Waiting Lists

[hopingforbest]

Hi All,
Can anyone help please.
My child is on a waiting list for a neighbouring school (not religious or anything, just an ordinary primary school where admissions are managed by the local authority).
The LA say that they manage the waiting list, but local parents insist that the school does this and that if I want to make sure my child isn't constantly pushed backwards in favour of more active mums, I should be ringing the school each day to find out where they are in the list.
I'd rather not - but is it necessary (or counter-productive- which would be more my fear).
Thanks

I think it changed this Autumn from the LA running the list back to the school doing so.
Once a week is often enough, however if they offer a space to someone they shouldn't you will have grounds to appeal.

I am sure that someone more knowledgeable will come along, but as far as I know it is a legal requirement that they run the waiting list in line with their published admission criteria. That is certainly what it implies on our LA website.

p.s. Local parent knowledge almost always = utter bollocks. What has probably happened is someone rang the school every day, got a space and now think that there is a causal link when there isn't.

Things did change last month. It is now up to the LA whether they run the waiting list or let the school run it. If they LA say they manage the waiting list that is likely to be correct. Regardless of who manages the waiting list they must use only the school's published admission criteria to decide who gets admitted if a place becomes available. If they give a place to someone else that should have been yours you would have excellent grounds for appeal.

As AmandaP says, local parents are frequently wrong about things like this. There are all kinds of urban myths around school admissions.

In my borough, the lists were handed over to the schools on 1st September and the schools follow the original list order when places come up.

On the lists are anyone who listed the school higher than the school they were allocated - so if someone got offered their 6th choice they would automatically be on the lists for choices 1-5.

You can find huge movement at this time of year - children don't turn up as they've moved/gone to an indy etc - then many people, especially in areas where all the schools are good, decide that now they've bought the uniform and the children have settled in to the allocated school that they don't actually want to move them.

I know people who have been 30th on the list in the last week in August and following a ring-round by the school to see which parents want to remain on the list (some do this) have found they are now at position 5 or even higher.

Schools are very unlikely to want to risk the ire of the LEA and having to admit children at appeal by giving places to those who phone most often/know the office staff personally/went to school with the HT etc

Think I also need to put a different slant on what could be happening. In my local LA the LA keeps the waiting list for reception children through to Dec31st, which is actually a legal requirement that there is a waiting list until then.
However after that time and in any other year group at any time it is now the school's responsibility to allocate places (and then inform the LA). The LA process put in place is that there will be no waiting list held by the schools -don't ask - terrible decision in my opinion.
So there are different versions because of the way the 2012 admission code has been written and you need to find out exactly what the admission arrangements are, which could well vary depending in which year group your child is in.