There were 5 spaces 2 weeks ago, and now theres none?!

[Schoolworries]

Feeling quite crushed.

There is a massive problem in my dc infant school with children being given awful, awful junior places.

So phoned all schools in area (full primary ones) and found an excellent one had places. Had some reservations due to drive and dd friendships, but ultimately set our hearts on school.

Just opened a letter saying school is now full. Really, in just 2 weeks all spaces are gone. How do they know for sure when there is nobody at school to confirm this with?

yup, same thing has happened to us this year

DD has SEN, we went round a few schools, chose a new one which said they had a place for her. By the time we submitted the application, the place had gone. (3 days)

Schools are no longer in charge of their admissions as such, and waiting lists are minefields of different priority and 'need'.

Are you on the school waiting list? Are you going to appeal?

The lea told my dh on phone they wouldnt know anything for certain until early September, at least until the person in charge of admissions is back at work.

Apparently our dc "will be staying at her current school" But we can appeal etc.

lots of things change over the summer break, people move house, are offered school places elsewhere, move into the area and have higher priority than your DC etc, it's a very complicated system where length of time on a waiting list bears very little on procedure!

It is I'm afraid a likely scenario. If there is a cohort of parents all dissatisfied with the allocated school, then they may all have been making applications over the summer and snapping up places as soon as they became available.

Also, what the school believed to be a place unfilled may be no such thing as the LEA would have the waiting list and would be offering the places to those at the top of the list as soon as the vacant place was confirmed. The school might not know about this until the offer has been accepted.

There may well be further movement in September when they see whether all children turn up in their allocated places. Are you on waiting lists?

Im so shocked 5 places have gone. The village the school is in is extremley expensive I cant see it being a place with lots of quick movement as obviously high priced properties can take longer to sell.

I suppose I was wrong.

Great.

Back to being at the mercy and crossing our fingers we dont get offered a terrible school.

It seems unfair people who plan ahead and get on waitng lists a long time in advance get thrown to the bottom. I dont know what to do anymore. I have put her name down on every waitung list. We dont have £500k + to move be on the schools doorsteps. Private is totally out of reach.

I hope my dc knows we tried our best. :(

Not sure why its unfair?

Unless the infant schools are feeder schools in your area then it won't make any difference to getting into the "awful" junior schools.
Anyway in 3 years junior schools could change. I didn't want dd1 to go to her junior, but we had no options. The head left the July before she was due to go into year 3. The new head arrived in January, and in 3 years has turned the school around to the point that there's a huge waiting list and the school that everyone wanted when dd1 was applying has had to drop a class size . That school hasn't changed, just 2 round it have.

op please could i say it might be a blessing in disguise.parents in small expensive villages can be very clique and exclude out of catchment families from cheaper areas and sadly this can filter down to the kids

Interesting point postolympics....