No school places for DDs?

[Katerina384]

Hi, my first post, hoping someone can give me some advice.

We moved to the UK in June, since then I have been trying to find school places for my DDs. DD1 is 7, going into year 3 in September and DD2 is 6, going into year 2 in September. I also have a 4 year old DS I can't find a nursery place for. We are in an oversubscribed area, I've added DCs' name to waiting lists everywhere feesible, given I don't drive and am 6 months pregnant. So far we haven't even been offered anything at the really awful schools in the area.

What happens come September if DDs still don't have school places? Is there anything else I can be doing in the meantime? Feel so helpless :(

Your 4y old should be starting reception, right? So you're in a good position if the area does sibling preference: possibly 3 schools for a bit, but that means 3 options for trying to get them all in the same school eventually. You can just take one big one in late (alternate?). They can't legally insist on the little one attending every day till he's five. And an educational welfare officer can't get a magistrate to order you to slice yourself into 3 pieces!

Where I am there the LEA does have a rule which states what they consider a reasonable distance for a child to travel to school. Not sure if thats national or not. But its less than 2 hours for 110plus never mind primary!

The LEA told me that I couldn't be in two places at the same time for my ds's so travelling to different schools was not possible. That was why ds2 was at home for so long. They said we would have to stay on list until a place became available at ds1's school or one within close proximity to walk to. I was calling them on a daily basis and they were sick of hearing my voice but still took from feb to sept to find a place. I don't think they have to give you a place in a school, but they do have to actively seek out schools with places. You can be on a list without a school for months.

mariam DS is 3 not 4- that's my fault, he's 4 in September and I'm getting carried away! I do want to get him into nursery but given the situation with my DDs is more urgent at the moment I'm going to fight that battle first IYSWIM, I'll worry about that once I have both DDs in a local school!

morethanpotatoprints that's rather worrying :( I've got some serious thinking to do I think :/

The "awful" schools are often actually the best, when it comes to teaching, behaviour and resources. Go and look at a few come September, and you'll see what I mean. The you can play strategic with waiting lists!

Meanwhile, have a look at the home education websites, sign up for the library, and start collecting the free codes for Reading Eggs online (they run adverts in various sites and magazines, all offering a month free).

Mine are a similar age to yours, and tbh, apart from the stress of not knowing when one or both would get a place, I'd welcome an enforced term of homeschooling.

The issue is that we're so short of places here that even the local "Awful" schools have filled up- and they're nowhere near as dreadful as the 2 we've been offered. Both DDs are on the waiting lists for these schools. The truly awful ones are all too far away for me to get them to so not an option even as a last resort. The issue is not so much the standard of the school as the distance- if the 2 we have been offered were in walking distance I would accept them. I do understand we're late into this game and have less say than if we had applied for reception.

Mariam I just don't see how I could make homeschooling work :( I'll have a newborn who's obviously going to take up a lot of my time and attention as well as DS, who will be 4. I'm not going to have enough time on my hands to be homeschooling too. I have looked into websites like Reading Eggs online, the issue is that DDs have very little English whatsoever, that sort of thing just isn't going to be accessible to them until they have a better vocabulary. I know I could HE in their 1st language but we're here to stay and I want to get them going on English ASAP without them falling too behind with schoolwork- I just don't see how that's going to be doable without a lot of help and support from teacher/TAs etc. All of whom would be me, and I'll be juggling this with DS and a newborn.

I just can't see how we could make it work :(

You can stick DS1 in any nearby nursery with a place, and shift him when you have a school for the girls. School runs with a newborn are so dire anyway, it's perhaps a blessing in a very disguise if the onset is a little delayed

Get on the waiting list for a few local Beavers and Rainbows groups now. More fun than school and lets them interact with other kids whilst learning a bit more English.

Similar old thread with some suggestions.

mariam that's just it, there aren't any nearby nurseries with a place- believe me, I've tried! The nursery situation is very much the same as the school situation :( There is one nursery nearby us with a place but it's private and there's no way I could possibly afford it. I'm not pushing the nursery situation at the moment because DS doesn't actually need to be there, whereas DDs do, so I'm focusing my efforts on trying to find school places for now.