Applying for school space

[Fearnecuptea]

Hi there!

I'm hoping I might be able to pick the brains of parents who have already done this! finding the whole applying for infant school needlessly confusing, am sure its my brain on a Monday morning, but jesus christ I'm going round in circles.

Should I apply for my child's school place for next September directly with the school or should I be applying with the council (whereby I put up to 6 choices)?

Going on my local councils website, it states that I can't apply until 1st November. However, I go on a handful of schools in my area and they have direct applications forms. Which one do I go with? I don't get why there are two options, should I just bin off the council application (as I have to wait 6 weeks) and get ahead and apply directly on the school sites?

OMG its so annoying!

Presuming England...
You apply through the Council. However if its a Church school for example, you might have an extra form to fill out.

There is no benefit to applying early, none will be processed until the closing date in January.

Are you after a nursery place or a reception place?
In England, reception places are through the council. They are processing secondary places currently, hence the delay for you. There may be additional forms for individual schools. For reception, as long as the form is in by the deadline, applying early offers no benefit ontop of you cant forget to do it!
Nursery places - we applied through the schools. I dont think it's a centralised process.

Hi both,

Thanks so much for your quick and extremely helpful advice! My son will be 4, its for reception year of primary school.

I will apply via council and go from there. Thank you!