Any way of going on other school waiting list without telling current school?

[BrittaPerry]

I want to move DD to another school, but there are no places, so she would have to go on a waiting list. I have just got off the phone to Sunderland council, who tell me that the only way of getting on the waiting list is to get a form signed by her current head teacher, which potentially leaves her in a school where they know she is leaving until a child leaves from the new school, and maybe a few, depending on how many are ahead of us.

DH won't let me HE her.

There are other schools that might possibly have one place, but they are a journey away, and if I am going to move her, I want to move her closer to home, not further away.

Moving as current school is Catholic and we aren't, and they are getting more and more extreme. She only got in this one as it was the only one with a place, and that was after a few months on 8 waiting lists. She is in Year one, and DD2 will turn 3 soon, so she will need a school too.

In this area you have to tell a child's current school even if a parent makes an informal enquiry.I think it's a child protection thing

I would approach Sunderland Council again and approach the person who deals with this area. Explain that you don't wish to disadvantage your child in your present school by letting the HT know your intentions but that you still wish to get on the waiting list. Just ask.

The situation is the same in my area, the HT is asked to sign the form. I genuinely did not want the HT to know about my interest in another school, particularly as the chances of getting in were small and I'd still have to work with the present school for possibly a long time. When I explained this on the phone to the council, this nice woman said to bring in the form to the office, ask for her, and she would deal with it without a signature. Which she did.

There is no child protection issue. And I think it's not the HT's business frankly, until a space comes up in another school and I decide to move my child.

Sunderland are in breach of the Admissions Code (specifically paragraph 2.21 of the 2012 Code). You are entitled to apply to any school at any time. They cannot give the current school a veto by insisting that the head teacher signs the forms.

If they continue to refuse tell Sunderland that you wish to apply to your preferred school and go on the waiting list and that if they refuse to comply or inform your child's current school of your actions you will refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.

But if you go to look round, one Head will phone/chat to the other and mention you've been anyway!

I think they do that to give the current school a chance to ask you if there are any problems and try and sort them out. My friend got asked to do this when she tried to move her DD, but I moved mine on the grounds of having moved house and didn't have to.

See, if it was just my choice, I would de register her from school one, then go on the waiting list for school two. But DH is massively against HE :-(

I think you'd be asked to get the school to sign just the same if you were planning to HE. so it wouldn't really solve the problem. You can ask the head to keep it confidential and not tell all the other teachers I would have thought.

The school doesn't have to sign anything for HE. You just take in a letter saying you are deregistering and can walk out the same day if you like.