moving to an area with no primary places

[jctt]

Presently this is just an idea we are toying with. We live in London and want to move to Hertfordshire due to a job which has just been proposed to my husband today. My son is due to start reception this September and we have already accepted a school place in London. I called Herts Council today and there are no available places in the village we are looking into moving to. There are only places available miles away within the county. Would we be able to move to the planned village and lodge an appeal for one of the local schools to take him? Neither of us drive and I will be over 6 months pregnant (with health issues) by September. So I wouldn't be able to travel across the county twice a day by bus to take him to a far away school. I just don't know how risky it is moving there and knowing there are no school places. I don't want him languishing at home for 6-12 months until a place comes up. Thanks in advance for your advice. x

If it is reception then you can appeal, but if it is an infancy class size case you are unlikely to have a chance of winning.
However if the county give you a place more than 2 miles away then they have to provide transport, this could be by minibus or CRBed Taxi (in London the bus pass seems to be deemed to be enough).
If there are no places within a "reasonable" distance, within the county or outside, the LA can force a school of its choice to take an extra pupil.

I would be asking about transport options, and how likely it is that the role will have movement over the summer.

Hi mummy time, thanks for the response. I don't know anything about the way schools work as my son's not yet started. What's an infancy class if I may ask? I'm doubt there will be movement as they're all small schools and it seems to be a place where families settle. I saw something about transport, but I'm not sure asking a nervous child to commute at four years old is the best choice for me as a parent. I don't think I could live with the guilt. And I know they probably wouldn't consider it at an appeal, but he actually gets quite car sick. So I'm not happy with the idea of him having to pop pills every day just to get to and from school. It could be a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but would you happen to know how long appeals take? Thanks for your help.

The local school is full and there is little movement in the area. You expect it would be very unpleasant for your son to have to travel by car/bus to any other school. It sounds like you wouldn't be keen on home education or even delaying your son's school start by long. There's no guarantee of winning an appeal to get your son into the local school.

Taking all that into consideration, moving to the village you have in mind sounds very risky. Maybe you had better move near to a school that has vacancies instead.

How about finding a town or village where they do have school places, and your husband can commute from there to the job instead? There is no guarantee that the council will 'fix' the problem if you choose to move somewhere that there just isn't a space in the local school. The issues you raise don't in any way force them to do what you want, however inconvenient they are for you.

If there are absolutely no vacancies within a reasonable distance (what counts as "reasonable" depends on local geography and transport links) then the LEA will activate the Fair Access Protocol, which means they force the school which is best able (in school/LEA's opinion) to cope with an additional pupil to admit. But this doesn't necessarily mean it will be a school of your choice, and could still be one a few miles away (plus transport).