In year transfer - should I be doing more?

[HauntedNoddyCar]

After some advice please.
We moved last year within an LA. Dd is Y2 and we applied for a place at our local school. School is full so we are on the waiting list and are #1.

Local contacts tell me that they usually lose one or two at the end of Y2 to private school but we have no way of knowing if this will happen this year.

Admissions are handled by the LA not the school.

1. Are parents moving to private obliged to give up their dc's place before the start of term?
2. Should I ring the school to see if they can tell me anything?

Getting twitchy now as a small development is being built behind the school which could potentially lose Dd her top place. She is in the system as an diagnosed Aspie so I only want to move her once. Plus I have to apply for ds's place soon and can't do two drop offs at the same time.

And yes I was a bit naive expecting it to fall into place but I can't change that.

Sorry - you have my sympathy being in this position!

1. No - they can just no show and their place won't become available until a certain time period / they have confirmed they have definitely left. Hopefully they will give up the places sooner but they aren't obliged to.

2. Might be worth it but they probably won't help you, depending on the head. At least you are making yourself known and you could explain the situation if they will give you the time to do so. No chance of getting your DD a statement? Or at least some supporting evidence with regard to her special needs? You may get her in on appeal at the start of year 3 as the infant class size bias no longer exists.

Your DS, I'm assuming, won't be starting until Sept 2015 and in which case you don't have to submit his application until Jan/Feb next year. You should have a much clearer picture by then. Your alternative is to make the call as to whether you are going to hope for the best and put down your local school as his first choice even if it involves 2 drop offs for a while. I guess you could be in trouble anyway as if he is out of catchment for your DD's school there is no guarantee he will get in there so you could be doing 2 drop offs anyway.

Good luck.

Thank you :)
I may have a chat to them then to see what the new head at target school thinks. They lead the SENCO provision as far as ASD goes which is a fluke. Current school support referral but we are at the beginning of the process. I didn't realise there was a chance to appeal in Y3 so I will investigate that.

You're spot on about Ds too. Dd's current school is oversubscribed this year for the first time in ages so we might as well put local school as #1.