No school place yet for my year 6...

[JMinSuffolk]

We moved to Suffolk from abroad on Aug 4 and immediately applied for school to our 2 school aged kids. I got the school place in the school we wanted for our son and he's now attending reception class there. My year 6 daughter is still waiting... she doesn't speak very much English and we should soon apply for her secondary school place... I know I cannot just come to your country and demand to get everything here but I was not expecting her to be left with no school place and missing term start. I thought our problem might be her getting a place in our catchment middle school where she would have been the last class, as it closes to make way for the two tier system.

But now she's at home and getting more nervous everyday. And obviously so am I and the long summer holiday is not really appealing to her anymore. She started her holiday June 1...
Nothing I can do I know but is there anyone else in the same frustrating situation?

Your child should not be left without a place. Legally the council has to offer her something. Have you had no offer of any school at all?

Now schools are back a place may have become free somewhere.
Try ringing the council again.

Ask to be on the waiting list for every school you can get her to.
Ask how to appeal for a place at your preferred school. No class size regulations to prevent her being number 31 somewhere.

The council doesn't take phone calls from people who applied after July 7, they have a recorded message telling that they're very busy and are trying to get "the majority of applications" processed by Sept 12 and then you can call if you have not heard from them.
I was a bad girl today and pressed 2 "for inquiries regarding all other school applications"so they told me today that yes, your application is definitely here and it is being processed and they will write to me with the outcome. And yes, it is ok for my school age child not to be in school as I have sent in an application. Well, I want her to be in school. Now...
I've been wondering how many school places there are in all of Suffolk. Can there possibly be such a huge number of in-year applications that it takes them such ages to process?
The school my other kid goes to could fit her in but they said they have not been contacted by the council and were even considering contacting the council themselves, too. And if the council is still processing stuff from July, who knows how many applications there are ahead of us already as this is a very popular school.

I am actually just a bit sad about this and I can see my daughter's kind of resigned. She just said today maybe she will never go to school here and has to move back to ehere we came from.

Oh, and no, wr've not received a school offer of any sorts.

I would expect it is the same members of staff who are also dealing with unplaced reception children who applied before January as all the schools in the UK seem to be so oversubscribed. there are still a lot of unplaced 4 year olds who they have to sort out, not saying they are more important than your daughter but their applications will have been a lot earlier so therefore they have to take priority. Where we are they still have unplaced children and have opened 2 new primary schools with 120 children placed in them.

It must be very stressful for you all and you do have my sympathies, but I think if the recorded answerphone message is saying they are working towards sorting it out by 12th September then you need to sit tight for a week. They have to offer you something and they will sooner or later but you are not going to get anything happening differently by fretting or by phoning up before the 12th.

Think of it as a blessing - if you had a school place your daughter would be thrown in at the deep end being taught in a language she isn't very familiar with. You have week or more to help prepare her. Universities have not started the new term yet. I bet with a bit of asking-around you could find a local student who could give your daughter a week of intensive language tuition.

JMin if there is a place at the school and your daughter has a sibling there then I assume that's the school you named on your application? I can't see why it is taking this long?

Thank you all, I am very hard trying to think positive but am failing miserably:-D
It is just a few days and I will very hard try and not call them again until after next Friday but you know how you sometimes loose your common sense and all reasonability and I think I am totally loosing it now.
There are a lot of kids wanting to change schools here for year 6, noone wants to be at middle schools that are closing as soon as they have "processed" this year 6 group so it is not like anyone will be making any improvements on anything for thrm, teachers will have lost interest as they are loosing their jobs etc.
Possibly that is why I managed to get my reception age kid in but still need to wait for the same school for the other one. There probably are others wanting that space at that school... and they might have siblings there as well and also be catchment. Although this is actually the school closest to us, we still are different catchment. The catchment middle school is almost 3 miles snd this primary is 1.7 miles.

How would I find a uni student? I am not yet too familiar with the area and haven't even figured where that phase schools are here... sorry, I think I need to google:-D

I disagree with the person who says that unplaced reception children take priority. By law a year 6 child has to be in educaiton, a four year old does not have to attend school.

I suggest you email to your local MP. Tell you that your year 6 daughter has no place inspite of the fact that your son's school has a space that could be offered. In key stage 2 the rule about 30 children in the class is relaxed so it should be much easier to find a school place.

Also try your local councillor. When this happened to a family that moved into our area he was brilliant and had it sorted in two weeks.

GIVE US ANOTHER WEEK. That's what they told me today at the county council. We will contact you in DUE course. I am THIS close to driving over to Ipswich and destroying any hope of her ever getting a school place by making a scene there. I don't know how many million applications they have there, as at least in the phone service they have so many people, it seems there should be someone there processing the applications, too. It is a different person every single time I call or email them, and I have talked to them since June, so it has been several times, although I have not contacted them all the time, as it might sound like.

I am thinking I will do what a neighbour suggested, I will ask the catchment school if she could come there and sort of just listen and follow a bit to get an idea of school work here. The school is loosing pupils every day as it has a bad rating from Ofsted and also, it is closing after this year group. They might just oblige and take her there to visit, although we don't want her to be in that school permanently.

I also halfseriously thought maybe I could report my daughter as a CME - child missing education? Isn't that supposed to be a bad thing for a child to be out of school and you are not allowed to take any extra holidays or parents can be put to jail? So why is this allowed?

Sorry. I needed a rant.

Rant away, it sounds more than annoying and I hate bureaucracy, but I'd honestly go to their offices there and say you'll wait to see someone. They do legally have to give your daughter a place and you're right, why should she wait.

Other thing you might consider is just go down to the catchment school and ask if someone can tell you if they have places in year 6. Explain the problem, ask to see one of the leadership team to talk it through. If they have places, they might well help you get round the system as they'll want your daughter to start asap if she's going there. Good luck!

So there's a place available in year 6 at your local school? Because if this is the case, your DD will be offered a place there, and that will be that. The council will have fulfilled their legal requirements.

"They might just oblige and take her there to visit, although we don't want her to be in that school permanently. "

so what are you going to do if that's the place offered?
you asked for opinions so I honestly think you're being a big hysterical. A few more days is nothing given the big changes your DD has gone thru and still faces. Where in Suffolk are you?

It sounds as though your DD will be offered a place at the local school. In your position I would contact the school and get her in there ASAP. Then she will be learning and improving her English. You can also put her on the waiting list for schools you prefer, and a place may come up.

Then you need to start to investigate secondary schools, and you need to apply by the end of October. Do make sure one of your choices is a school you are likely to get into.

Do not worry about making a fuss at the council offices and your children not getting school places. The LA legally have to offer your children school places, regardless of how obnoxious you are. Which schools they offer you have to be the ones you are entitled to according to the admissions criteria.
If they do not obey the admissions code you can appeal and their decisions over turned/you could be given a chance to appeal their decisions to an independent panel.

I wouldn't give them a week, but I would keep phoning and contacting them, as I thought necessary.

Catchment school has loads of space but we are applying to 3 out of catchment school the same as pretty much everyone around here. I already got my son there in reception and applied the same time. Our closest school is not the catchment school. I've contacted all the schools we applied to and I know two of them have a place for her. They cannot take her until we have the council decision as there may well be others that applied earlier and meet more admission criteria than her. She doesn't speak much English and now she is getting behind in school work in addition to the problem with the language. Next week we should start thinking about applications for high school...

I've understood we actually do have a choice in primary schools, we can apply to three preferences but of course the council decides and she might end up in the catchment school as well.

Jmin, if your son's there you'll most likely get sibling preference, which should help your daughter get a place too.

The question here is whether we are talking about a situation where the schools you have applied to are actually full in year 6 and therefore no places or whether the reality is that this is just the LA admission office who are just useless.
I would go back to the three schools that you want a place at and ask them to confirm whether they have a place in year 6. If one or more schools do have a place then I would email the admissions office, say how long you have been waiting, that you know that X school(s) have a place in year 6, state your preference for which one you want of these and say that they have a week to confirm in writing that your child is starting on Monday 22nd September. If you have not received confirmation you will be going to the school that morning with your child and causing a scene at the school to which you will have invited the press. My guess would be that you will see a letter come through the post.

Exactly. The admissions team is the problem here. They are "currently processing a very high volume of applications" and that is why we don't have a school place. We visited our 3rd preference today and their head teacher showed us around and said they could easily fit 3 or even 4 in their year 6 group. Our first preference has 24 in the group and think they could take her as well although their PAN is 15 as they have a new class room and the year sixes are in their own group so they might even be able to take 6.

It is very frustrating to visit all these schools you applied to and be aware that there is a place if only the council would get through the pile of applications. But probably there are several families even more frustrated as they have applied even earlier than us.

Applying earlier than you doesn't give them priority. That is all down to the admission criteria of each school. If you live nearer the school than other applicants any place should go to you unless another applicant is in a higher admission category.