVE to get into this school, just a happy addition. Moved for me to go Uni. Not, as someone I know from my old town called me, 'a locals space nicker''!!!!!!.

LOL!!