Can a UK school deny reception admission after nursery?

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I live in the UK. Our closest school is 0.6 miles away but I am hoping my daughter will attend a different school 0.9 miles away.

It's slightly further away but is in the opposite direction which is more convenient for our family in terms of travel.

Thankfully, she is now on the waiting list for nursery at school 0.9 and we are happily anticipating her starting in October, the first half term after she turns 3. There have been no questions raised about catchment area.

My question is, will she still be eligible to attend this school beyond nursery, or will the school challenge us near the end of nursery and instruct to apply for reception at the closer school?

If a child has attended nursery in a school, are the school obligated to carry the children into reception or can they dispute places later on?

Nursery has no bearing on reception places. Reception places will be given out in the standard requirements for entry. Having a place at nursery does not guarantee you a place at the school at all. You need to look at the entry criteria and see where you will place on that with regards to your chance of a school place.

It won't matter, you have to apply to the local authority and they give out places based on admission criteria for each school. Nursery attendance isn't looked at.

Having a place at nursery has no bearing on reception places at my school. We get some each year who are surprised when they don’t get a reception place.

Look at the admissions policy.

Nursery is no guarantee of a place in reception. You will still need to apply again next year for a place in reception.

Are you in catchment for the further away school? You can still apply for a reception place there. But if there are more applications than places, then the Local authority will use their selection criteria to allocate the places. Usually those out of catchment will come out bottom on the selection criteria. You can appeal but if there are only so many places, there is not guarantee of a space.

It happened to us with our eldest child. We ended up taking up a space in our local school which was in catchment.

Nursery is usually separate to reception and you will have to apply for a reception place as everyone else would

Having a place at nursery has no bearing on them getting a reception place in a state school. So your child would need to apply along with all the other nursery children. Places will then be distributed according to the admissions policy. These do vary. Local authorities usually have online how many children were offered places in each catergory (e.g siblings) and furthest distance within each category from the school. So read and see if your child would normally get a place before sending them to nursery there or take your chances of having to move them.

What everyone else said.

Look on your local authority website and you will find the admission criteria for the 0.9m school. These criteria vary from school to school. Just occasionally some schools prioritise their nursery children but not usually.

the nursery won't 'challenge' you but everyone has to apply separately - having a nursery place has no bearing in the vast majority of cases.
I would suggest putting that school as the first choice but the 0.6 school as second choice as a back up.
Unfortunately at my kids school I know several instances of children going to the nursery and then not getting a place at reception. However most (not all) eventually got a place via the waiting list

Yes. Just here to agree with everyone else that that is how it works.

You need to look into the individual school's admission criteria.

In my daughter's school children who attend the preschool DO get priority over children who don't, however looked after (adopted / fostered) children and siblings of children who already attend the school have higher priority. It's a CofE academy, state, based in England in our case.

Opdo you understand that every child wanting to go to reception has to have their place applied for through the local council portal? You'd need to choose up to (normally) three schools and they basically look at the applicants and their criteria.

Our school is

1. Looked after kids
2. EHCP
3. Siblings
4. Distance

We got on via 2 and my younger kids will get in via 3, we may not have got in just on 4. because we're out of catchment.

Do you know how heavily subscribed your school is?

You'd put they school as no 1 and prob the local one at no 2and something else for o3.

If you only make one choice, if you don't get it the LEA will give you a place wherever there is one

will the school challenge us near the end of nursery and instruct to apply for reception at the closer school?

Nobody will challenge or instruct you to do anything. You will just have to apply via the local authority like everyone else. They won’t even know what nursery your child attended.

Is the school you want, your catchment one?

For accurate advice, people will need to know if these two schools are both state schools, and if so, are they directly maintained by the Local Authority or are they academy schools - academy schools can choose to set their own admission rules and also manage their own admissions.

If they are private schools then each school will have its own admission requirements and you will need to check with each school.

Nursery has nothing to do with it, you need to look at the criteria for the school you apply for.

Generally speaking the admissions to Reception will not take into account that a child has attended Early Years in the school.

In DS's year at our local school nursery there were a number of children who didn't get into reception as the year was well over subscribed and the ones who lived out of catchment were denied places. Only one child got in on appeal and that was due to accessibility due to the parent being a wheelchair user who would have been unable to do drop off/pick up at their alternative/catchment school

Reception is Early Years but otherwise true.

It is very unusual that attendance at a nursery secures priority for place in Reception. The admissions process is separate and the admissions criteria published by LA. Would living 0.9 away have secured a place in previous years?

It's pretty pants, unfortunately. Nurseries operate their own admissions criteria (regardless of whether it's a school nursery or private), whereas the Local Authority manages admissions for schools. Plenty of my schools I work with (I clerk school governing bodies meetings) get appeals every single year from parents whose children went to nursery and then didn't secure a school place.

You would need to apply for a reception place at any state school. There’s no automatic progression from nursery under any circumstances. That’s important to note regardless. You have to apply for a reception place to get one (every year people don’t do it for various reasons and then are upset their child has no school to go to).

It would be hideously unfair on families who need to use FT nursery childcare to give priority to children who attended the school nursery. That’s why everyone applies for a school place for reception regardless what preschool provision they’ve made use of.

What everyone else said. My neighbour sent her son to the nursery at the school my dc attend but didn'tget a place in reception. My ds (same year) got a place when he went to private nursery but we were advantaged by faith criteria. There were more nursery children than reception places, plus non nursery applicants like ourselves.

In my area lots of children don't get allocated places at the school there they went to nursery as the demand is greater. Parents often use private nursery or keep them at home until reception so it all changes.

You will just have to apply for reception with everyone else. You can put the 0.9 school first but if they fill places with siblings and those living closer you won't get in. My daughter didn't get into the school where she attended the pre-school. We got our second choice school and she did one day a week at their pre-school for the Summer term to meet the kids she'd be at school with. She also finished the year at the original pre-school.

Your child will not be eligible for 3 year funding until January 23...funding runs termly not half termly. Is the school struggling for numbers so taking them early free?

This has been the case (nursery attendance not related to schools admission) since I went to the nursery of a school we were out of catchment for in the 1970s. My mum ignored the fact that I didn't have a place at the school and sent me anyway, by the time the LA found out I was settled and they decided to leave me there - you couldn't get away with that today!