Moved house, but no primary school Yr1 places in any schools in our town!!!

[ChristinaL]

Before I moved house I went to the local primary school in our new town and was told by the head teacher that their were 4 places in Yr1 for September 2012. Hurrah I thought, loved the school just need to move.

However have since been told by LEA that the school is full and so is the other school in the town! Each school has 60 children in each year so they definitely are full!!! The head mistress misunderstood me (despite me saying several times to check) and thought that I meant that my son would be entering reception where their are 4 places available. She has now retired.

They have no idea where they are going to place us, the nearest other schools are village schools which are over 8 miles away and in rural communities. We wont be notified of which school my son can go to until the schools go back!! They have said that we would qualify for a taxi to take my son to school, but my son would not go in a taxi. He is really shy of new situations and would be terrified. i dread to think what psychological damage that would do to him.I don't drive so I cant take him and my husband works away a lot. I also have another son who will be going to reception September 2013 so I need to think about him also.

Do I have grounds to appeal as he wont be a member of our towns community and wont be integrating with the children of our town. We live in Bude, Cornwall and apparently this area has had a huge influx of children in the last few years and they are expanding one of the schools but this will only acomidate children from 2013.

Anybody got any answers.

No, no answers but just wanted to let you know that I feel your pain as I'm in a similar situation. DD is 1st on the waiting list and is due to enter Y1 in Sept. All I can do is wait for next week when school starts and hope that a child doesn't turn up because they've made other plans over the summer.

So where on the waiting list is your son? How many Y1 classes does the school have?

My son is one of 2 that the LEA are trying to find a place for. There are 2 on the waiting list for our nearest school and 3 on the waiting list for the other school in the town. As far as I know each school has 2 classes for YR1, I'm hoping that someone has moved during the summer and not notified the LEA. My son has no idea whats going on but is desperate to know which school he's be going to.

How long do we wait? Have you put in an appeal yet? From all the information I have found we have no grounds for appeal! Its awful. I can't sleep, it's all I'm thinking about. We would never have moved here if we'd known. I feel your pain too. Good luck x

You don't have any strong grounds for appeal because infant class size rules apply here. An appeal panel should only allow your appeal if the LEA has made some serious error which has cost your son his school place. Telling you there would be a place when there wasn't probably won't be enough to win an appeal - it's an error but, as the class is full, there never was a place there for your son.

You need to join waiting lists. Waiting lists are held in the same order as the admission priorities, so the nearer you are to the school, the higher you are likely to be on the list.

The other thing you could do now is press the LEA to say where your son will go to school in September - 'wait and see' isn't good enough. If there is no free place anywhere, ask for them to consider your application under the Fair Access Protocol (which should be on their website).

Sorry I don't understand, whose website should I look at for the Fair Access Protocol?

I have realised I have no grounds for appeal. I am planning to go nuts tomorrow with the LEA I agree "wait and See" is useless.

Cristina, how transient is the community where you live?

Are there good private schools around? If a family has opted for a private school over the summer, they don't need to notify the LEA so the school won't know if there's a place until school starts next week.

I think that initially you might have to just accept whatever you get and keep your DS on the waiting lists for the schools you want. I know it's not ideal but little kids are more adaptable and resilient than we give them credit for.

Good luck!

It's on the Cornwall county council website, but I can't do a link. Google Cornwall + "fair access protocol".

Thanks I'll check that out.

I don't know if this would work., but if there are no schools nearby, could he go into Reception until one comes up?

The thing you need to do is to push the LA as hard as possible. OK it is reasonable for them to need the first week in September to sort out exactly what the numbers are in schools local to you to see if there is a place available for your son. However it is not reasonable for the LA to not find a place for your child, that is a legal requirement on the LA.
My suggestion would be to send an email to the admission manager at the LA, confirming that you need a place for your child, confirming that you also have a child who will be starting in Sept 2013 and therefore it would be best if a place could be offered at X, Y or Z school as they are within reasonable walking distance. I would also then go on to say that you understand that there is a Fair Access Protocol in operation and when this would kick in. You are then gently telling the LA where you want you child to go, that there is another issue in 12 months if they suggest a school a long distance away and thirdly that you know about FAP and will be pushing for that shortly, if they do not find a place.
As a matter of course I would formally ask for places a the local schools via the LA, so that you can also put in admission appeals for the schools. As others have said, if they are infant class size you have little chance of success in theory but a panel hearing that that LA have failed to find you a place, may just feel that the LA are being unreasonable.