Does your LA give sibling priority when Reception place offered, or not until they actually start in September?

[Buzzyear]

Just that really - I want to find out if our LA is the only one doing things in this way.

It seems ridiculous as it significantly lowers the chance of families being kept together when there is an older sibling who also needs a school place.

In our case it means one of my children will have to start at another school in September, to perhaps be moved in the first few weeks as sibling priority comes into play once Reception child has begun attending.

It's going to be very unsettling for one child, not to mention 2 sets of school uniform and a near impossible school run to 2 different schools.

Here the child has to be actually in the school so in September. They are not officially in that school until they turn up on the first day.

AFAIK sibling priority only kicks in when one sibling has actually been fully admitted to the school and this will usually be the first day they are on the school's register system.

It is normal for sibling priority only to apply when the sibling is already at the school. In some LAs an older sibling can give priority to a younger sibling but not vice versa.

Sibling priority won't automatically give your older child a place. It will just mean they are at the head of the waiting list. If there are no places available they still won't be admitted. You may want to consider appealing for a place for your older child.

Pressed Post too soon!

If your older child will be in Y3 or above you have a reasonable chance of success at appeal. If they will be in Y2 or below your chances depend on whether or not it would be an infant class size appeal.

First day they attend does actually make sense really. Otherwise what do you do it the parents then decide the younger is not going there? Withdraw the place for the older one?

Thank you for the responses. We wouldn't have much chance of success as it's still year 2.

In Reception, Y1 and Y2 the infant class size limit applies. Any appeal that would take the school over 30 pupils per class is therefore heard under infant class size rules which basically means you can only win if there has been a mistake. In Y3 and later there is no limit on class sizes so you can win if you show that the disadvantage to your child of not attending this school outweighs the disadvantage to the school of having to cope with an additional pupil.

An appeal on the grounds of keeping siblings together is unlikely to succeed. You need to look for things the preferred school offers that are missing from the allocated school and that are particularly relevant to your son. So, for example, if your son has musical talents and the preferred school has lots of extra curricular musical activities but the allocated school doesn't that would be worth bringing up.