Have you been affected by the primary school place shortage?

[choicemyarse]

Have you applied for a primary school place recently and what was your experience?
Our 3 year old won't go to school until next year but in our area (in London) there seems to be a serious crisis in primary school places and I am concerned she won't get in anywhere. There were 274 families in our area that got NONE of their six choices and were asked to go to schools miles away from their homes (in rush hour traffic in London this is a very long commute).
The Local government authority recently posted a news release about this, which explains the school place crisis as a result of restrictions on local authorities to build their own schools (because they must prioritise free schools and academies).

www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/7171350/NEWS
Personally, I am not interested in sending my child to a free school or an academy (for a variety of reasons) but more importantly, I just want a decent local school my child can walk to and this isn't being provided.

I'm involved in a local campaign around this issue (which is why I've namechanged) but I've been on mumsnet for years and had lots of good advice about schools, babies, etc.

Please post your experiences here and hopefully we can do something about this.

Yes we moved house because of it. Not in London.
It's the high birth rate as well not just the lack of school,building.
Good luck with your situation

But I differ slightly in that a free school or academy doesn't bother me. It's still a school. If school places are available and you don't want them because they are in a free school or academy you may find that a challenge.

We were in s crisis area. Lots of expansion and 5 free schools have solved it. Everyone gets a place but can't say how many get first or second choice

Thanks for your input.
Mopmay that's brilliant you have so much choice in your area, but in ours none have sprung up and there's a serious shortage!

To me that's one of the big issues with free schools - they are not allocated according to need and this leaves serious shortages in certain places. Plus often they prove to be unsustainable - many are closed at little notice.
Heels, I would take an academy or free school place if I had to but the point is that there are none! And the local authority can't build new schools because it needs to prioritise free schools and academies.

It's a totally ridiculous catch-22 situation.

I live in south Essex and DD has just been allocated a place in our first choice school. I think our council has done really well at allocating places; I've not heard many accounts of families who didn't get any of their choices. However there are few schools which are under subscribed and the squeeze is getting worse as families move out of London. I knoe quite a few people who have moved specifically to get into a certain school.

Hi gallicgirl, that's great you got your first choice.

Other people suggested we move to get a primary place as well but property prices in our area are shooting up ridiculously high and we just moved two years ago (it was a total nightmare, I vowed never again).

The catchment distance for our two nearest schools is something like 450m and 280m, which is ridiculously small. I can't help thinking that everyone moving closer and closer to the schools isn't going to help an overall shortage. They just need to build more.

The pain is that the LA can't force faith schools academies and free schools to expand. Spaces are there but not where people really want.
One of the LA schools near us is 'good' but not desirable for many (past reputation). It has loads of places free. The latest free school has 30% spare capacity. One of last years new ones only got allocated 8 pupils this year! Others have huge wait lists.

Those are crazy discrepancies in waiting lists/free places.

It just seems like there needs to be some broader coordination of school places, which local authorities aren't able to do right now.

All I want is a good local place we can walk to - that doesn't seem like too much to ask.

choice I think you're in my borough and we've been affected to the extent that we will have to move. imo the issue is not the lack of school places but the lack of good schools. We know someone who purposefully moved to get into our nearest, outstanding, school. They got a place, we didn't and instead got allocated a place in the sh*t school they had temporarily moved away from. Meanwhile they are now free to move back to their house while keeping a place at 'our' school for them and any subsequent siblings. If all schools were equally good (which may well mean diverting funds from one to another, and adapting training and providing incentives for teachers who have to deal with more complex classes e.g. kids on pupil premium, kids whose first language is not English etc) then this would not be an issue as people would be happy to go to their nearest school. What needs to be recognised is that a one size fits all education policy does not work in areas of high immigration and social exclusion.

Phew. Rant over. For now...

Yes, I live in a town and our closest school is 0.6 miles away, which I thought was fine. When looking around the Head said they only take 0.3 miles, and that if he was honest he was still turning parents away from that year as the waiting list was full. He said he would put down two other schools first because it was highly unlikely they could take us as they would be full before getting to us, and he didn't want us to only put them and get the next closest (1.6miles away) which was a failing school. He was lovely about it but I then had to put the only other two schools we had any chance of getting, which are in two villages outside of town - 2.1 miles and 2.6 miles) as all other schools in our town are similar with the 0.3 miles radius! I also didn't drive, so I had to learn and put another car on the road just to make sure I could get her to school as there is only 1 minibus which already has a waiting list before the school year has even started! It was a fiasco. However it is a good school. I just wish I didn't have to drive in traffic there and back to get to it - people have told me at worst it can take 45mins each way. There are also only 7 parking spaces at the school and the village is over-run by parents trying to drop their kids off without being late... 3 people at our nursery put down 3 schools and got none and have been offered the failing school with no other options, so they have joined waiting lists for the schools in the villages, as the towns ones are hugely long. They hope to home school for a few months and hope places come up by the end of the year. They are very lucky to be in a position to do this as they are SAHM's.

There is a huge shortage nationwide from what I can see, and nothing being done but more houses for families being built to add to the problem.

The siblings thing has been changed here - if you have a sibling in school and move it has to be within 2 miles of the school still, or you can loose the place for the youngest.

Sorry, the villages are 5.2 miles and 5.8 miles away, not 2 miles!

This is a rather sweeping generalisation OP - "...one of the big issues with free schools - they are not allocated according to need and this leaves serious shortages in certain places."

It was precisely because of the desperate shortage of primary places in our immediate area that we had to open a free school in the first place. It has been almost three years of bloody hard work. The council weren't interested. They only became interested when they realised that without our school they wouldn't be able to give every rising 5 yo a place last September. Then surprise surprise they became our best friends and couldn't do enough Our admissions criteria is exactly the same to every other community LA run school in the borough. My son spent 2 years at a school 5 miles away (bulge class) before joining our school in Sept 2014 in Yr2.

We opened last Sept with 2 x YR 1 x Y1 and 1 x Y2. We were full. This September's 2 x YR classes are full with children from cat A to D and we have a 30+ waiting list of children in Cat D and E (D = catchment, E = non-catchment siblings).

The work it takes to get a group of parents together and work to open a school is immense and of course totally unpaid and ongoing! It's something that the local authorities should do, not rely on parents to open free schools.

I can't comment on free schools bout our borough (SE London) basically forces all primaries to convert to academies, either on their own time plan or next year by default.

So, it will be harder and harder to find a good school which is not an academy.

DD's Infant took on a bulge class which will move to her current Junior school in September. They are both academies now but the DoE still "forced" the Junior to extend. So, there is a certain push, if not from the LEA then directly from the government.

I don't actually know what an academy is? Should I?!

What is the difference between a school and acadamy? Moveing to uk soon and a bit out of the loop.

Waspie, that is precisely what I meant actually, maybe the phrasing wasn't quite right.
There was obviously a huge need in your area and yet the LA didn't create a new school, you did! That's totally ridiculous that parents are being forced into a position where we have to open a free school if we want a school place.

The creation of a free school is not allocated by the LA according to need, it's dependent on a huge amount of community initiative.

Academies are free of LA controls . LAs are no longer allowed to open new schools

thanks for clarifying Mopmay. There are some good academies and free schools of course and I would support any parents' right to open a free school as it is a massive undertaking.
What I have a problem with is the government restricting LAs to build much needed schools because they want to prioritise free schools and academies and yet these are reliant on an outside initiative and therefore not necessarily allocated where they are most needed (though of course sometimes they are).

There are lots of small classes near us, but this year a bit fuller as a high birth year.
We are lucky there never seems to be much trouble finding schools, but that maybe because not many people would like to live in this area.

Free schools and academies are funded differently. They generally follow the national curriculum but are free to deviate, as ours has done. Ours was in effect forced to convert and now has more control over own destiny and can open a second site. All the free schools near us are run by existing schools (under wing of a private or faith school) except one that was set up by parents desperate for a local place. They should follow guidelines on school dinners etc but can deviate as the LA does not tell them what to do.

noramum, schools in our area are also being forced to convert to academies without parental support. It's totally undemocratic.
Academies vary of course but they do initially put a huge push on raising test scores, thereby putting teachers and children under enormous strain. They don't have to hire qualified teachers, so often don't. And they often have extremely stringent behavioural policies that neglect the pastoral side of schooling and the sense of community and care that should be present.

Yes, It is a big ask to have sufficient schools to enable everyone to walk to one whilst limiting class sizes to 30 and with changing populations and economic situations (so fewer people go private/move away out of a flat to a bigger house when they have kids), especially when budgets (whether public or private) for capital expenditure are tight.

I live in an area with several free schools. The quality of teaching in the two I observed at was woeful. Most of the teachers were unqualified in a way that showed. They are no substitute for LA schools and should not be subsidised ar the expense of LA schools. It is an educational tragedy that children are forced into free schools through lack of investment in LA schools.

Legally Academies and Free Schools have the same status, its just the names that differ. In practical terms an Academy is an existing school, originally a school set up by an LA and therefore an LA school which has been "converted" into being an Academy. When it becomes an Academy it is in no sense under the supervision of the Local Authority. So if there is a problem there is no point in going to the LA, instead you have to go straight to the Secretary of State.

A Free School, while having the same legal status as an Academy is a new school.

The three crucial things to note about them are:-

1. Local Authorities are NOT allowed to set up new schools anymore. Any new school MUST be a Free School. Compliants of lack of support from the LA made by people setting up a Free School misses the point. They are nothing to do with the LA.

1. Whether a Free School is set up in your area or not therefore depends mainly on whether a group is willing to set one up. And not all applications to set up Free Schools succeed. So having a shortage of school places in your area is not enough, and in fact a significant number of Free Schools have been set up in areas where there is no place shortage. Some of these schools have subsequently been forced to close again for lack of pupils.

1. Free Schools are indeed free in the sense that they do not:-

a.Have to follow the national curriculum

b. Employ qualified Teachers

c. Recognise Teacher Unions or abide by national pay agreements.

new Free Schools are also not bound by regulations regarding playground space etc.

So this means that if you are thinking of a Free School for your child you need to check what their views are on the National Curriculum or whether they do, actually, employ unqualified teachers, if that matters to you.

You also need to check what their accomadation arrangements are.

Also a high proportion of Free Schools have been set up by religious groups, so you need to check that out if it matters to you.