No school place

[Meganhunt]

Sorry if this has been posted already...

I applied for our three closest schools in order of distance with the closest school being the one we are in catchment for. We are just outside of catchment for the other two. They are all good schools and would be happy with any. We haven't been offered any school at all. We are 12th in the waiting list at our catchment school which doesn't seem promising.

We have been told to look out for a letter at the end of May with further details. The council said some parents may not take up their school place so some should become available. I can't think of any schools near us which aren't oversubscribed so can't think where a space will become available.

Can the council offer us a schools several miles away in another town? Sorry for long post. Just unsure what to make of all this! Had assumed we'd be offered something in our town even if we didn't want it! Wondering as my DD doesn't turn 5 until Jan they may delay her school start date whilst they hunt for a space for us?

Thanks.

And of course I now see the posts from those in Manchester saying the same thing. I am not in Manchester. When I spoke with the admissions non-help desk they would say nothing other than wait until the end of May for another letter. Any advice would be great...

The LEA has to find you a school place and you need to keep up the pressure. The end of may is a long time to wait for information and I would email the admissions team now to ask whet they intend to do - whether that's look for a place in any school or set up bulge classes if there are lots of children without a place. And, yes, the LEA could potentially offer you a place at any school where they can find a place (and you will be eligible for help with transport costs if the place is 2+ miles away). Most LEAs now expect all children to start in September, although parents have the option of deferring until ther term after the child tuns 5) so the LEA ought not to be planning to delay offering a place until your child turns 5 (because that is your choice not theirs), but who knows?

Your other options are to join waiting lists for other schools or to appeal. It doesn't sound as if you have any compelling grounds for appeal, but you may find that an appeal panel is sympathetic just because the LEA has failed to find a place for you.

Ah. Crossed with your second post.

In my opinion "wait for a month" is not an adequate response. They ought at least to be able to tell you what their plan is, even if they don't yet have a place to offer.

Ok, thank you for that. When I spoke with them they didn't seem to think waiting a month should be a problem for me which made me wonder if this was normal or not. My DH wants us to just go private now but looking at the costs is worrying! I'll call them again in the morning. Thanks again.

You could also ask the LEA what they are doing to get their hands on some of the additional money to create new school places (see link on the Manchester thread).

Well they have put us on the waiting lists at our chosen schools. Tho have only confirmed this with our catchment school. Need to call the others. I have been thinking for days now what sort of master plan they have in mind - really think this has come as a big surprise to them. There are a large number of private schools here but with the recession more and more are choosing state instead.

I think that has bitten quite a few LEAs - their assumptions about how many children will go to independent schools have been sunk by the economic downturn.

Why did you name only 3 schools? Are there more you could consider?

Doesn't help - but clearly the catchment of your catchment school needs looking at! If it's like our LA, you will be but on all the waiting lists of the 3 schools you applied for as will all the other children who didn't get their first choice of school - so the waiting lists are clogged up with lots of duplication at this stage in the year. There is also some merry-go-rounding between schools as children are not allocated their first choices but are give someone else's and they all shuffle round. Our LA (don't know if yours is the same, but you could get from your local Councillor I should think) publishes a school list on its website as of the first allocations day which shows how many DCs got places, what the waiting list is, what the last admission criteria was. It also shows those schools where there are places and how many. It will also show schools with odd admission numbers (not multiples of 30) where you may have more of a chance of appealing a place.

As RiversideMum says, there will be a lot of merry-go-rounding as the people who only applied for a state place as an "insurance" in case their planned financing for private school didn't go through, the people who are so dissatisfied with their choice that they decide to go private anyway, and the people who decide to HomeEd make their choices, and then the places that are freed up by those changes get freed up and filled, freeing up new places - you may find that the 11 in front of you on the waiting list cascade through this system sufficiently for you to get the place you want. Wait and see for now.

Thanks for your advice everyone. Here you can only list three schools.