How could people be made more aware of reception admissions?

[Pyrrah]

Judging by the number of people on MN who turn up having made a balls up of the application process (which will be a fraction of those who have) surely there must be a way of alerting parents and of warning them of the possible issues.

Could the BBC do a party political broadcast type thing once a week from when applications open?

Could CBeebies do a basic guide?

I can see why sending letters out everywhere isn't practical, but it must cost a fortune for councils to sort out the mess each year.

Many people don't send their child to nursery, don't visit libraries etc and so really have no idea of when to apply or how it works - or more importantly the consequences of rejecting an offer or of only listing options they don't stand a hope of getting.

[AmandaPayneAteTooMuchChocolate]

True. Maybe what we need is better publicity - i.e "You will have at least three school choices. Your area may choose to allow more options. You should always use all the options offered to you".

[prh47bridge]

You mean like this? Part 3 says "You can apply for at least 3 schools". It doesn't say you should use all the choices, though. But some people wouldn't believe it anyway - it is, after all, the government!

[AmandaPayneNeedsANap]

That's pretty hidden in the depths of the website though. You have to click through a lot of pages to get to it and I'd have followed the first link (applying for a primary school place) and ended up at my local council website. It also doesn't explain that you might get the chance to apply for more schools and I think the phrasing is duff.

It's kind of my point - the information might be out there, but it's not massively accessible. And, for example, if you just read that section on applying and thought it was what you needed to know I think you could easily believe that order of preference was relevant to what you are offered.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

Oh yes, banners on school fences sounds like a brilliant idea. It is in each school's interest to be popular, so tying it in with "our open days are 15 and 24 Nov" or whatever would be an obvious benefit to the schools themselves.

[mam29]

Theres posters up in

eldests school.
libaries
nursery and preschools.

I think with eldest the admissions book came home with preschool but cant quite remember?

Or do some parents need to ask la to send copy.

Its online to download as im eagerly awaiting the next one to find outs whos under subscribed whos not.

Ours does have sections

dos and donts

with ticks next to some things crosses next to others.

I think admissions is very complicated even for the most savvy educated parent.

As so many different types of schools

free schools
faith schools and think academies control their own admissions
others are distance only but siblings can take up half the intake.

My 3nearest schools

one is rc primary-we not catholic.
large community primary-but does not achieve best results.
very well performing infants with juniors next door 10mins walk has such a small catchment area rare anyone from my new build estate or new build estate gets in.

So then the glossy brochures says we live in area of responsability -catchment so we had choice of 12-15schools and had to pick 3.

But we dont really have a choice we the kids are baptised coe but the nearby coe well performing schools are too far to get in as volntary controlled not aided.

Catchments change every year .

My health visitor recently sent out letter for my 2year old and mentioned school admissions on it.

I have to apply for dd2 by 15th jan 2014 to get place for sept 2014
then 15th jan 2015 for her brother to start sept 2015.

Then think get year off before applying for eldest and senior.

Im hoping my la do advice surgery as think they do 2. As i need realistric advice on what schools i have chance of getting as 1st choice is out of catchment.

I know some areas get 6choices wish we did.
Although hard enough picking 3.

Maybe its more issue in urban areas and areas with shortage of places.

I know one person who lives on an estate where the primary school is dire everyone tries to get any other school but that.
But many who got results this year tried other nearby schools and dident get in. They different la though as city is divided by 2councils and they on border.

[mam29]

Also estate agents on listings tell people they in catchment to well performing primary so parents think oh will get in.

I been told by few people just pick 1.

[Pyrrah]

The number one issue is the make parents aware of WHEN they need to apply and that THEY need to seek out the information. The detail can all be attached to the packs and the packs tailored to the LA.

My LA does a really nice booklet with all the last distances etc included - but you have to be savvy enough to go to the website and find the thing. DD goes to both a private nursery and primary nursery and neither had copies of the LA booklet.

I rather think they should employ MN experts to design the info as well - the same things are discussed time after time on here.

So CBeebies alerts and HUGE banners on every school saying 'If your child turns 4 before 31st of August, you need to contact your LA for an application pack - web address, phone number of LA. Application deadline for sept 2014 is 15th Jan 2014' seem to be the best idea forward.

Needs to be simple and short and understandable to all.

[GibberTheMonkey]

I have that tax credits deadline advert going round my head. So simple to do something like that.

[Piemother]

What about schools admission parties? The hysterical mums seem to like Tupperware etc type soirées they might work

Lots of prats around here have just put one school (the good school that isn't quite in the posh housing area so not really the right catchment) then not got in and been offered a city centre school in a rough area I assume because they put no other choices and it had spaces. Hard in the kids but I'd have enjoyed writing that letter were I an ea employee!

[Kendodd]

Going to school isn't a surprise though is it, I don't know a single parent who missed the deadline.

Where I live, no letters were sent, I had to look on line for the information myself, although I did see a poster up at pre-school (after I had applied).

Oh and I only applied for one school for each of my children, the year my eldest went, she was the closest child to the school in that year so only 'looked after' children were ahead of her. Same with my next child and there was one child living closer when I applied for my third.

[Piemother]

Oh god and do something about this 'unofficial feeder' myth. You must send dc to x totally unaffiliated pre school it's an unofficial feeder fur y school. No it isn't.

[Pyrrah]

It's not the going to school bit - it's the realising how early applications open that trips many up.

Lots of people don't realise that they need to apply for their just turned 3 year-old as everyone talks about children going to school at 5. If you have a late Autumn born child you are far more likely to have done research than those with August babies.

I consider myself to be pretty education-savvy, but I hadn't got a clue that I had to apply for a nursery place for DD for September 2012 in December 2011. I imagined it was summer-term 2012 and just got lucky and found out by sheer chance.

In London we also have a lot of people from European countries where school starts a lot later.

[AmandaPayneNeedsANap]

Yup, even if you are Scottish (so only foreign if you hold that as a political view!) you might assume that your spring born child would start the year after they actually do. It's not hard to get confused.

The big myths around by me seem to be:

• that you can in some way be tactical. For example, by listing the school you really want and three you'll never get, so the person doing the application will give you the school you want. Not sure of the reasoning, but it seems to be combination of thinking you can influence the person (when it is a computer) and believing you have to get one of your schools;
  

• believing that writing lots of comments in the additional box strengthens your case.
  

One school near me has a huge sibling year, and so a much smaller effective catchment than usual. Lots of people who would normally have been fine have been caught out because they didn't use the other choices on their form wisely.

[rubyflipper]

Yy to what piemother said about unofficial feeder schools.

I just can't see a way round this madness. Even if the country could afford to send an admissions adviser to every home, too many parents would ignore the advice and believe local gossip.

[ShadowStorm]

I think information needs to be in as many places as possible to increase the chances of parents seeing them.

CBeebies and banners outside schools sound a good starting point, and I'm sure would work well for lots of people, but wouldn't work for everyone.

For instance, in my village, the school is right at the end of a long cul de sac, so really people aren't that likely to be passing the school unless they already have children there. Also, ads should also be on other channels to target parents who don't watch cbeebies with their kids.

But last year near me, there were posters about school admissions up in the local GP surgery, the window of the post office, and I remember seeing a double page spread about school admissions in the free magazine the council send out every few months.

The LA also produces an application guide that includes admission limits for each school, numbers of applicants for each school in the previous year, and criteria applied to last pupil accepted in the case of the school being oversubscribed (i.e. distance 1.5 miles). It's easily found on the website, but of course you do have to know it's there.

[ShadowStorm]

Oh, and re. school nurseries - it can make a difference in some areas.

One of my colleagues in a neighbouring county to mine was stressing about getting his kid into a particular school nursery in order to increase her chances of getting a place at the school when she reached primary school age.

I thought he was talking nonsense until he found the admissions guide for his area and showed me. Criteria for primary schools where he lives is:

1. children in care
   
2. children with complex needs who have been identified as needing a named school
   
3. children with sibling links
   
4. children within the admission zone
   
5. children with social or medical reasons to be at named school
   
6. children who attend full time nursery at named school at time of application
   
7. children living closest by distance
   
   So children being in the school nursery can tilt the odds in their favour in some areas.
   
   Not where I live though. Where I live, we only have criteria 1), 2), 3) and 7) from the above list.

[AmandaPayneNeedsANap]

Shadow - but that would be an official feeder nursery. I think what the others were talking about were silly rumours of unofficial feeder nurseries. Like it mystically makes a difference without being in the published criteria.

[givemeaclue]

Nanny state?
95%. Of people are capable of filling in a form

[HorryIsUpduffed]

You don't think the 5% matter?

[givemeaclue]

I don't think the five % will follow up on an ad on cbeebies.

In the most deprived area of our town, when school starts lots of kids turn up whose parents did not participate in the admissions process at all, they just turn up at a local school at some point in September. They are not form filling competent. Even if you put the forms through their letter boxes they wouldn't complete them, poor literacy etc,

[AmandaPayneNeedsANap]

That group of people is a whole other issue. They need more intensive support because those kids matter. But what a lot of parents need is clearer advice. I honestly don't think 95% of people are capable of filling in this form in a sensible way. Or, to put it better, currently do fill in the form in a sensible way. Just based on anecdotes round here, I reckon about 15% did something daft on the form, like naming one school. Most didn't get bitten because undersupply here isn't a massive issue. But it's an affluent, well educated area. I would be surprised if a national statistic was as low as 5%.

[prh47bridge]

Of course everyone matters. But there are numerous examples (including the radio channel changes I've mentioned earlier on this thread) to show that even the most intrusive, expensive awareness campaign possible will still pass some people by. There will always be those who think it doesn't apply to them.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

An ad campaign might catch the 10-15% who are capable of filling in a form once they've got the form, though, which currently they haven't realised they need to do.

[AmandaPayneNeedsANap]

Exactly Horry. I do agree that some people will miss every campaign. I just think that the current system relies on pro active parents, word of mouth or a pre school setting giving out the information. I think we could do better than that at relatively low cost.

[Farewelltoarms]

Sorry bit of an aside, but it would really help if all schools had exactly the same admissions. The faith school banana really confuses the whole matter. It would be far easier to plan, both for the LEA and the parent, if it was all done on something measurable and transparent.