In-year admissions - quandary

[Rooble]

Hello - I need your advice and collective wisdom! There is a possibility that my family may have to move - several hundred miles, so not a commutable distance. The destination local authority website (Hertfordshire) has a list of schools which have spaces, but looking through, there are very, very few! If we were to choose a town to live in which had no free spaces in DS's year group, does anyone know what happens? Can they allow a special circs class extension (im sure there would be a more accurate term for this). I'm a non-driver (disability, not choice), so wouldn't be able to drive him around...
I'm really in a bit of a brain-swirl (quite apart from being horrified about how little house my lovely Yorkshire home would buy in the SE....)

[Wingdingdong]

It does seem that some schools have far greater movement than others. E.g. The school DD is currently at is an Outstanding (in inner London...) and is consistently top 3% for KS1 and KS2 results. Until the intake was enlarged last year, the furthest distance offered was around 250m (now just over 350m). The school is hugely oversubscribed. Everything round us has been demolished and replaced with blocks of 2- and 3-bedroom flats and high-density family housing, including another primary school.

However, there were four places available going into Y1 last September due to families moving away.

I guess part of the trick is identifying which, if any, schools in a particular area have high mobility.

I grew up in N London/Hertfordshire and my instinct was that the nearer to London, the more chopping and changing, though that could be totally wrong. I spoke to Hants Admissions again briefly on Friday (somebody more specifically knowledgable will call back next week) but the woman I spoke to said that someone in Admissions should be able to give data about mobility and waiting lists for specific schools. Perhaps Herts can too? Again, no certainty but it'll give some idea as to which areas are fairly fluid.

tiggy thanks for the response. It makes sense. It just seems to me that if it's a question of demographics, it could have been pre-empted 6 years ago when the maternity units were swamped with women registering pregnancies!


springrain we don't really know yet! It's been a case of not knowing whether the tail is wagging the dog or not. DH needs to commute into London every day for work, the DC are still very young so the total commute needs to be manageable; we need good communication links to family and friends (Gloucestershire/Hampshire/Buckinghamshire/Dorset - and Kent coast...); but we also need a decent school. And we need to be able to afford it. We're not sure what comes first. Basically so far researching Farnham/Guildford/Godalming areas out towards Alton/Winchester areas in Hampshire - which is exactly where everyone else moves to and doesn't move from. If you have any alternative suggestions I'd love to hear them - feel free to PM so I don't derail the OP's thread any more or else I expect I will be starting a thread of my own in the next couple of weeks and would be grateful for a response there.

AllOverIt where did you move/are moving to in Dorset? Home-schooling sounds brave. I'd do it if I had to temporarily (teach HE though...) but I would not enjoy it and neither would my DC. Glad you got a KS2 place sorted.

[Audilover]

Everybody should move where we live. When my DC were at the local infants school they were never in a class of 30 or under. Class sizes were regularly from 31 up to 33.
Children were given places at the school when the class was already over 30 even though another infants school 2 miles away had places.
Then there are the 2 people I know who won appeals for the infant school based on not being able to get their older child to the local junior school if their younger child didn't get into the infants.
It's as though our LEA has either never heard of the 30 or under rule or just don't care about it.

[AllOverIt]

Don't want to 'out' myself wingdings but it's near Bournemouth. I'm not looking forward to home schooling, in a secondary teacher myself, so teaching Y2 is a little daunting. I was also really looking forward to going back to work. Oh well! Needs must.

[3asAbird]

Op would you be willing homeschool for a few months?

reason I ask is a few very oversubscribed schools ie hard get into reception open up in years 1 and 2.

Dd1 was mid year admission out of catchment.
I not hopeful about getting dd2 in:(
theres a new girl in her class -year 3 she has a sister in year 5 and the mum managed get 2places which thourght was jammy as hard to co-ordinate move with 2+kids.

Her younger child I assummed was dd2s age and starting sept apaprently is rec and at home and school rang her and offered her reception place yesterday i was bit shocked as such small schol was unaware anyone had left.

However im unsure how long they have wait list as few siblings dident get in last year and parents doing 2schools and this person lives further away from school.

dd1s other freind and his brother went there but sister had to go another school and joined end year 1.

sometimes once people started unless they moving locations mid year can sometimes be advanatge if you ready and waiting and live their but its gamble and every school/area different.

[AllOverIt]

DS was offered a school place on Monday! Didn't have to home school for one day! It's not the school we'd choose for him, but it's local and is only until July then he's hopefully off to our preferred junior school in September