primary school help

[cazcharlie]

ok here goes, ds1 goes to a primary school 10 mins walk awayand will be moving into year 2 in sept. dd 1 is in the nursery that is within the school but is private. we were only given dds school forms a few weeks ago and as a result had late submission, so she didn't get into the school her older brother is in and they want me to take her a 15 min drive away in a really bad school, now i dont have a car and its impossible for me to be in 2 places at once it just cant be done! can anyone offer any advice on the appeals procedure etc? i dont know what to do :(

What a shame you didn't apply in time as I am sure she would have got in as sibling and in catchment by the sound of it. (10 mins is catchment for our school anyway!).

You should make sure you are on the waiting list as with a sibling I am sure you would be at the top. There is always movement between now and Sept.

Wrt appeal - the quality of the other school you are offered is irrelevant to the appeal. You need to show her education would be better served by being at the same school as her brother.

Why didn't you apply in time? Is there any mileage in the reason?

i didnt reply in time as i didnt get given the forms until march i got them and took them in by hand the following morning. as far as the other school goes its impossible i just cant be in 2 places at once, the schools on public transport are about 45 mins to an hour apart.

I'm afraid you don't have a strong case for appeal. You can try but the fact that you weren't given the forms until March probably isn't a good basis. At the end of the day it is up to parents to know about the admissions process and make sure they apply on time. The LA (local authority) should make reasonable efforts to ensure parents know what they have to do but they don't know where all the children live so can't be expected to contact them all individually. I suspect they have contacted the nursery but for some reason the nursery has failed to pass details on to you.

The fact that your daughter has been allocated a bad school and the transport difficulties don't make for a successful appeal case either, I'm afraid.

If this is an infant class size appeal you should only succeed if you can show that a mistake has been made. There is nothing in what you have posted to indicate that there has been a mistake.

If it is not an infant class size appeal you stand a better chance. You would need to show that the damage to your daughter's education through not attending this school outweighs the problems the school would face through admitting another child. Being negative about the allocated school won't help you, though. You should look for features of the preferred school which will particularly help your daughter and emphasise those.

You may strike it lucky and get a panel who will admit your daughter, but I suspect your best chance of getting a place is through the waiting list. With a sibling already at the school your daughter should at or near the top of the list.

prh47bridge- can I ask you a few questions? They are somewhat related to OP's post but also relevant to many others, I'm sure. Is it true that if you start a school (let's say this school very far away from OP's home) and then a place comes up on the waiting list for your preferred school (let's say OP's DD's school) and you are at the top of the list but someone who has just moved in is second, that they will allocate it to the second placed child and not you? (on the basis that child number 2 has no school at all but you already have one). If you declined the school and home educated your child while he was in number one on the waiting list, and a school place came up, will they say "well, he has a school - he is home schooled" and give it once again to child in number two spot?
Am sure I'm not the only one to think of this, as pernickety as it sounds!

Cazcharlie - I hope you've made sure they put your DS on the waiting list for DD's school already?

P.S. Anyone else who knows the official answer (or has firsthand experience of it) of my questions in my 18:09 post, your input is very welcome!

southofthethames - from what I have experienced if you are no 1 on the list then you are the first person to be offered any available place at the school - if you turn it down then they offer it to number 2. We moved to the area after school places were allocated and did not get a space at the local school so dd1 started at another school in the borough but we stayed on the waiting list as no 1. We were offered a place after the first half term as somebody left and dd completed her term at the first school and moved to our local school after the christmas break.

Thanks for that Sam100 - anyone else?? I really don't feel comfortable "accepting" a place we don't want to take up.....DC has a late summer birthday so could wait a little........but I don't want the LA to think we are playing "hardball" by rejecting it. Has anyone tried accepting it then rejecting it just before school starts?

southofthethames - Places must be allocated off the waiting list strictly according to the admission criteria. If you are first on the waiting list and a place becomes available they must offer it to you. The fact that you may have sent your child to another school or be home educating is irrelevant. It will only be offered to the next child on the waiting list if you turn down the place.

It is up to you what you do but I would recommend accepting the offered place. If you plan to appeal it won't help you and may damage your case if you reject the offered place as it may seem to the panel that you are trying to blackmail them into giving you a place at your preferred school. Even if you don't plan to appeal you need a backup plan in case nothing else comes up. You can reject the place later if a place comes up elsewhere or you decide to home educate.

Thank you, prh47bridge!

"I really don't feel comfortable "accepting" a place we don't want to take up.....DC has a late summer birthday so could wait a little...."

From your own personal point of view it probably makes sense to accept the place if there is any chance at all that you might want it. You could defer his start until later in the school year, keeping the place waiting for him while avoiding the need to send him there for a short time in September when he might soon end up elsewhere.

However, if you are quite sure you would prefer to keep your child out of school rather than send him there, it seems to me that it would be more considerate to decline the place. If the school you've been allocated is now full or later fills up, some other family may be waiting for your son's place. If you are holding onto it when you definitely don't want it, that keeps them in the same stressful situation you are now in.

I'm selfish enough that I would hold onto the place if I thought there was any possibility I might want it. But if there wasn't any possibility I'd want it later, then I agree with you, it just doesn't seem right to accept it if this could create problems for other people.

Saracen - yes, that's what we thought. Will visit the school to help us decide. Thanks for your input. I bet many parents wish they had a crystal ball about waiting lists and catchment areas!