Primary school worries

[cefer]

Hope someone can help me! First of all I don't often post so apologies if this is post is in the wrong place.

My dd is 8 and has been at the same school since she was in nursery. We got 1st choice for that school because we lived just around the corner from it. So far no problems - but we have now moved house and the school is a ten minute drive away (if encountering no problems with traffic, which thankfully is rare) We wanted to move our dd to a school closer to us (there are none within walking distance, but will be a quicker journey)

When we moved we inquired about transferring dd to a local school (there are two we like, one we don't like much but it is ok) but none had places. So we were advised to get our ds (aged 4) into reception in September therefore moving dd up the waiting list and more likely to get a place....at the moment he is at nursery at his sister's school.

So we put down our top choice schools that are local to us and got none of them. We didn't even get a place at our dd's school...instead they have put us in a school we had never heard of and it is further away than the three schools we liked....though technically it is slightly closer to us (1.5 miles) than our dd's school, the location of it makes it a far more complex journey and very likely to get stuck in early morning traffic. And to make it worse the school has below average ofsted reports - hardly encouraging stuff!

I know we have probably messed up trying to get a more local school as we were so desperate to get both our children into a school nearer to us...I won't have them at separate schools - I think that is awful and at the moment the only option I can see is to put ds on the waiting list for dd's school and home-school him until he gets a place. I am so upset to have got the whole admission thing wrong. I really don't know what to do for the best? Please has anyone got some words of advice?

not got too much advice but you have my sympathies :(

Do you know why you didn't get any local school? Where you too far away, where they church schools and you didn't meet criteria?

You have 2 choices i suppose

1. get him on the waiting list for dd school- do they have sibling priority? If so you should go top of the list as its likely all other siblings will have place. If it is based on distance or catchment, you need to check were you are on that list now you have moved.

2. Keep ds on waiting lists for schools you like and which you stand a good chance of getting in. If you can secure a school for DS you may have a good chance of winning an appeal - as you DD will be going into Y3 or above, winning an appeal is easier. You do need to check also whether sibling priority works for an older sibling.

In terms of peace of mind, you may be best getting DS in DD school as thats likely to be a quicker process. Even if you get DS in a local school you still have the worry of not getting DD in.

With regard 2 schools, i have 2 dds age 4 and 6 and its very likely DD2 wont get into DD1 school next week .

2 schools are do-able, to be honest, particularly with your age gap, the children will seldom see each other during the school day anyway so its more practical issues (which i know are HUGE!!). In my case, I cant consider moving dd1 to put her in a 'lesser' school - my intention (and one maybe you could consider?) is to accept a school for DD2 and just continue to appeal. You will have a good chance of getting DS into DD school in Y3 if not before then as infant class size limits wont apply then.

Oh, no, what a difficult situation.

It doesn't sound as if you did anything 'wrong' - just that the schools are oversubscribed and you don't live quite close enough to the more popular ones.

OK. There are 4 months before the Sept term starts - lots of movement in places is possible.

I would:
Keep your dd on the waiting list for new school
Put your DS on the waiting list for DD's current school AND the new local schools.
Accept which ever comes up first...but still stay on the waiting list for the others.
Appeal the new local school on any grounds you might be able to, also appeal your dd's current school on 'sibling' grounds.

It seems to me that first priority is to have them in the same school.