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

[HobKnob]

I'm biting my nails off here!

Arbitrary, if you were to ask parents where I teach if they thought it was best they would not agree. We are faced again this year with losing lots of families because the youngest child will not get a p1 place. Yes you have a catchment school but if you don't like that school, your chances of a place anywhere else in the city are slight. Very slight. We have turned quite a number of kids away mid year who have moved into the area but we are full. Catchment means very little if school is already full. In these situations parents just have to call around until they find a space.
Schools in Edinburgh have nothing to do with admissions, it is all organised by the local authority. In the last 5 years placing in Edinburgh has gone crazy due to the growing population and birth rate.

thanks APATMChocolate and AmberSocks, i have spoken to LA and confirmed he is on top of the waiting list...

But still like to appeal and what chances have i got?

Kungfupanda you are not alone, however our emails seem to come at around 6 am IIRC from DD1 & 2. So I will be up early rather than staying up late!

I honestly don't know, because I don't know whether:

• he should have been treated as a sibling and wasn't, in which case presumably your chances are good; or

• the LEA applied the rules correctly and it was just bad luck that the timing meant he wasn't a sibling, in which case unfortunately your appeal chances might be low (assuming the school is full). But, as you say, in this case your waiting list chances should be good.

Barbabeau yes it is R school. There must be hundreds and hundreds on waiting list - up until last year we were easily in the catchment. Fecking bulge year 4 years ago still messing things up I think and also parents moving in and out of the area to cheat the system

APATMChocolate - yes they confirmed they did not see our notes regading our oldest child's in year transfer and now they have includded our young one to sibling criteria which means he is treated as sibling

Buzz - But have they confirmed he should have been treated as a sibling in the initial allocation? He's obviously a sibling now as he actually has a sibling at the school - hence why he is being treated that way for the waiting list.

yes they did and it they confirmed "it must have been oversight and did not pick up on notes"

Lozario, I've heard that many people 'move' into the catchment in order to get their kids in. Someone I know said several people on her street (not even close to being in catchment) had done so in previous years. It sucks.

I did meet someone recently who had got another school in reception and then moved his child to R school by Year 2 when a place came up. So you may get there eventually if you heart is set on it.

kungfupanda - are you Bristol? I am and it just says emails sent out from 9am tomorrow. I would be happy to stay up until midnight if I could be sure they will put it on the website.

Buzz - If they have confirmed that an admin error effectively cost him his place, I would think your chances on appeal should be very good. But I'm no expert.

buzz we were in the same situation as you - we moved area, i did a mid-year transfer for my older two in January. At the time of applying (14 jan), we had not moved and the mid-year transfer had not yet gone through so DC3 (applying for a reception place) did not count as a sibling. They would only take the change in application details into account after the first round offers had been sent out ie, yesterday, though his sisters have already started at the new school.

As it happens, the school is not full in reception so DC3 got in anyway, but he did not count as a sibling until today. I made a note n the original application form but it would not have been taken into account as it was about future plans eg, a future mid-year transfer and a future change of address. I would double-check with your council's policy though I found with both the councils involved for us (Wandsworth and Essex), they were very helpful and did their best to accommodate the children.

I did and they said we will post you the appeal forms and there's nothing we can do, I requested to speak to someone senior and they advised he/she would say the same thing, I didn?t have much choice...

is it Essex you had to deal with as i have moved to Havering Essex?

Buzz did your LA have two submission dates?

Ours had 15th January for the Application deadline and 15th February as the 'Last day for changes to on-time applications following significant change of circumstances.'

If your LA had a 'last day for change of circumstances' deadline, then you should have notified them that your DD now had a place at x school and asked to modify your application to reflect that.

If it didn't, then I suspect they would say that it is the information that is in effect on the date of the deadline that counts.

Ooops I emailed the council to see if there was any published document due to be released like the data on the Herts website mentioned above because I'm a bit of a stats nerd and want to read the info

They then replied asking if my child was due to start school in 2014, or if in 2013, if I wanted information about appeals and schools which have space.

I had to admit to being a nosy mare!

yes they did but thats only if our move date was after 15th of Jan but we managed to move before 15th of Jan, and LA asked to ensure as long as we provided everything on notes they will match both to same school

So you submitted your application before the deadline of 15th January, but also completed before the deadline of 15th January, but didn't confirm that you had moved to the Council because you trusted that they would know you had moved and update the information?

Are they going to give you any information Galena, or just looking for an excuse to reduce their workload?

everything was completed before 15th Jan and we were told you could not apply online if you had not moved, so we made sure our council tax and bills were activated to new address, but just waiting on in year transfer confirmation which happened on 25th of jan, but we did not contact LA as we had requested to check notes for my eldest son's in year transfer application

tiggy, our council is rubbish at sharing information - I seem to remember it is in the handbook when it is released in September, but all they have is PAN, number of people who listed the school anywhere in their preferences, number of first choices, and then number of children admitted under each category. No distance, nothing. Thing is, the school DD is going to took over its PAN for the past year or 2 (can't remember if 1 year or 2) and I wasn't sure if it was back to PAN this year or not. So I have asked them that!

And no, I didn't phone!

Do you have written evidence that they said that they would do so?

buzz I would definitely post this on the primary appeals webchat thread.

Bum. Apparently the school has been allocated 30 pupils this year. :( So much for the nice small reception class...