In Year admissions in Hitchin primary schools

[HONEYBUG]

Hello,
I need some advice...
We just moved to Hitchin. Our daughter is 7 yo, this week, we lived overseas and just came back, rented our house etc...and now is the easter break until next week. I contacted the Council, they told me to fill the application form and send back to them with our tenancy agreement ( which we will get the agreement on Thursday - yet ) then the council will send us their decision. It might take up to 10 days they said. My problem is, our daughter is not attending to any school since December 2011, she was with me all that time spent in Turkey while I was waiting for my settlement visa to come out. I tried to home school her during this time but it was hard. Now we are here and it is holiday I still cannot do anything. I want to know, if you write 3 schools on your preference list and none of them available to receive her, would they give you any school they choose??? And also, will our daughter be considered as being special educational needs because she is behind her education now. Schools I will write on my list are St Andrews, Samuel Lucas and William Ransom - we are on the geographical list of St Andrews catchment area, Samuel Lucas is only 10 min walking distance from our house, William Ransom is a bit further, do you think she can get into one of those now. Our daughter is a very bright girl but just been behind her lessons which worries me a lot. I just want to see her settled in a good school, having new friends....Any ideas appreciated...thanks

If you don't get one of your preferred schools you will be offered a place at the nearest school with places available. That could be some distance from your home.

The fact that your daughter is behind at the moment will not make her SEN. However, if she is a long way behind she should receive some additional help so that she can catch up.

I don't know the schools you name but whether or not your daughter can get in depends on whether or not they have a place available. If they have a vacancy you will be offered a place unless someone else applies who is higher priority according the the school's admission criteria. If there are no vacancies they will not offer you a place. If you don't get a place at one of these schools you are entitled to appeal.

Thank you very much for your message, very helpful indeed.

Knowing those schools personally, I don't think you've got a cat in hell's chance of getting into any of them I'm afraid. As far as I know all of them are full in Y2 and still have waiting lists. You're likely to be offered Highbury, Strathmore or Oughtonhead, if so, accept whatever you're offered but stay on the waiting lists for any or all of your three preferences, as you will have to move in Y3 anyway because Highbury and Strathmore are infant only. Highbury and Strathmore are perfectly fine schools, Oughtonhead less so but only because of it's geographic area - it has had a shedload of money pumped in over the past couple of years and has some truly great facilities, and I've heard the pastoral care is good too. But for local people none of that overides the demographic of its catchment area. But given that your dd is only likely to be at the school for this current summer term I wouldn't worry to much just yet.

Thanks very much, I agree that I would not have any chance of my top choices but again I thought council had to offer one of the three choices...what about Wilshere Dacre because it is only 5 minutes not even that walking distance to us, should I put that in my list?? oughtonhead will be too far away for me, but Wilshere Dacre would be good but then ofsted report says it is satisfactory...so complicated !!! well, this season has to be strathmore anyway but as you said I will keep my fingers crossed for next year, I am mostly hoping for St Andrews or Samuel Lucas. Many thanks...

And I would really like to know comments on Wilshere Dacre primary, ofsted is satisfactory but would like to hear from people who have experiences.

Wilshere Dacre is Junior not infants, it's where you'd go after Strathmore on that side of town. You do not have to be offered any of your choices if they are full, they are an expression of preference only, but the authority must provide you with a school place and if all schools in the area are full you could be sent further afield - there are Hitchin children who have to go to Letchworth because there were no places here for them.

For next year if you're in catchment you stand a good chance at St Andrews, but it's effective catchment shrinks every year as it is sooo popular. You would also be much higher up the list if you are a faith family because it is a faith school. For Samuel Lucas I can tell you that unless you live within 300-320 metres you are unlikely to get in in KS1 but depending on precise distance you may well get in for next year (KS2). From what you've said I'd put Samuel Lucas, Strathmore, and then Highbury as your choices for this year, and then apply to Samuel Lucas for next year's KS2 transfers if you don't get it this year.

I went to Strathmore and Wilshere Dacre, but my knowledge is a bit out of date- although they were both excellent when I went there. I am now a teacher, so they must have done something right

My mum taught for years at Strathmore; I have to say, the last time I visited (about two years ago), I really liked it and would send my DD there if I lived in Hitchin. It has a really good atmosphere.

I once did a wee in the swimming pool at St.Andrew's if that helps to put you off

On the downside to Strathmore it does seem to have developed a bit of a bullying problem in recent years and the head appears to be unable or unwilling to deal with it. I personally know of two families who removed their children in Reception directly because of serious bullying inside school that was not dealt with.

we are about 900 m from S. Lucas and 500 m from W.Dacre, I regret that we did not rent the house on Bedford street now, just behind S.Lucas it was:((
From what I gather, we have slight chance in St Andrews as we are not that religious, well firstly I am not Christian, my husband is Catholic, we did not think of what our dd is yet, so from this point I do not think we have any chance there. So as you said, I should put Strathmore, S. Lucas and W.Dacre I guess, Highbury is far away to us. I met couple of people in Hitchin who went to Wilshere Dacre primary and all said at their time it was a great school then but could not find anyone with updated information.

The downside to Samuel Lucas is that they don't necessarily always communicate brilliantly with parents - there seems to be an asssumption that everyone already has a child at the school, so sometimes as a new parent you have to knock on a lot of doors to get information about certain procedures or ways of doing things! But overall it's a brilliant school that aims very high for its children.

But Wilshere Dacre is a junior school, it doesn't currently have an infant school, so you'd be wasting a choice for this year. Put it down for next year by all means. At 900 metres I don't think you've got any chance of Samuel Lucas even for next year tbh, the last admission in the year my son went to reception was 298m!

I have very limited choices really...I can only put Strathmore then and Our Lady Primary maybe do not know what to do now.
Maybe for next year we will consider renting elsewhere closer to those schools, OMG! this is getting harder, I am worried enough that if our dd will make new friends, adopt into school mood again, will she catch up etc and yet will worry about where she will go next year. I thought we found the perfect place to rent, just overlooking nice gardens, park near it, close to town, train station and schools but did not realize the catchment distance are too tight like 300 meters:((

Why not give Strathmore a ring after Easter and ask if you can visit?

As you probably know Our Lady is a fairly fundamental Catholic school so again unless your husband is also a regular worshipper and gets into a local Catholic church congregation asap, there will be no chance there as it's always full.

The problem for next year is that for children at infant only schools, the applications have already been made - so you may need to be making two parallel applications, one for this year for infants and one for next year for juniors, depending on where you want her to go. I don't know exactly how that would work so I think you need some concrete information from the authority on the process for both in year admissions and junior transfers. So renting somewhere else for next year may be a non event anyway, you'd need to be in it already. You're right that there is little effective choice, it all depends on exactly where your house is I'm afraid.

This process is completely different to me, i feel like I am in another planet. This was the question I was thinking of asking sparkle, when do I make the next year's application. I read through all admission policies on hertsdirect website, it is a bit complicated I could not work it out. I think maybe after Easter I visit the School admission council in person and get the help there. And as you said it seems I will have to apply for both infant and junior. In this case I will be in the catchment area for Wilshere Dacre and St Andrews only-for junior school. Regarding religious schools, I have a friend living in Yorkshire, she is Turkish like myself and her daughter goes to a Catholic school-primary, she is not Christian or none of them are Catholic...

By the way, we have been to couple of playgrounds with my daughter last week, could not see any children her age, all children in the parks were between 2 to 4 maybe 5 year old. Where do the older children go to play, any ideas???

It's easter holidays so lots of people will be on holidays, also there are lots of holiday clubs around that people use for slightly older children, especially if the parents work. Hitchin is full of children of all ages so I'm sure they're around somewhere lol! I'll be down in Bancroft park this for a couple of hours this afternoon from about 1pm onwards with my two boys, so if you get this before then, come along!

On admissions, I've just had a look on line and junior school admissions process has indeed already closed for Sept 2012 see here So you'll need to call the customer number they suggest to explain your specific circumstances and request the right forms - 0300 123 4043. The In year admissions for this term in infants seems a bit more complicated as you now have to apply via the council and not directly to schools, but the form to print, fill in and post is here. But I would say to phone the customer number and speak to them.

hi, thank you for your help and offer for the park. We are in London at the moment and moving in our house this Thursday, we can always arrange sometime later, thanks very much. I called the admissions council help line, told my situation and she said I do not need to worry about next year's admissions but to get her into a school now. I said I checked on their site and I know the available schools but I want to put my application also for Year 3 as well, she said I cannot do that, dont know why. Anyway, I will post the forms on Thursday when I have our tenancy agreement and in 10 working days it should be finalized, hopefully. In the meantime, I would be happy to meet other mums with similar age as my dd..

We are looking at moving to Hitchin and would therefore like to ask about primary schools in the area. My son would be going into year 4 and my daughter would be going into reception. We are looking at a house on London Road. Ideally we would like them to go to the same school. Any advise, inside info on local schools or tips for getting in-year places would be greatly appreciated.