Moving from Scotland to London with a 4 yr old - how on earth do we get back into the English school system?

[VJaded]

Hi, we are having to consider moving back to London after 2 very frustrating years in Edinburgh. Ironic as one of the reasons we moved back home was to avoid the getting into primary school stress in London.

Daughter has just turned 4 on July, is at pre-school nursery but won't start P1 in Scotland until Aug next year. Her NCT pals back in London are however starting Reception in Sept.

Bearing in mind how awful it is to get into London state primaries when you have been living in the area at the cut off dates etc, how on earth would I get her into a reception or a Primary 1 class if we move down in the next few months and are out of cycle?

Any thoughts - has anyone been in a similar situation???
Thanks

The LA has a legal responsibility to find you a place within a reasonable travelling time. They can require a school to take a pupil over their numbers (even for KS1).
So you will be offered a place, although you may have to hassle them to get it.

The good thing is that there is a lot of movement in London schools, so although you may not get a school you want at first, if you stick on waiting lists you have a reasonable chance of getting one eventually (if you choose local schools / those you are high up the admissions criteria).

I would look carefully at where you want to be for a while.

Move as close as you can to a good school in a mobile area (most of the schools in my area seem to shed 2 or 3 pupils a year, particularly lower down as families move out of London). Take what you're offered and then stay on the waiting list for the one you're next door to until you get in. You'll be top of the list if you're the closest even if others further away were on the waiting list before you.

If you don't want the school which the LA initially offers you, and you aren't in a hurry for your daughter to start school, you can go onto waiting lists for any schools you want and home educate while waiting. In terms of priority on the waiting lists, it makes no difference where or whether your daughter is at school. So you don't have to take the place you are offered initially.

That could save your dd having to settle her into one school only to move to a different one soon after.

Of course, there is no guarantee that a place will ever come up for her at your preferred school, so you might eventually decide to send her to whichever school she is offered rather than keep her out of school for years.

Alternatively, if you move this year, you could send your daughter to preschool while she's on a waiting list for a primary place. Her eligibility for the government preschool funding continues until she reaches compulsory school age in the term after her fifth birthday. The curriculum at preschool for this age is meant to be the same as that at Reception, so a four year old could attend either setting. (As you probably know, whenever she does start school she will join her age peers. So if she is at preschool the year she is four, she'd still go into Y1 the following year.)

The way I see it, using preschool or home ed doesn't help get a school place any faster, it just removes the time pressure on finding one.

Thanks very much all for coming back to me so quickly. Has given me some hope! Just need to work out where to live now as alas our old 'hood will be not be an option this time round!