Year 3 In year transfer appeal...

[movingprimaryschoolanyadvice]

Hi everyone - any help would be great!

My step son has come to live with us. He currently goes to infant school near his mums (which is about a 20 min drive for us) and is in year 2. His school is an infant school so he has to move anyway, application needs to be made for a year 3 place by January.

The feeder school is on the same road, but it's not great. We want him to go to school near us as there are a number of lovely primaries. The issue is that there are no Junior schools, so we can't list the primaries on the year 3 application, we have to submit an in year transfer.

He will not get a place as they all have long waiting lists. I have called the local admission team and they have told me this. There is no school with year 3 space within walking distance of our house. If I appeal will I be likely to win for him to be made a space and go 1 over so have 31 in a class. I understand this isn't so much of a problem for Junior as it is Infant.

The other option is to send him to the feeder Junior school near his mums but given he lives with us now it's not great to have a 20 min drive to and from school each day, the school itself isn't that great and he'd be unable to do after school clubs etc.

Thank you.

The first question I have is whether all these schools are in the same LA? If they are has some one told you in writing that applying for a primary school place in year 3 is an in-year application or is it that you making that assumption?
There is no doubt in my mind that when you come to move from infant to a junior school, that you can apply for places at primary schools in the same LA, it is simply more usual and much more likely to be successful to apply for the feeder junior school.
If it is as you describe then if you apply for a place at a school nearer to the new home up until mid June next year, any application will be for a current year 2 place, which is likely to be an infant class size case and therefore highly unlikely to be successful. Only after about mid - June will any admission application be considered for entry in september and therefore year 3. As such it would seem the best policy is to apply for the feeder junior school by the cut-off date in January, so that you have the best chance of getting a place. When you get the allocation of the place, accept it and then in mid june start applying for a place nearer the new home, though you need to accept that the probability of success is not high.