Another Admissions question! Any experts out there about admissions for 2011??

[JellyBelly10]

My DS is due to start reception in September 2011. I totally understand about the new parental choice stuff in terms of deferring if we choose to and going part-time or full-time if we choose to etc etc. But there's something I can't find any hard and fast facts about anywhere as I think the Admissions Code leaves it a bit grey. My DS's school have said that all children starting in September have the right to start part or full-time BUT that if you choose to start part-time you have to commit to that for the whole of the firts half term. So if your child starts part-time but then after a week you realise that they are perfectly capable of going full-time (or indeed are unhappy that they're missing out or are different from their friends etc), the school will not let them go fulltime until after the first half term. They have also stated that the school reserves the right to insist your child goes part-time if they (the school) do not feel your child is coping with full-time. I just wonder whether this is really something they can insist upon. If it's all about parental choice, and let's say for example you are a working parent, how can the school insist your child can only attend part-time? Or likewise, if you would like your child to attend part-time just as a brief settling in period of a week or two, but then you would like them to go full-time do they really have the right to refuse until after half term? I thought that they were getting full funding even for part-time children, so it can't be a cost thing? Any admissions experts out there who can clarify this for me?

I am not aware of anything aound this. I think this is the school or LA laying now some ground rules for admissions. I think that is probably quite reasonable to expect parents to make a decision and stick to it, after all it is only for half a term.
What is unreasonable is for the school to determine whether they are full or part time depending on how they are coping especially when they are insisting on parents sticking with any decision the parents make over full and part time.
The funding is on an April to March basis and is based on the numbers registered at the school in January. So actually the school does not have funding for the reception children from September till the following March, what does have is funding for the previous year 6 pupils that have left the school. It is simply a convenient way of working out the funding, which has to run from April to March.

Agree with Admission. The Admissions Code is much stronger on deferring entry, which is your choice, than on going part time, where you merely have the right to request. However, having one rule for the school and another for parents is unreasonable.

Thanks Admission and prh47bridge. Yes I suppose that a half term is not that long, particularly as the school have already talked about starting the children over a staggered 3 weeks, so the children who will be 5 in the Autumn term will start, then the Spring term children then finally the Summer children in week 3! So actually for them there's only a few more weeks until half term! Actually, on that subject that's going to be pretty inconvenient for working parents too! Makes the Summer holidays 9 weeks long for those of us with Summer-borns!! But yes I agree with you that it does seem unreasonabe that the school are saying they will be able to insist on your child going part-time if they don't feel they are ready for school. As I see it the rules around admissions have changed and it is not about whether younger children are ready for school but about whether schools are ready for younger children who may need a different approach to the children the school are used to (because we live in one of the few LAs where they have had 3 intakes so the school have never had to deal with children much younger than 5 before). Thanks for the info.

I agree with Admission and Prh47bridge. The school's insistence on deciding whether a child is coping with full-time school may be inconvenient and unpopular with some parents, but no doubt they will justify this by saying that the child's welfare is paramount.