my daughter hasnt been give a school yet

[arjuna]

dear friends could you please advise me what i should do as my 4 year old daughter hasnt been offer any school yet out of 6 school choosen. all her nursery friends has been offered a school so she is really feeling neglected.

Granted they won't have exact figures because of migration in/out of areas but they will have a Dammit good idea because of birth records etc & they will have ideas of trends in migration. They could recruit teachers for September from Easter onwards & a portakabin can go up in days. They should have a very good idea of how many children there are before parents even start applying & therefore plenty of time to create spaces. Thy will also know which are the most popular schools/areas for young families & try & make places accordingly.

Birth records are a very rough and ready guide but that is all. The birth is registered where it was born, which may be miles from where the family will live - possibly not even in the same LA. And a lot can happen in the four years between birth and start of school. Then, of course, there is the fact that some of the parents will go private. The LA has no way of knowing how many children will be affected. The proportion of children going private can vary dramatically from year to year. As yellowsubmarine41 says, an LA will have predictions but they won't know how many children are coming into Reception until mid-January.

Many LAs are in the situation where they have enough places but they are in the wrong location. They have a surplus of places in areas where there used to be lots of children but a shortage in areas where there are now lots of children, leading to some children being faced with a long journey to school.

The LA cannot simply recruit a teacher and plonk a portakabin down in the school playground. They can ask a school to accept a bulge class but the decision lies with the governors who are also responsible for recruiting any staff required. And they may well face resistance to proposals to expand popular schools.

It is undoubtedly true that some LAs were too keen to close schools a few years ago and have now been caught out by rising birth rates. It is also true that some LAs are much better at managing this than others. In this particular case it has taken far too long for the LA to sort it out. But it is not as simple as you seem to think and even the best run LA can have problems.

Hmmm Liz - birth records as a predictor .... maybe in extremely settled communities but DS was born in LEA2 while living in another, moved countries, came back to birth LEA, moved to the neighbouring LEA2 he had lived in before, then moved to a remote LEA (let's call it LEA3) where he attended pre-school. DD was born in a neighbouring LEA4 to LEA3, lived and attended pre-school in LEA3... and started school 6 miles away in LEA5 after we moved there in the June before she started.

We are absolutely normal amongst our friends and acquaintances, in fact relatively stable in residence compared to many. The school expecting DS to attend because of his birth record was a good 90 miles away by the time he was 4! Any planning based on birth records would be extremely rough and ready, no way accurate to the nearest, say, 5 children as it would need to be to predict whether a certain Reception class could be 1 class of 30 or whether there would be 35 children wanting to attend...

And that's before parental preference of any kind is taken into account ...

And even well run LAs can have shock years. Barnet, Waltham Forest and I think Richmond were hundreds of places short this year. That's a huge amount of work for a LA - Waltham Forest alone have had to set up more than 15 'bulge classes'.

I understand that the LEAs have a very difficult job in allocating places. I feel there must be a better way of dealing with the issue. The LGO is currently looking into my case (no reception place offered at all), and Haringey finally acknowledged my stage 2 complaint today (13 days after I emailed it to them).

I have been considering going to the media about the problem, but I was concerned about making what is a distressing situation worse for my 4yo DS. She was with her 6yo cousin this weekend, and relayed the entire situation to her while my SIL listened in. It's just heart-breaking, although my SIL then told me about the curriculum aims for reception (learning numbers 1-9etc) which made me wonder what I am worrying about.

If there are any other Mums out there without places at all, I would be delighted to hear from you, and may be we could get a bit organised... A website, if nothing else, which I'm sure we could manage - with links to Mumsnet of course!!!

OK. I've set up a website for parents in this position - it links to Mumsnet (of course) and it would be really useful to know about anyone else in this situation (no school place at all). Let me know what you think.
noschoolplace.wordpress.com/

Hello,

We moved to London in October 2012 on an inter company transfer visa.Since then the LEA were not able to find a primary school place for my 5years and 6 mnth old daughter.She is on a waiting list number 3 in 2 of our catchment schools which happen to be quite oversubscribed.I have been contacting the LEA almost every week and the waiting list hasn?t moved a bit.
Now when I pressured the LEA for providing a school place then they said they have a place in one of the schools which is 3 miles away from our house and is on special measures.This is a new annex center whihc will be opening in Jan 2013.Now I am sure they would be offering this school to my daughter.
I would be pleased if you can advise me whether to accept this school and continue to remain on the waiting list for our preferred school or turn off this offer and continue to home educate my daughter and wait for our preferred school
Another question is,are we eligible for school transport provided we are on an intercompany transfer visa .The school is indeed more than 3 miles from our home but has a direct bus service which is every 30 mins.I looked up the bus timetable and saw the bus frequency is every 30 mins and that will either make me reach the school late by 10 mins as the approx time taken to reach school is 40 mins and if I happen to leave early that is 7.30 then I would have to wait for 30 mins outside the school.

The latest update from the LEA is that they only provide a grant as far as transportation is concerned and that too is offered in case of low income or special needs.Other than that ,LA cannot help more with the distant problem.What I am actually looking for is no grant but a way to get my daughter to school in this cold.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance ladies

Up to you whether you accept the place or not, but if you turn it down the lea is under no obligation to find you another place. You can of course remain on the waitin lists though, but you could be on them for a few years!

Th lea IS obliged to offer free transport for your child, not you, to get to the school they have offered as it is over two miles away. However all children in London are eligible for free bus travel so all London leas regard this as meeting that obligation. Travel grants for a parent are only available to low income families.

Does the school not have a breakfast club - so you could drop your child off early and go, without having to wait outside?

In case it's not clear, accepting the place at the more distant school doesn't mean you can't stay on the waiting lists for the more local schools. I would do both, commit to the further school for now and keep fingers crossed for a place closer. It could happen when you get the KS2 and there 30 limit on class sizes relaxes.

This is a annexe to the school.Basically a community centre has been converted into a school wch would be holding classes so I feel there is no provision for breakfast club.I have also decided the same as to accept the offer and keep my fingers crossed for a nearer school.
Thanks for all the advise.you have definitely been of help.