Hi i'm a newbie with an education question.

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Hi, just to introduce myself, i'm now a single mum of four, ages 19, 16, 7 and 4.

I hope i've posted in the right area, sorry if not.

My problem is, my son goes to a great school four miles away, he's in yr2 and has been there since reception. We lived out of the catchment area when he got a place as we still do.

However dd has not got a place in September as the class is over subscribed. I was gutted and inquired about appealing , but was told that as she was 16th on list and and there was five catergories above my reason of being out of catchment and having sibling in the school it wasn't worth trying.

So fast forward to this week, i reluctlently accepted a place at local school after all the other preferred schools were full.

Omg, went to induction day, i hate the school. I had to fight back tears while i was there, left early and cried when i got home. I really cannot face sending her there!! Now i just don't know what i should/could do. I rang administrations, she is now 3rd on waiting list. The only two schools in the area which have places don't look very good either.

Also i cannot be in two places at once, both start and finish same time and are miles apart! Any advice would be most welcome as i really don't know what to do x

Can you keep DD in nursery for now? She will get 15 hours funded until term she turns 5.

This will give you some space to find a school you are happy with or hopefully you come to top of wait list.

Thank you for your reply dixiechick. I have thought about doing that, however she is excited about starting 'big school', also the nursery are doing a leaving party next week so i need to decide quickly, plus she has out grown the nursery so don't feel it's fair keeping her on there really.

I have read that you do not have to send your child to school until the term after there 5th birthday, she's five in december.

However i do want her to go to school but not a crap one! If i turned round and said she's not going to the local school because of xyz, would she still be on the waiting list for her brothers school? Also the other option is home education, but i'd rather not tbh but if it's best option i would.

The first thing to say is that the LA were quite wrong to discourage you from appealing. The fact that your daughter is 16th on the waiting list and in a low admission category is entirely irrelevant.

You are still entitled to appeal. I know you have missed the deadline for appeals but that doesn't matter. The deadline is purely for their convenience. They cannot refuse to hear your appeal just because you are late.

Having said that, whether or not it is worth appealing depends on the situation. If the school runs classes with 30 children in Reception, Y1 or Y2 any appeal would be infant class size, which means you would need to show that a mistake had been made, e.g. by placing your daughter into the wrong admissions category. You can still appeal even if you don't think there has been a mistake but your chances of winning are low.

If it is not infant class size you stand a better chance of success, but you would need to improve your case. At the moment your case is that you hate the allocated school and you can't be in two places at once. Neither of those arguments will win an appeal. You would need to show that your daughter will be disadvantaged if she isn't admitted to this school.

Your daughter does not have to start school until January. You can keep her on the waiting list for your preferred school regardless of whether or not she starts at the local school.

How about speaking to nursery if they can keep her till January - when it is possible a place might come up between start of term and Christmas? Just to add that as it gets nearer end of the school year and parents and pupils go away on summer holiday, it less likely that changes happen (although they still could in a waiting list with three people). Looks like you have only two options here: keep her in nursery or send her to a school which you find undesirable and inconvenient (being split up from her brother). One term shouldn't really make a huge deal of difference in the grand scheme of things, even if you feel your DD is getting a bit "old" for nursery. Whichever environment you think she'll be happier in. You could tell her that you're waiting to start her in big school in the middle of the year, or that friends from the nursery who are going to different schools are starting earlier because their schools do things differently (provided none of them are in your chosen school!!).

I do know of a couple of people whose children stayed on in a nursery setting for the whole of their reception year for a variety of reasons (the nursery was able to provide reception-age early years teaching, although of course the class size was smaller and more informal), even shortly after their fifth birthday, and they didn't feel odd or "old" in any way at all.

have a friend at dd's school who waas third on the waiting list and got a place on the last day of term. presumably the other parents(1st and 2nd) declined to taake up the place.

Thank you all for your replies, much apprieciated. I think i will talk to the nursery on monday to see what they say and go from there. How great for your dd's friend blackeyedsusan, so wish that would happen for my dd!!

How do i thank people on here, do you have a thanks system?