Not welcomed by school after Appeal.

[kate549]

We recently moved to Hertfordshire won school appeal for my son in year 3 . I appealed for 2 schools due to medical reasons . when asked for preference I choose nearest school as my daughter in reception goes there.
but really I am very disappointed by schools behaviour even though we got place 3 weeks before the term holidays they asked my son to start school in new term and called him for setting in session on last day at school.
They dint even show us around and on first day we were asked by deputy head to stand near entrance and some one will come to take my son . we waited nearly half n hour , one of the teacher passing by offered help when asked and she took my son in. I am really disappointed by the schools behaviour. not boosting but my son is academically very excellent . In previous school every year he use to get outstanding achievement award.
I am regretting choosing this school she I make a formal complain to head. PLEASE ADVICE.

Legally it is difficult to go over PAN in key stage 1 so they were probably letting him into the school for key stage 2.

I'm sorry but this is wrong. Once someone wins an appeal the school must admit them. It doesn't matter that it takes them over PAN regardless of whether it is KS1 or KS2. Any child admitted on appeal is excepted, which means they don't count towards the infant class size limit of 30. There is no legal problem whatsoever in admitting a child to KS1 if they have won an appeal. The only legal problem would be if the school refused to admit the child.

Are you sure you were meant to just stand outside waiting for someone to come outside and find you?
Why didn't you go to reception when you arrived and let them know the child had arrived for his first day?

I really wouldn't make a complaint this early on. I have to admit I'm really confused about when your son actually started and was given a place at the school but I doubt they are cross with you. Rather just a bit disorganised.

Did you go to Reception so staff knew you were waiting to be seen? And I don't understand why you are worried about your son being an August birthday if he is very able. Also he won't have missed a massive amount by not being in school for a couple of weeks, certainly nothing crucial at his age.

You will have been offered a start date, which you seem to have accepted. The time to challenge would have been pre admission not now. And by formally complaining what do you expect to happen? Seems perfectly reasonable to me to be admitted at the start of a new term.

If your dd is in reception at the same school wouldn't you have known to introduce yourselves and where to go ? Were you perhaps early having dropped her off ? Try not to take it personally they were probably busy with registration etc and it has nothing to do with the appeal . Forget the complaint and start afresh after half term. How did the session itself go ?

They tend not to get the brass band out for any new children, op, even the outstanding achievement award winners...
Is that the real reason for your disgruntlement? That the new star pupil wasn't sufficiently feted on arrival? Because as a previous poster pointed out, you have a child at the school already; it shouldn't have been that difficult to find out where his classroom was and take him there yourself, and they evidently thought you didn't need another tour of the school for the same reason.

So the school made your son wait until the beginning if half term (which starts in a week's time)? I would not hold it against them and would not complain. It's too early to become a difficult parent and it might be just an administrative error that you had to wait for somebody to take him to the class. I think some posters being harsh (brass band etc) because for them to have 4 year olds at school is completely normal while for most foreigners it's an extremely worrying time as children in their countries of origin start formal education much later. But he is in year 3 now and is doing really well. It also sounds like you are quite stressed by relocation and that might colour your experience with school. I don't think they were malicious.

Half-term started yesterday, not next week. Who said the OP is foreign - where has that come from?

The new half term starts next week, this week is the half- term holiday.

My reading of the OP's information is that she didn't get a place for her Y3 son in September, although her daughter in reception got a place. OP appealed and either won or a place became vacant. One would assume if you had a reception child there you would know a bit about layout, office, etc. For some reason the DS was asked to start after half term (maybe to allow staff to be trained or even appointed to support a child with medical needs, maybe as the place was a space that became free with a child leaving at half term), but asked for a visit day on the Friday before half term. When a child comes for such a visit it is totally normal to enter by the front office door rather than the classroom door or other usual entrance. If a child is not on register yet they will need signing in for fire safety arrangements.

Assuming I am correct I have a few questions for the OP -

1. When did the Deputy Head ask you to wait near the front entrance? Was that inside the building? Did you report your arrival at the front entrance? Do you mean the front gate as front entrance or coming into the school front door which is reception (office, not Year group) area and waiting in the school lobby?

As a class teacher I would be busy preparing for and welcoming my class at that time of day. Many little (and not so little) issues come up at that time that take my time and focus. I would probably expect a message from the office to say you'd arrived and if I was not tangled up in something I may come over to the front door to collect your child, I may send another member of staff or more likely with an older child one of the office staff would bring them over to the classroom (maybe with mum in tow for a few minutes). Sometimes newcomers don't arrive (ill, held up in traffic, change of mind!) and I don't have the time to go searching to see if they are here yet.

2. What sort of welcome would you have wanted to show how glad they are to have your gifted son join them? I, and most school staff, would assume you had visited the school prior to your daughter starting. Your son would be shown around as part of his induction visit on Friday, maybe by his classmates as a attempt to help friendship bonding.

It is difficult to deduce what you would expect as many parents would be unassuming and want to 'blend in'

Not sure who suggested op wS foreign but tbh I did assume the same it was the grammar in the op

I would possibly give the benefit of the doubt to the school and if you are concerned don't hesitate to hassle the deputy head or head as the appeal decision is legally binding. They must treat your child the same as any other

3 weeks is going to make no difference at all to his social or academic performance - I'm sure you did the usual reading at home during that period.