Applying for a primary school

[brookwood1234]

Hi there,

I am hoping someone out there can help?

My son is due to start school somewhere in Glasgow or surrounding areas in August 2016.

We are currently overseas and weren't planning to come back until middle of March 2016.

I am trying to workout if we need to be back in Glasgow earlier (and face the scottish winter :-/)

The cut off to get your primary application in seems to be end of January 2016 for most councils. We don't have a property in Glasgow at the moment so when we come back we would be renting.

I don't really want to leave the school he goes to up to chance through a placing request.

I was thinking I could get a family member to choose somewhere for us to rent and help get all the paperwork together for us. I believe it would be a tenancy agreement, council tax bill, utility bill and ID.

What I would like to know is do you think that is do able or do you need to talk to people at the school in person before the end of March? I was thinking it was unlikely anyone from the school would make contact until March?

I really want him to have a smooth transition changing countries.

I would really like to know if you think this is do-able??? I know they are really strict about catchments and applications.

Thanks for reading!

I think Glasgow is now December.

It really depends on what school you are wanting to go to. Yes, they are strict on catchments, but once all the catchment kids are accounted for, they'll take siblings and then placing requests, so school might actually be full if you apply later. But that depends on the school.

Probably your best bet is to contact the schools in the areas you are thinking of and asking them.

Iirc but it was a long time ago , I had to show the school ds' birth certificate when applying - did it in the school actually had to show them his passport as I'd lost his birth certificate

Thank you for your speedy reply and advice.

I think we will work out catchments and do our best to get a house rented and an application in on time before the cut off!

The joys of moving countries!

So it's even earlier than I thought - it was end January when ds started and I knew it had been changed.

That's good to hear about spaces being left for people who move into the catchment. Neighbours of ours ended up sending their kids to private school when they moved here with 4 kids as the (very good) catchment school was full and the (closer) alternative school which I had mistakenly thought was our catchment school was/is 98% English as an Additional Language (the catchment school was "only" 60% EAL).

Wonder how it will work in practice if people appeal?

A few year's ago, ds' primary school was within 2 kids of not even being able to accept sibling requests and even that involved major shuffling of composite classes throughout the school - so quite a few "ordinary" placing requests had to be knocked back and the school was definitely full for "in-year" requests.

A new, bigger school is being built so that should help for a while