Hargrave Park v Waiting for Yerbury place

[taniadougs]

Hi

I'm not quite sure what to do. I have made an in year application and we have got offered a Reception place for Hargrave Park which we are really pleased with but as we are in Yerbury catchment we were really hoping for a place there. I'm also still waiting for a Yr 3 offer.

Should I take the offer or reject?! If we reject it what at the chances of movement within the next 3 to 4 months at Yerbury for Reception and also Yr 3? We could keep the kids at their existing school for a short while as we are really hoping the kids will not have to adjust to 2 different schools. Are we crazy to reject Hargrave Park tho?

Thanks in advance!!!

Tania

There will be an awful lot of other people on the waiting list for a reception place at Yerbury. There isn't a catchment as such, it's all about proximity. If you live on the doorstep, you might be in with a chance. Otherwise I wouldn't hold your breath. The LA should tell you where you are on the list, or do they not do that any more?

A friend who lived in one of the streets just on the edge of the catchment missed out on a reception place and was no. 18 on the waiting list. 6 months later she was no. 19. That was a few years ago, things might have eased now that TP school has become more popular, but I woudn't count on it. Lots of people plan their strategy for getting into Y when their kids are newborns, and plenty of other people take up a private place with the intntion of moving them if a Yerbury place comes available.

The hype is insane, but in the end it is just another primary school. I know their results look very good, but frankly given the intake so they bloody should be.

I'd take the Hargrave place and see what happens wrt other places coming up - I posted on your other thread about other options.

Thanks so much. I think your absolutely right. Right, I know what I'm doing now.

Thanks. I really appreciate your response!!

Tania

Just another question if I took HP places for both kids and then one got into Yerbury would it be harder to appeal for the sibling place at Yerbury because they already have a localish school?

Thoughts?

Thanks
Tania

do you really mean 'appeal'? Or do you just mean staying on the waiting list?

Appeals have a special legal status and there are strict rules around what constitutes grounds for appeal, I think mainly around showing that you should have been offered a place but weren't because the school or LA made a mistake.

IF you mean 'stay on the waiting list', then you can stay on the list for a school for as long as you want, I think. If one child got into Yerbury (or any other school) the sibling would then move right up the waiting list above all the other children who didn't have siblings, if that makes sense. I don't think that would be the basis for an appeal as such, though (but I'm not an expert). As far as I know accepting an alternative place in a second-choice school woulnd't have any impact on your waiting list position for a first-choice school.

Thanks GS.

That makes sense and clearer. Sorry for my ignorance I just haven't any knowledge of the process. Ok, seems as though we might not have grounds for appeal if one gets in but might help their position on the waiting list.

Cheers

Tania

To clarify:

if you accept the Hargrave offer for the reception place, you will find that your year 3 child's position on the HARGRAVE waiting list may well change.

This is because on the Hargrave waiting list for year three children with siblings at Hargrave will be preferred to children without siblings at Hargrave. Your year 3 child was a child without a sibling at Hargrave. Now they have one.

There is no impact on where they are on the Yerbury waitlist. No disadvantage. No advantage either.