Will accepting a nursery place help with reception admissions at the same school?

[Cluelessmamaa]

We’ve been offered a nursery place at a brilliant school but would this have any impact on getting into reception, well the actual school?
It does state on the admissions page that it doesn’t guarantee you a place, however I wanted to ask other parents from experience, does it help? Or does it literally make no difference?

For context we live 4 miles away! I’m seriously shocked we were offered a nursery place.
LO attends a lovely private nursery. We’ve been there for almost a year and I’m really torn. Dd is 3 and will be 4 in October.
I applied for a nursery vacancy hoping it might help for a school place and my family live in that area. I applied for housing years ago and thought something might come up by now and we’d basically live and go to school there. I know that was wishful thinking!
I don’t know if I should accept the offer and cross fingers that we’ll get into the school too or just stay where we are and apply for it when it’s time. It’s a 15 minute drive but we live in another borough so I don’t even know how that would work when applying for schools. I’d want to apply for this school but also there’s 2 where I live that I would put on my list. I don’t even know if it’s possible to apply for a school in a different borough as well as your own. I hope I’ve given enough info.

So yes please tell me what you think I should do parents!

In my area, the nursery class/preschool place has absolutely no influence on your application for a reception place.

Read the admissions policy. In some schools it is just above "anyone not in catchment".

If it says makes no difference on admissions policy then it makes no difference

I've never known any school that offered priority to children in the school nursery. You can check the admission criteria for the school easily online but I'd be very surprised if it was a criteria.

Look at the admissions criteria for the school..I've never seen a school where nursery is on the list of admissions, usually it's looked after kids, ehcp, siblings, catchment, out of catchment siblings then out for catchment/distance

In my area, spending more than 15hrs a week at the preschool gives you additional points for reception entry (behind catchment and siblings). Look at the admission criteria for the school.

You have answered your own question.

It does state on the admissions page that it doesn’t guarantee you a place,

That doesn’t mean your child won’t get a place when the admission criteria is applied fully just that attending the nursery makes no difference.

Read the admissions policy for the school and see weigh up your chances applied to your child.
Remember infant class size is quite set (30 per class).
Check LA admissions stats.

There is a do between “doesn’t guarantee a place” and “has no affect on a place”. You need to read the admissions criteria for the school. Is this school usually oversubscribed? If there is little chance of getting in and little chance of moving house I wouldn’t move nursery.

Makes no difference where I live, it wouldn't even be looked at.

I'd check the admissions policy for the school and find out, based on previous cohorts how oversubscribed the school really is. If you think there's a chance you could get in, I would move her.

If you live 4 miles from the school and in another borough I'm assuming you are London or another big city. You are not likely to get a place on distance in a big city at that distance. There may be a small difference if your child has gone to the nursery but I've never heard of it making a difference.
Ask at the school if the admissions criteria aren't clear.

Zero chance where I live. We got a place in the nursery based on proximity and faith. Then we got our reception place based on preference of faith and then proximity

You can list schools in another district on your application to your own council. Its very common.

Not where we live, it wont. Nursery applications are handled by the school and usually operate on a first come first serve basis. Reception applications are handled by the local authority and the local authority's admission rules apply (LAC/SEN/Sibling/Distance etc..)

As everyone has said, you need to look at the admissions policy for the school. It's unusual to get priority by attending the nursery, but you do in some cases. If you search online for 'primary admissions X borough', you should be able to find information about how the school allocated spaces this year. If they admit mainly on distance, it will tell you how far out they went. It changes each year, but can give a rough guide. You can apply for schools in other boroughs.

The nursery at my kids' school isn't full for Sept, as the hours are less flexible than private nurseries, so spaces are available regardless of where you live. They are however full for Reception. I would move your DC if you like the nursery better, but probably not worth it if you are mainly doing it is the hope of a Reception place (depending on admissions policy of course).

Currently uproar at my DCs primary. Only pre-school children with siblings (one of the admission criteria) got a place. The rest haven't got a reception place because the school is seriously oversubscribed.

You have to feel sorry for the poor children being subject to this uproar due to their parents being incapable of reading readily available admission criteria.

Check the admissions criteria for the school. For my children’s school the nursery is bottom of the list.

This for where I live too.

You do. It's the first year the school have operated a pre-school and it seems that no one bothered to read the admissions criteria. They all just assumed they'd get a spot. I get all the school gossip at extra-curricular activities and some of the recent ones have been intense!

Thanks everyone, so it says this on the admissions page for the nursery, if you get accepted.

“We plan to send further communications and a provisional transition timetable for your child if moving to Nursery/Reception which we will share with you during Summer term.”

does that mean depending if you are starting nursery or reception going into school, Or does it mean you automatically start reception after nursery?

It has a criteria list for the nursery but not for the school, it only says it’s a ‘community school and admission arrangements are determined in agreement with the local authority.’

Sorry, I really am that dense :/

Should I keep dd where she is, or take a risk and accept the offer?

You need to look at the admissions criteria for Reception on the council website.

Former admissions.manager and we get this issue every year where people who needed term time only places for a nursery assumed a) they didn't need to apply for the reception place (yes you do) or b) a nursery place guarantees a reception place.
It wouldn't be a fair admissions criteria to give higher admission criteria to children attending the school nursery as it would disadvantage children and parents who attend private nurseries or childminders or don't use a preschool/nursery at all.. that could be for any number of reasons: shift work/long days/needing a year round place/a nursery on their way to work with a 7.30 start or 6pm finish

The transition arrangements will be for children at the school nursery who have been allocated a reception place.

The best way to check is to look on the school website at their admissions policy and then finding their oversubscribed criteria. For a community school with no catchment it's usually something like
Children with an Ehcp naming the school
Looked after or previously looked after children
Siblings
all other children with places allocated to those living closest in a straight line first

Academies or free schools often have child of staff member after siblings and before other children.

If it's not a distinct category on the oversubscription criteria then it has no impact at all.

I’ve just checked the admissions criteria on the council website and it says to refer to the school’s website which I have done. On the school’s page it only lists the nursery’s criteria as under care, sen, sibling, staff, distance, waiting list.
And then as I mentioned schools are determined in agreement with LA.
Feel a bit panicky as I have to decide by tomorrow!

I find it slightly confusing because the name of the school is ‘name and nursery’ eg st James’s school and nursery and in their admissions and how they refer to themselves all over the school website they use St James’s school and nursery.

OP - you need to look at the Admissions Policy and criteria for the Primary School, not the Nursery.

By law any school can only accept children according to their published admissions policy and criteria,

And the applications for primary go through your LA.

It depends entirely on the school’s admission criteria. You should be able to find that online, either on the school’s website or the councils website.

My DC’s primary school has a nursery, but nursery attendance isn’t on the school admission criteria so nursery attendance makes no difference to a child’s chances of getting into Reception. Other schools admission criteria may vary, but the only way you can know for sure is to check your schools admission criteria.

As far as the transition arrangements you quote go - that’s going to be for children offered a place after the standard application process, it’s not going to be an automatic move into Reception from nursery.

The nursery at my DC’s primary school typically has lots of children who move into Reception at the primary school, but that’s because most of the children in the nursery have older siblings already in the school and / or live near enough to the school to be in the usual catchment area.