How do people know that they have to apply for schools between 1 September and 15 January?

[CruCru]

I know that I have to do this because I am on Mumsnet. How do other people find out? Do councils write to people with children due to start school to let them know what to do?

Yes, I had a letter from the council both times, and as my children attended a pre-school, they had booklets with info and the forms available to pick up from there.

It's generally advertised in places where parents of young children frequent. So doctors' surgery, children's centre, Health Visitor centre, preschools, etc.

Libraries, post offices, council offices, shops, nurseries. My LEA sends out brochures to parents so assume they have access to a data base although people do move in and out of the area as well as move home within the LEA so I'm sure it's not 100% foolproof.

If moving from private to state for secondary in our area you have to provide extra information prior to 1 Sep. Our authority doesn't advertise that. One tiny sentence in a 100 page admission booklet referring to getting in touch with admissions team. You have to provide a child benefit statement (which some don't get, but a letter to that effect) from HMRC as extra ID and it typically takes four weeks to arrive so if you find out late you need to do this I haven't a clue what happens.

Ps the current year admission booklet doesn't come out until mid September either.

I found out through the pre-school my DDs attended. They had big posters up on the notice board. I don't remember if I got letter.

Our LA doesn't send out brochures or letters, as any transient families may well be missed.

However, there are posters in all the public buildings and a leaflet is given to families of all children registered at a childminder/nursery/preschool that have to apply that year.

I only ever found out about school admission deadlines from other Mums. I never had letters from the council, or from their nursery, or anywhere. I was quite surprised! But luckily, lovely Mum friends always warned me and then I rang the admissions team and got all the info direct. That was in Surrey. LEA.

I was never sent a letter by the council. The preschool gave us the information about when and how to apply.

No letters from the council here. The council magazine that was delivered around the application period didn't have a note about application dates either as far as I could see.

DS1's nursery had a poster up, and postcards to take away with application deadlines printed on. The staff also asked what schools we were applying to etc in general conversation.

You could ask the same question about anything that is a legal requirement really, couldn't you?

Parents have a legal duty to ensure their child is educated - so it's up to them to find out how to go about it; whether that is applying for state school, private school or home educating.

It's not really up to the council to remind parents of their legal obligations, or to advertise (for want of a better word) their provision - particularly if they are oversubscribed, as many schools are.

There are lots of services that can advise parents if they bother to check - I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect parents to be handheld through the process of parenting, really.

We've been in one area where it was just info in public places, one where you get a letter telling you your catchment and when to apply.

Our council has posters at libraries etc, our primary puts the posters up and bits in the news letters reminding people about both secondary deadlines and primary deadlines for younger siblings. Lots of the schools have stuff up outside as well.

The council websites put it on their homepages.

Our LEA writes to all parents they have on record with their code for accessing the online admissions system. I assume details come from the 3yr funding, but I'm not sure. Before you get the letter they cross reference your details (council tax records) so you don't have to provide any proof of address. If you don't get a letter or the details are wrong, eg you've moved, then you have to ask them for a letter and provide proof of address.

I make a point of asking SIL about her applications for any of her DC which are due to start or move, since she forgot to apply for a place for DC4 even though DC1-3 were already at school.

Yep, posters at our day care provider. No letters.

When my eldest had to apply you had to apply by end of October and it was not well advertised by our county. I found out by word of mouth but did meet someone who missed it as they didn't realise and was struggling to get a local school as a late applicant.

Ah, interesting. I have now filled out the website but haven't submitted as I need to get DH to double check the council tax account number hasn't changed and also run through the schools we're applying to.

I'm assuming that once you've submitted, there is no option to revise your application?

My LEA sent out letters to everyone who had a child registered with a GP for DD1s year.

I looked it up on the internet!

We didn't get a letter from the LA (north London) and I didn't see any posters advertising the date or telling us to apply for schools. There was definitely no posters at DD's nursery, which was a staff nursery and as such had children attending from different London boroughs as well as from addresses outside of London.

I think here in London you can revise your application after submission, as long as it's still before deadline. A friend of mine did this. She submitted and used only two of her six preferences. Her first choice was an oversubscribed faith school and her second choice an oversubscribed community primary that she was way way too far away to ever stand a chance of a place at. A few weeks later, and just before the submission deadline, she had a panic that her DC might not get into the faith school and phoned the LA to ask if she could add another school to her list, ended up adding a closer community primary as third choice that she would be near enough most years to get a place at. Her DC got into the first choice school anyway.

Apparently our local council sends out reminder letters to any eligible children registered with (I think) a doctor's surgery if they haven't had an application by December.

I thought we needed to apply next year, didn't realise until a couple of weeks ago it was now.

Where we live, you can revise the application any time up till the deadline date. So check your guidelines as it may be the same for you.

Be careful though - I know of one person who submitted their application online, then re-opened the application to revise the application, and forgot to resubmit it. So they missed the deadline because of that. Luckily for them, their first choice school was undersubscribed that year so they got in anyway.

Ah thanks. It isn't obvious that we can resubmit so I think I'd better assume we can't (and wire a brief summary of each school for DH).