How do pre-school admissions actually work?

[bedubabe]

Ok bear with me in terms of my stupidity on this one but I am clueless.

We currently live outside of the UK and it's looking like we'll be returning for a year in about a year's time. I'll be looking to get DS into pre-school September 2014 and DD in for Summer term 2015 (she will turn three January 2015). I know every case will be different, but is it the norm that you sign a child up at birth to get into a 'good' school or are places reasonably fluid/easy to get?

I've identified a nursery that is attached to the local primary school to where we'll be living. I know my first step is to call them but I'm wondering whether I'm going to be laughed at by admissions that I might even be thinking there would be still be space! It's OFSTED rated outstanding which is worrying me.

preschool works differently than proper school, Preschool - (age 2 1/2 - 4ish)works by just sticking your name down where ever you want them to go. There isnt a selection process just first come first serve so give them a call. Reception and onwards (4ish +) is what you apply for and then the local authority / school select based on certain criteria. It maybe that by going to the attached preschool you may have preference for the primary school so might be worth checking when you call, but call sooner rather than later as the good ones get full quickly.

For a September 2014 entry you will apply sometime in the 2013/14 academic year. In our area preschool admissions for September 2014 would be in January 2014 (but it is possible in other areas they may start in September 2013 so worth checking). In our area entry for Summer 2015 would be in the January 2015 term.

Where we live there is definitely no guarantee that going to a pre-school attached to a school would give you any level of entry into the school at reception level, they are based soley on the schools admission criteria.

Thanks both. Don't really care so much about the primary school as only anticipate being in the UK a year. At least clearly from this they're not going to laugh at me :) (Well DH as he's the one calling)

Dh has just called and he's registered for September 2013 :)

DS is registered not DH obviously.

They're also saying it's £20 a week to top up to full time. DH checked this twice. Is it really possible it's that cheap?

Very deprived area, high proportion of ESL children at the school (in case that's relevant in terms of extra funding!)

Oh you're registering already for September 2013? This is what I'm worried about. We're going to be in Cambridge for about a year for my husband's sabbatical and we've got boy/girl twins that will be 3. I guess we better get on figuring this out, and I assume we'll end up doing this without being able to even visit the school and just hope for the best. Is there any way we can read about the range of schools to try to narrow down what might distinguish them? Uh-oh. I wonder if we should be worrying a lot more about this.