Our son is without school, what can we do?

[netdady]

Hello,
We moved into Ealing in the beginning of the month. Our son is in year 1 age. But there is no vacancy in his catchment area state primary school, and the same goes for almost all the schools in Ealing borough, except for a few in southall, which are too far away and are in problematic areas. We got registered in all he waiting lists and pressured Ealing council education department, but there are no fruitful results.
The outcome of this outrageous situation is that our child is without any school at all since we have arrived at London, and without any company of kids his age. He is getting frustrated and depressed, and we don't know who to turn to anymore for getting a place n a school.
We contacted the Department for Children, Schools and Families but they as well didn't solve the problem. We appealed as well, but the process takes forever and everyday our son is without school is a waste.
With no solution in sight, we would very much appreciate any advice in getting our son in a healthy educational environment as soon as possible.
Thank you.

I am pleased your son has a place in a school and is feeling happier. Stay on the waiting lists for all the schools you would really like him to go to, and I would not be surprise if something came up reasonabvly soon.

The borough I live in is rapidly increasing the number of school places, as well as the quality of education, and is doing very well. It's also a very 'problematic' area, but despite some 'problematic' families and children most parents, even from the particularly 'problematic' estate over the road do want their children to do well and the school is brilliant.

Schools admission is extremely stressful, without the added problem of looking for a place half way through a school year.

I hope your son does well and enjoys himself.

So how does it work where you've come from then? Can any child go to any school, regardless of class size? Has your DS been in formal schooling yet, as I know the the UK starts earlier than some other countries.

Hi ya - would be interesting to know what schools are so bad on southall that you are referring too! As part of my job one of my roles is to provide advice to appeals panels and parents appealing for a school place. Ealing is not the only borough oversubscribed - nearly all London boroughs are facing the same situation. Year 1,2 and reception are all limited to 30 per class as per the national infant class size legislation therefore only an appes panel can "allow" a case but even then they are restricted to by the admissions code so your case has to be EXCEPTIONAL to say the least or if your child has medical grounds you can ask for a medical appeal... However the borough has met it's obligation as far as offering a school (which j assume is within reasonable travelling distance?)... Ad for southall being a problamatic area...you've just moved from abroad so do you know that for a fact?? I was born and educated in southall and did very well! My cousins / siblings the same...we have doctors, lawyers, engineers to name but a few all in one family..enough said!!

LEA need money to expand schools!! The Childrens services dept in the LA I work for are struggling!!! They are expanding year after year and still cannot keep up with the demand! There is a lot involved and you can't just expand a school - especially if the school has no space to expand! Sorry to sound so harsh but this subject really gets on my wick! Lol

I take back the word 'problematic'. It is nonsense, it was wrongfully used. I'm indeed just not familiar with this area, it's very far away from where I live.

Regarding getting more places in schools, I think the government or whoever is the funding body should invest more money in schools in order to meet the demand for school places by neighborhoods kids.

The whole point of state education is the right of every kid for good education. The growth in the demand for school places is natural and the state should make sure that kids living in a certain area would get in school in their neighborhood. It's a question of how much do we, as a society, invest in our kids' education, which is the basis of society. (what do you think our kids learn from this situation?)

I'm sure noone disagrees with you but it is not that simple. It is impossible for an LEA to plan exactly how many spaces a particular catchment will require. They can get a rough idea from the birth rate of that intake year but it depends massively on people moving in and out, and choosing private schools over state. All our personal decisions that the LEA has no say over.

Where the system is wrong is that whether a school is good or bad becomes self-fulfilling. The better the ofsted report, the more competition for places, the more motivated the parents and pupils become, leaving a couple of schools to take all of the overspill.

We shouldn't be putting energy into making good schools bigger, but improving that standards of all schools.

You may well be surprised with your son's school and, if there are problems with it, get involved and try to make it better.

I have a real issue with church schools. Not because I have a problem with children wanting a religious education, but that it just becomes a selective school by default, and creams off all the competitive middle class families who care so much about their child's education that they'll pretend to go to church for 4 years (I have many friends who have done this). If these children were spread out amongst all schools in a given catchment the standards of all of them will rise.

Rant over.