Expat moving to Herts - Feeling despondent about getting son into good grade 1 school

[Karinweight]

Hi Mums,

We are moving to the St. Albans area from Seattle in July and don't yet have an address so were not able to apply for Reception year for our 4 yo son. My huband spoke with one of the Ofstead "Excellent" school administrators who told him that the Step 1-6 admission criteria were for the Reception year and that getting into a good school when coming into Grade 1 would be difficult because "hardly anybody leaves." We can't affort private school and feeling pretty low about not having a choice in the matter. Are we really stuck with accepting whatever school has an opening? Are most all the schools in that area fairly good and we shouldn't worry too much about Primary? We will probably be heading back to the States by the time he hits Secondary.

Thanks for any thoughts!

Karin

try

www.rightmove.co.uk

To reassure you, most primary schools in Hertfordshire are of a high standard. There is much more uniformity between primary schools than there is between secondary schools, which can vary widely.

Also, the schools keep 'continuing interest' lists. These are effectively waiting lists. Once you have an address sorted, you can join the continuing interest list for your first choice school and then when a place becomes available (for example if someone moves away) it will be offered to your son if he's at the top of the list. The lists have an order of priority (e.g. children in care, then siblings of children at the school, then children who live close to the school) rather than being in order of application date.

Also you Hertfordshire LA will have to find you a place somewhere, and if this is over 2 miles away they will have to provide free transport. They can also force a school to take an extra pupil if there is no room within "reasonable" travelling time.

BTW it is called Year 1, not Grade 1.
If your son is not 5 before September 1st then he will be going into Reception in September not year 1.

Sorry to say that St Albans state schools are horrendously over-subscribed. In fact this year they had to create loads more primary places to meet the demand. Even people living v close to the good or outstanding schools often miss out on places. And to get a Year 1 place (which I assume from your OP you need), you are banking on someone applying for the Reception place, but then moving house a year later. And since many many people specifically move to St Albans out of London because it's a lovely market town with good state schools, this is often a very rare occurance.

This doc gives you all the stats you need to know about how many children were admitted to each school in Herts under each admissions rule, how far away the maximum distance was etc.

You definitely can't just move to St Albans and expect to get a place in your local school, or which ever school you pick. I would strongly recommend you ring round the schools you are thinking of, ask if they have any places for Year 1, and plan where you live around a school which tells you there is an available place, bearing in mind that you often have to live just a few hundred meters away (see the doc I linked to).

Have you thought of the new free school on Hatfield Road? Not sure what their admissions are like but it might be worth investigating.

You might also get some advice on specific schools in St Albans if you post in the Mumsnet local section for St Albans - there is often a lot of discussion about primary school places there.

Not sure if you are applying for Reception or Y1 to start in September - if you are applying for Reception I think your chances of getting into an Ofsted Outstanding school are almost zero, since the dates have now closed for admissions, and so you'd be an in-year admission, and all the Outstanding schools there are over-subscribed, with waiting lists of people to take up any spare places.

I'm not sure how it would work if you applied now for Reception to a school which has filled all its places and has a waiting list ("continuing interest list") - whether your application would trump someone on the waiting list if your new address were closer to the school than theirs, or if they trump you because they applied in the main admission round, rather than in-year. There are a couple of experts in admissions on this board (the posters are called "admission" and "phr47bridge") and they would probably pop up and be able to advise if you created a post with a title about admissions.

If you moved next door to a full school, you would "jump" to the top of the list.

It's the reason that LAs always warn that you can move down waiting lists as well as up. If someone moves into an area who would be further up the admissions criteria, they jump to that place regardless of when they applied.

What mummytime said is true, although bear in mind that even the top of the distance list still comes below looked after children, children with statements of SEN and often siblings too. The first two of these are relatively rare though, compared to the number of children applying under the distance criterion.

"We can't affort private school and feeling pretty low about not having a choice in the matter. Are we really stuck with accepting whatever school has an opening?"

Sorry to say this but "Welcome to our world!"

'The St Albans area' covers a huge number of primary schools. I think you're worrying unnecessarily when you don't even have an address yet. If your child is only 4 there's a lot of time til they need to be in full time school.
Why not focus on the move here first?

BloooCow - surely because if you move, but then find the only school with a vacancy is a rubbish school a 20 min drive away, that would be a bit silly? Better to find which schools have spaces, and make sure you live near it.

Do you have to live in st Albans itself? May be good schools with spaces a short drive away. Eg I live 20-25 mins from st Albans. There's a good school and has had some movement in waiting lists in last year eg we have had 2 new children in our Y1 class this year.

Depends if he is going to start reception or year 1 in September. Wheathampstead has two good schools and places in reception. I don't think there are bad primary schools in st Albans or harpenden.

As others have said, there are no bad primary schools in St Albans. Secondary school is another matter but, as you have said, you'll be state side again by that time.