Any advice on finding a school when all say they are full?

[bearandfoxblog]

Hello, we are moving to Bruntsfield in July and were hoping our son could start school there after the summer. He will be going in to P3. However, our catchment school (Bruntsfield PS) have said they are full and said to contact the next schools along. I have now contacted Tollcross, Gillespies, Craighlockhart, Dalry, Sciennes, Roseburn and South Morningside Primary Schools, and they all say they are full. Any advice on what to do next? He can't not go to school. So what do I do if none of the schools will take him? We don't drive, so any further out does not seem feasible (and at this point I'm beginning to think I'd get the same answer anyway). Thank!

@badguider When you say we'll get into Bruntsfield at some point, does that mean even if we had to start at a different school we could stay in the waiting list and switch when a place becomes available? Sorry for all the Qs, when we last lived in EH we didn't have school age kids so I have no idea how the system works.

Our lease starts on 1 June, though we won't actually physically be moving until early/mid July. We are in EH the first week of June to sign the lease and get the keys.

As for job and nursery, it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. We are moving because of my husband's work, so I need to still find a job. I don't know how many hours/days I'll need for nursery and from when until I find one, but I can't apply for jobs unless I have the nursery sorted. So probably best to look for a full time place.

Ah that makes it trickier - I was asking because as an interim measure a school near your workplace might have been an option depending on where you are based.

AFAIK you can stay on the waiting list even once you have a space elsewhere, it's pretty common.

Thanks again everyone. We are now officially on the waiting list at our catchment school in Bruntsfield. We are number 7 on the list for his year, but been told not to be too hopeful. Couldn't get him on to any other waiting lists, as all of the other schools we contacted said they were currently not accepting non-catchment children to their waiting lists. So not sure what happens if Bruntsfield comes back to us and says 'no' - does the Council then just tell you where you have to send your kid, or do you need to sort something out yourself?

In better news, we toured half a dozen nurseries, and four of them were able to offer us a place for our younger son, so we were able to pick our favourite. I was expecting the nursery search to be much harder than the school dilemma.

Good news! We received an email from Bruntsfield PS today formally offering us a place for our son! I was so relieved I almost cried. Thank you so much everyone for all your help!

Glad it worked out well for you! He'll be very happy there.

That's great news! What a relief for you