DD didn't get in because they sent letters to wrong address??!

[LibertineLover]

OK so this is a good friend of mines daughter. We live in a tiny village with one playgroup/pre-school and a primary that goes up to age 11.

My friend has moved 4 times in as many years, and has been here for a year now. She was asking and asking about when the letters for primary would come and I said I couldn't remember,so to ask at playgroup, when she did, they said she should have had the letter last year!!

Turns out they had been sending them to her address 4 moves ago?! so 2 x children that live miles out of catchment area have been given last remaining places. She can't drive, we are reeeeeaaaally rural, and the bloke from council said the schools all around this area were full, so her Dd would have to go in a taxi on her own every day, with no one she knows?!

School says they can only take 14, and they have that many.
does anyone have any ideas? The little girl will be devastated to not go to that school with all her friends from the village.

[lborolass]

The system might not be ideal but I'm not sure how feasible it would for local authorities to try and track down all the eligible children. Afaik councils are cutting staff and there isn't enough joined up information to allow an automated process.

I don't think it's completely unreasonable to expect parents to take some responsibilty, ringing the nearest school to check isn't too much to expect.

[lougle]

The trouble is, that the law says that it is the parents' duty to educate, or arrange education for, their child. There is no legal duty to send a child to school, so the LAs can't force an application, nor can they apply for a place for a child - they don't have the right.

All they can do is publicise the process and wait.

[AmandaPayneAteTooMuchChocolate]

Also, added to which, immigrant children aren't necessarily in the system. Especially if they can recently come from elsewhere in the EU. So imagine, private and home ed children allocated, immigrants and others who have slipped through the system not. The parent who got confused about what to do allocated a place in their old county.

But I agree that there should be better information. A standard process across the country would enable better general communications. I don't see why you couldn't have general reminders like we get bombarded with for tax returns, etc.

[choceyes]

Oh your poor friend op. I hope something works out for her dd.

I live in a major city in England and we did get letters with the application pack back in October, saying you can apply online too. Also early December I got a reminder, a letter saying I've still not applied for DS' s place (I applied late dec deadline mid jan). They might even have got in touch nearer the deadline if I still hadn't applied. I thought this was standard?

[AmandaPayneAteTooMuchChocolate]

Nope, not standard. In both my old and my previous area, you got zilch. For various reasons, we didn't apply until a few days before the deadline. The only reminders we got were because we had set up the online form and we got a reminder that we hadn't clicked submit on a partially completed form.

[UniS]

what letter - there is no mythical "letter" in this county - nor I expect in many others. County council have no idea at all about which children will apply for school places , some will be home educated, some will be privately educated, some will apply for a school place.

Posters are sent to pre schools with the application deadlines and the web address and the phone number for asking for a paper application .

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

I've worked in pre-schools and am pretty sure parents were given some sort of brochure about school application. System needs clarifying though IMO.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Also private school and HE only account for a small proportion of children. Most will want a school place - and the best one they can find for their child. I think there should be basic help for all in achieving this such as through sufficient publicity and support where possible.

[Zingy123]

No letters are sent out here. They do put up posters at schools, playgroups, nurseries, GP's, post offices etc.

This happened to a Mum in my Dd1`s year. She had 3 already at the school but didn't apply for her twins. They ended up at a school 2 miles away. She claims not to have saw anything about applying but to pick up the other three from school passed a huge poster in school noticeboard. Also one on the playgroup door the twins attended. They are now in Y2 and still hasn't managed to get them in.

[difficultpickle]

No letters here either and no posters that I saw (ds had a CM who did the nursery run) . I just knew that children have to go to school so rang the LEA when ds was 2 to ask what I needed to do to ensure that I received the relevant paperwork and also to ask when it would be sent out. In the end I chose not to complete it. It wouldn't have occurred to me that a letter would magically arrive at my address at the right time to apply.

I'd say it is surprising that with the availability of the internet that parents can make mistakes like this and not bother to check when school applications should be submitted, however I know someone who did the same and she had an older child (whom she had remembered to obtain and fill in the forms for at the appropriate time).

[kungfupannda]

givemeaclue - she can make an application which will no doubt be turned down. She can then appeal that decision.

[BranchingOut]

Another of the issues is that, surprisingly , not everyone has access to or can use the internet.

[LibertineLover]

Yes, that's right branching she doesn't have internet, she comes round here to use mine sometimes. I know it sounds really lame, but she honestly thought the letter would come, thinking about it, if the letters are sent out in may of last year, she wasn't living here then, she moved in in June, however they sent the letters to her address of four moves ago, so there really is no excuse, (yes, yes I know she should have done more, she knows that too now, and feels a right idiot!)

She can't even tell her DD yet, because she's got nowhere to go, the LEA still haven't found her a school :(

[JenaiMorris]

Lib, tell her what I said about home ed and compulsory school age. She doesn't need to panic.

[ProfYaffle]

We have the same system as Flibberty, you have to apply a year before your dc will start at the school and there are no letters, reminders or anything. When I was applying for dd1 there weren't even any posters up at nursery etc although I did see one or two when dd2's time came.

The only reason I knew what to do was because when dd1 was a baby I was flipping through a file of baby group info at the library and happened to come across an LEA booklet explaining the process.

[flootshoot]

They're standardising the dates next year aren't they? Perhaps they need to advertise - for the two weeks after Christmas, during the day when most parents of preschoolers are home, in much the same way they do for tax credit deadlines. Yes it would cost money, but when you balance it against the savings on the resources needed to deal with all the late applicants perhaps it would even out.

I'm no expert though, as it probably obvious

[LibertineLover]

Yes, I'll tell her jenai the little girl is 5 in December though?

[LIZS]

So does she not socialise with other mums locally who might have been discussing this ? Think she needs to check she has updated her address for all other public departments as LA won't have plucked that address at random - child benefit, gp, council tax etc . Around here you don't get sent a letter, there are booklets in libraries and posters at schools, surgeries, libraries, public noticeboards etc . Was there really nothing up at the preschool ?

[LibertineLover]

UniS the letters are not mythical in my area, they are very much real, and there's no need to do anything until they arrive, hence the problem.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Closing date fot applications is 31 october. I dont think 5 months is excessive for the lea in a densly populated area to process all the applications.
But having said that, I initially thought the application deadline was april. We were moving from my house to dps which we were renovating and doing a loft conversion to fit us all in. We are still at dps house and are here for good so it was not one of 'those' moves.... but we learned august that we'd have to move 5 months earlier than planned so spent the coldest november on record with no heating or hot water.
Thank goodness we did it properly though moving from my house before the deadline. Cos when my neighbour found out her child had np place, the first thing she did was accuse us, via the admissions people, of not living here at the deadline.
She still tells anyone who will listen that my son stole her sons place as we are 50 yatds closer to the school. Which is utter bollocks as the school was oversubscribed that year so there were already children who took priority over hers for a place on the waiting list due to their application being processed.
Sorry for woffling but this just shows what a hot topic school places can be.

[LibertineLover]

She keeps herself very much to herself at preschool. I asked her yesterday if there had been a poster up at preschool, she said after the discussion with the teacher telling her she'd missed out, the teacher then showed her where the poster was, nestled in with all the fire evacuation posters etc.

I find it hard to believe how she didn't hear anyone say anything, but I think on the occasion she did ask about where the letter was, people may have presumed she meant the confirmation letter. As these were sent out late.

[Hulababy]

I'm in Sheffield and we do get letters sent out, but I don;t know if it is for everyone or not. DD doesn't go to a state primary but we received a secondary school application form and letter through the post at home. Had that arrived we would not have received anything from anywhere else as her school does not issue them and there are no notes up.

[AcrylicPlexiglass]

Poor little girl and her mum. I'm very glad she has a sympathetic friend in you, Libertine. Hopefully it will all work out. I think that when she does get her late application in she might have quite a good case for naming the school on social grounds, if she felt up to explaining how tough things have been for her daughter with her dad being imprisoned etc and the serial moving. She could get her GP or a health/social care professional to write a supporting letter, maybe?

Agree a million percent with branchingout's posts.

[prh47bridge]

I haven't read the entire thread but just to clear up a couple of points:

• The closing date for primary school applications is 15th January. The date quoted by Flibbertyjibbet is the closing date for secondary school applications. From next year the national offer date for primary school places is 16th April.
  

• LAs are not required to send letters to parents reminding them to apply for school places. Some do but most do not, partly because there is no reliable way for the LA to identify all the families in their area with children who may need a school place.
  

• As has been said, the OP's friend is entitled to appeal. With a PAN of 14 this is unlikely to be an infant class size appeal. She therefore does not have to show that a mistake has been made. She needs to make the best case she can as to why her daughter will be disadvantaged if she doesn't go to this school. The fact she didn't receive a letter telling her to apply is not grounds for appeal, nor is the distance for the allocated school.