Is anyone else waiting to hear what primary school their child has got into?

[HobKnob]

I'm biting my nails off here!

I just don't understand how it works though. Look how much English effective catchment areas vary each year. In a city or heavily populated town, the number of children in a given radius could vary by 15 or 20 a year. How do you plan for teacher numbers or class sizes?

We enrol kids in January who want to start in August. From that we work out how many teachers we will need and if we need to appoint or transfer staff. Has worked fine for all the years I've been teaching (31)

Both my sister's and my SIL's local schools in Scotland are oversubscribed (one primary, one secondary) - and neither of them live in a city.

Lindy - where we live many of the local primaries have catchment areas of less than 0.2 miles. This means that if you live in a 'no-mans land' just outside the tiny catchment of several local schools then you could end up being offered a place somewhere miles away at the opposite end of the borough.

Some of the religious schools don't give priority to siblings so some parents could be in a position of having an older child at the school as that year was not a high intake and then the younger child, if that is a bulge year, might not get offered a place. They then have to work out how to do two school runs to different schools at the same time.

It's not just parents flapping cos they enjoy the drama of it all!

Sounds like I'm lucky not to have all this to go through!

We are quite a small town, with 3 schools all within about a mile of each other. They can all only take 2 classes (60 kids total) and are full most years.

Main problem is most (i would guess 50%!) of the families live closest to one of them - A. A is also the closest school for several villages. Most parents want to send their child to the closest school. It cannot take all the children who would consider it their local school.

So there is competition and there is no guarantee of getting your closest/local school. How far away the children that get in their live depends on lots of factors and varies a lot. This year it seems most children who wanted a place there got one, other years it's been mostly siblings.

On the plus side the other schools are good, so it's not such a drama if you don't get the local one.

Also - just to add to the squeeze on places. Last year one of the local primaries which has a 1-class intake of 30 pupils took 28 siblings! That means that you do have to actually live next door to the school to have any chance of being offered a place.

One of our local schools had 33 siblings apply for a 30 entry year. So the catchment area was basically 0.0 miles!

What happened then? Did they have to take all 33 or did the distance priority kick in then?

The 3 furthest away siblings went on waiting list. Don't know if they all got in or what. That school is now a 60 entry now!!

It's bonkers isn't it. Roll on tomorrow evening!

Good luck for tomorrow. Am crashing with relief now.

Argh I need I stop reading this thread, its making me so stressed! Tomorrow evening cannot come soon enough, at least then if its bad news we can think practically about it.

Not sure I'll sleep well tonight!

Two good schools within walking distance of our house but both had cutoffs of less than 300m last year. We've been told that one has about 20 siblings applying this year and the other is probably similar, if not worse. Even the utterly crap schools around here are oversubscribed. I don't think we'll get anything.
Bollox

The school I want has 180 entry. Last year there were 75 siblings

45 entry for our first choice. They then do vertical grouping within the Key Stage groupings, I guess to stretch more able kids and let less able catch up within normal class setting. School already has a pair of portacabins being made permanent for Y4, and I think enough ground space to add more, so I could see it being made bigger, a 60 entry would probably make sense some time soon.

Lindy: it seems to make no sense until you actually move down here and realise how difficult it can be to find a school place at all. It isn't like Scotland, where schools are obliged to take all the kids in their catchment who register in the January (I've done that for Ds1 and it is much less stressful); the schools all have set numbers of places and particular criteria for determining who gets them. People really aren't getting angsty about nothing.

When we were house hunting we were vary aware that we couldn't move into certain areas because they are something of a no mans land for people seeking a reception place (and we want DS2 to be able to walk to school). And we don't live anywhere near the south east where the pressure on school places is unbelievable. We chose a house that put us in the equally ludicrous situation of having a choice of 5 walkable schools we could get in to (and would have in every year since they started publishing the data), and another 3 if you wanted to include faith schools (which we didn't). It seems incredibly unfair that we can have bags of choice while some people living within the same area of this city will not have any walkable school they can get in to (without gaming the faith school system).

Even when you can be almost certain that you'll be offered a place at your first choice school, there is some level of angst involved because you just can't know until the email arrives. You can't just amble up to your catchment school with a utility bill and a copy of your DC's birth certificate; you have to go through a complex application procedure and rank up to 6 schools you want to be considered for a place at, and then wait months to find out what you've been allocated. And some people will find that it's a school in special measures (for the third time) many miles away that they didn't even know existed until they were allocated it and have no idea how they'll get their DC to and from every day.

as an addition, someone asked what happens in Scotland if they build 300 new homes near a school. What happens is that the school size is looked at as part of the planning application. they then decide which catchment to put the new estate into - usually the closest school - if it's not big enough then the builder has to pay for the school to be expanded/rebuilt and this has to be done in conjunction with the house building so that there are spaces as they are required.

Additionally, you can apply to a school other than your catchment school and then places are allocated based on special requirements, siblings, single parent etc and if there is a space available you will get it.

Last year there were too many children in the catchment for our local primary. Parents were offered a fast track automatic space at any other local school but they were not obliged to take it. In the end they built a temporary teaching unit in the playground while plans are made to expand the school.

So, the oly people waiting in Scotland are those who have made a placing request. Everyone finds out at the end of April but are guaranteed a place in their local school regardless.

I'm waiting to find out if my son has got into the non catchment High school we've applied to - however the school have told me unofficially that he has a place as they can offer a place to everyone who has applied.

Dn is in YR in London, and is one of 3 non-siblings in a year group of 60.
I'm just hoping to get ds into my nearest school tomorrow night, because he's got bugger all chance of getting in anywhere else. Thankfully it's only been 60 entry for two years (30 before that) so hopefully most of the siblings will take up the Church spaces and fewer of the 50% open places. Though there's at least 30 kids closer than we are who are the right age - I just keep being delighted when I find out one is Catholic! (Catholic school is a couple minutes walk away, and supposed to be very good if very Catholic).

My nearest 10 schools (ie within a 15 minute walk) have all I think added an extra class in the last 5 years, some twice, so capacity has nearly doubled from about 300 to 600 reception kids, and it's still not enough. I doubt anywhere in Scotland has that kind of population growth rate, or is that far from the edge of a city where pressure is reduced. The entire 4yo population of Glasgow is about the same as my plus the neighbouring London borough, both totally surrounded by more equally densely populated and growing boroughs.