council said i should consider home schooling as there are no school places

[jintygeorge]

I am really worried about whether we will get a reception place for this september for my daughter and i have been told by my local council that i should consider home schooling. We are on waiting lists and our postion on the lists ranges from 36 to 64. I know things can change but I am feeling despondent about whether we will get a place anywhere. I'm really struggling to keep perspective on the whole thing. All wise words and experience MUCH appreciated.

My understanding is that they have to offer you a place somewhere - even if it's a school some distance away and that you're not keen on. Maybe they're chancing their luck and hoping that you agree to Home Ed so that's one less child they have to place.
Sorry, not much help.

God that sounds like a crappy cop out on their part. Like clam I thought that they had to offer you somewhere.

WTF? Where is this??

i should add that we have just moved back into london after being abroad with my husband's job, so we missed the deadline for applications and we are a late application. Someone told me that moving into the area should mean your application is considered differently and can push you up the waiting lists. The council forgot to put our application for a school in a neighbouring borough through to their admissions team - as it happens that is our nearest school and I feel as though we have lost a month in the delay.

We are in Haringey but close to Islington.

That is unacceptable. They have a duty to find a school place for your child. If they fail to do so you should refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman. I would also recommend that you start appealing for schools to which you have applied. Even if the appeal fails, the fact you have appealed may prompt them to come up with a place.

How can they have waiting lists of 30-70 kids for schools? Surely this means those schools should have new classrooms built and teachers employed?

have you appealed failure to be offered a place at the nearest school? I would do so, on the basis that their delay and incompetence (have they admitted to you that they forgot to to forward your application?) has prejudiced your chances of getting in there, even if you cannot know exactly what difference it has made. Worth a try.

thanks for the advice prh47bridge - that's useful to know and something I can get on and do.

Definitely worth a try. I have spoken to the head teacher at that school about it. I will get straight on and appeal - it might just make a difference.

I answered you on the other thread. I agree with prh47bridge too about going to the LGO.

Excellent - will explore LGO as well. I can only imagine that either we are a whole school short in the borough, or some families are holding places while they make their minds up or wait to hear if they get a place in the school they really want. Nightmare anyway.

What is the sequence of events around submitting your application and the failure to pass on your application to the neighbouring borough? If you can demonstrate that without that delay you would have been at the top of the waiting list (because you live so near) and that other children were offered places from the waiting list that should have gone to your child, that will give you pretty solid grounds for appeal.

we put in our application on may 13, I had heard nothing from the council so called them June 16 and got the list positions for haringey. they said to call islington which i did and islington told me they'd not been sent our application for the school in their borough by haringey which is what should have happened. Islington suggested i chivvy haringey which i did and two phonecalls later the application was sent through that afternoon - more than a month after we submitted it. that was when i was told i should consider home schooling. i am a real novice at this stuff as this is my first child.

Where are you now on the waiting list for the Islington school? Is that in the range 36 - 64 you mention above? If it is, the delay has possibly not made any material difference. However, if you are near the top of the list then you need to check how many places were filled from the list between the date you should have joined it (May 13 or very soon afterwards) and the date you did (presumably, 16 June). If it looks as if you would have got a place if you'd been on the list, that's very strong grounds for appeal - and in fact the LEA ought to admit you without making you go to appeal.

It is an absolute disgrace what LA's get away with!!! It's also so frustrating because they just do not give a damn.

I have no wise words for you but I really hope you get things sorted.

I know the area that you're in, jinty. Indeed there are waiting lists of well over 70+ for schools. A friend of mine moved into a different part of Haringey about the same time as you, submitted a late application and has found a couple of schools with places. She mentioned this to me today. Have the LEA given you any information about availability of places within the borough?

The Council has not been helpful at all, but hopefully this week I'll be able to push them for info. PanelMember, we are not even yet on the waiting list for the Islington school, as Haringey only sent our application through late last week. I hope this week I'll get a clearer picture of whether the delay made a difference to us. Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

Didn't some one say there were no cuts to front line services? Mind you, if there were no front line services in the first place...

jinty, as others have said this is an appalling situation. I hope that it's some comfort to you to know that I had a six month struggle to get my DD into school mid-year (long story, for different reasons to you but the law is the same). It was only after coming on here in despair and getting advice from pr47bridge, and Admissions that I learned to take my case to the LGO and got the problem resolved. (pr, my DD is now a Red Balloon student, I've name changed since but think you might recall me).

The LGO were superb and not anything like as hard to communicate with or as unapproachable as I'd feared. They took copies of all written evidence together with my complaint and spoke to me on the phone without bias but with tremendous courtesy and having given me a date upon which they'd provide me with a decision responded in my favour within half the time.

Very soon afterwards I had an apology from my LA, financial compensation (although I didn't ask for it and it was entirely unexpected) and most importantly a school place for my DD. What's more my concerns and wishes for a particular school were taken on board.

I'd really recommend that you contact the LGO without delay as I'm almost sure you'll be surprised at the ease with which they'll resolve your problem.

Yes I do remember and I am pleased it worked out for you and your daughter. I hope she is flourishing in her new environment.

Dear Dogsbestfriend - thank you for your post and I am really glad to hear things worked out for you, but so sorry to read that you had six months of heartache and battle to get there. We are exploring all lines of attack at the moment including appeal and the LGO. I've been told that we would currently be 12 or lower on the list, if we were on the list at all, and a month and a half down the line from when we submitted our application I now feel confident that we've got a strong case. I am so grateful for all the advice that people give so generously here on Mumsnet, especially prh47bridge, it has turned my panic and anxiety into positive action!! JG

They have a legal duty to provide you with a school place.

I too have been a bit surprised to read this thread. There is a legal duty on each Borough to provide you with a school place. Usually the problem for parents in this part of London is that the place they are offered, which fulfills the legal duty is a very long way away and normally in a school which is undersubscribed (which can mean not seen as desirable) So the legal duty is satisfied but the parent is not.

So you used to hear of people living near Hornsey Library finding they were in a "black hole" as all the schools in the area oversubscribed so if you lived too far from your nearest school to get in, then you were even further from the next nearest and so forth. They would then be offered a place in a school two bus rides away in East Tottenham with a poor ofsted....

However extra classes have been added to a number of schools in the area so there was a period in which things eased up, and the tales of woe less heard.

What really surprises me about this story is the willingness of Haringey admissions to suggest home schooling. While their directness is commendable, it would suggest that admissions, this year at least face a significant crisis in Haringey of no more room. Yet I have seen very little local media coverage of this. Odd.

All the odder that they are making a bags of transferring the application for Ashmount School, just across the border in Islington as that has some hope of getting the problem off their plate as Ashmount in Islington so much closer than the nearest school in Haringey.