I'm confused as to how the allocation of primary places works out ...

[imaginaryfriend]

I'm in a bit of a pickle with trying to understand if I've made a blunder in my choice of primary school for dd.

She was born in October 02 so is due to start Reception in September 07. She's at the pre-school nursery of the school I've put as first choice on my list but we're not living that clsoe to it, we're a good 40 minute walk away, I don't know how many miles.

I'm really confused about this bit, I hope I can write it out so it makes sense:

The school does two Reception intakes a year, one in January, one in September and obviously most of the children in the nursery apply for places. Dd started the nursery in January and lots of those she started with will go into Recpetion in January 07. The new nursery intake this September contains at least 17 children with siblings in the school so will get priority. But the September intake will mostly be going into Reception in January 08. So will dd's Reception place be affected by there being so many sibling prioritised places in the second Reception intake? There will be 60 children in total in each Reception year, I guess taken into two classes.

I've put this school down as first choice and have been making the treck there because it's a good school. But if I'm up against so many children with siblings, given that we're nowhere near closest to the school and dd doesn't have special needs, is it madness to put it as my first choice?

And how likely is it, ever, to get a good school on a second choice option?

TIA. And sorry sorry sorry for waffling...

we live in a small village with 30 reception places...this year, anyone living outside the village didn't get in, as far as I know, including a girl with older sibling in the school.

as far as I can see, if it's a popular school, no chance of getting in if outside catchment (unless extremely lucky).

When we had the split intake here, the years overlapped between nursery and Reception - DD1 is an April birthday and started nursery in Sept aged nearly 3.5. Some of the children already there were older ones in her school year and would start school the following Sept; but some were younger ones in the year above, and started school the Jan after she started.

She stayed on at nursery for a 4th term the following Sept (when the older ones from her year went into Reception), along with the incoming children who would be the Sept starters in the year below hers, and then she started school the Jan after that.

Complicated but I hope yswim. (Hers was not attached to a school so all the kids went to different primaries but the rolling school years still applied.)

Agree you should speak to the school with your worries and see what numbers they have at this stage.

The age of the children awarded places at our infant school is not a factor. Theoretically, there could be 1 child start in September and 59 in January.

I know of two friends who live out of catchment to their preferred school. Neither of their DDs got into the school initially. However, they waited and practically the day before they were due back to school they both got phone calls saying a space had become available.... so they got their place but had to have nerves of steel iyswim!

They did have a plcae in their nearest school to go to incase it didn't work. Luckily for them they kept phgoning the school and when the place became available they got it.

One of them also got a place in the nursery - but in the Nov when someone left. It jsut meant she was a few weeks later starting that the rest.

oh imaginaryfriend, it is awful this school admission lark

It is awful, fox. I'll have to speak to the school this week I think but I think I've gathered how it's going to work.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Just to update in case anybody else is faced with the same problem.

I phoned this morning and the secretary was very helpful. It's how everybody described - dd will have to take her chances with a very sibling-filled Reception year.

She said they don't have a 'catchment' area policy though. And she reassured me that all the children in the nursery last year managed to get places in Reception this year. I think they all live substantially closer than I do, alas ...

Roll on next April to find out then. No idea what we'll do if this fails. I wouldn't send dd to any of my more local schools so I guess we'd hang around on the waiting list and try to bribe people to move out of the area!

it's worth having a really good look around IME.
We didn't get our 1st choice as we live just too far away from it(it's not a catchment but after siblings and special reasons the children are ranked according to how close they live as the crow flies).
But we got our 2nd choice, which I stuck down on the form at the last minute, and it is EXCELLENT. It is an undiscovered gem. we live quite far away from it, but because it was unpopular in the last few years, it was undersubscribed and so we got in. there is a newish head, it has been totally turned around, and we are very impressed.
Even if you think your closer schools are not so good, I suggest you have a really close look at ALL the schools in the LEA, and consider those which are a bit further away but which are likely to be undersubscribed. they might just surprise you.
and as you say, you can stay on the waiting list and see what happens...
also, if you visit the local schools, you might think that they are not so bad as they first appear...what do you think is wrong with them?

Actually hovely, that's what I've been doing! Visiting other schools I mean. I'm still going to put the school I most want as 1st choice but I'm looking very carefully around to help me decide on 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices.

Incidentally, how far away from your 1st choice school are you? And from your 2nd choice school? I can't tell in miles how far I am from my 1st choice school but it's a 10 min. bike ride or a 20-30 min. walk depending how briskly I take it.

I live in an inner London area and the local schools are really really awful. One of them is on the verge of being closed down, it just escaped closure this summer, but is being very closely monitored. The other is a school I visited and was very impressed with the staff there and they are clearly putting a lot of effort into the school but the biggest problem is that it's nearly 80% immigrant pupils who've been placed (often temporarily) in the social housing developments around the school. Of course I've nothing against this at all and am delighted there is a dedicated school and staff to help those people but I don't think dd would be happy there. It's an incredibly busy school and she's very shy plus the lack of English as a first language would be a big disappointment to her because language and words are her big passion.

I did visit a school a little further than the one I really like which I thought was really up and coming, like the one you found as 2nd choice. And I'm visiting another much closer school which I'd written off because, opposite to the one I mentioned above, there was no cultural diversity and it's situated in the middle of another social housing development which is home to a large amount of the National Front!! BUT I think I may be wrong about assuming the school itself is problematic, the report isn't too bad, so I'm going to look anyway. And I will look at places further afield too.