Is there a nervously awaiting primary admissions thread?

[drspouse]

Or have I just started the first one?

I haven't told DS when it is either, I don't think he'd really understand the concept of someone else deciding for us, we will just present the final option as our choice when we know it.

I can't remember if I said up-thread but I've spoken to nursery and they said there are usually a few children who don't know due to e.g. moving house, so if we say we don't know yet he won't be alone.

I'm sure he ll be fine drspouse my DD has been asking for months as just wants to get started at big school. She's sept born and is more than ready to be there & is so so bored of pre school!!

I don't know if I can mentally cope with hanging on for waiting lists etc I think I'm just gonna go for whatever one they give me. But may change my mind when the offer email comes.
I've just been online looking at school uniforms and wondering what one DD will be wearing.
Hurry up Monday!!!

It's such a big deal...I don't feel like dh is as worried as me, he's just got the "what will be will be" attitude. wish I could feel that way!
Have checked la website but still confused. I think I may as well just wait and see. We could be worrying about nothing but it's so hard to think that I could potentially have to move ds from his school into a new one that I may not have even chosen
Thank God no more of this until secondary come Monday .
Ps we are going away for a long weekend to take my mind off it!

I'm literally biting my nails down waiting for Monday. I have three kids Ds9 Dd5 and Ds4. This time last year I went through the admissions for my dd and she failed to get into her older brothers school. We appealed but it was denied so the last year I've been struggling doing two separate school runs, it's been a nightmare and the thought that my youngest will be offered another different school on Monday fills me with dread.

The primary school my eldest goes to is an oversubscribed CofE school. Siblings have always been first priority so once you get your first child in you were guaranteed to get places for your younger kids. But two years ago the school decided to change its criteria to favour children who live within parish first before siblings. As we live just out of the parish (but we are still only a 10 minute walk away) my Dd didn't get a place last year. So this time round I've put my Dd's school as first choice for my Ds and put my older Ds's school as 2nd choice. I'm just praying he gets a place at one as otherwise I'll have three kids to get to three separate primary schools for at least the next two years until my DS finishes year 6 and is ready for secondary school.

Zoe that is awful...how on earth do you manage to drop to kids to separate schools? I get why the sibling rule is in place. Annoys me that it gets abused round here by people who live way out of our area but get their younger dcs in because older ones go to the schools. It's unfair on all really

I forgot to say the school now prioritises siblings but siblings who live within parish and technically we don't even though we are less than a mile away. If I had any inkling that the school were going to change their criteria like that I would never had opted to send Ds1 there.

We've always lived where we are now so it's not as though we moved close to the school and then moved after Ds got his place but I'm aware that some people do that. We chose the school initially thinking that we wouldn't get Ds in but thought we'd try anywau and he's so happy there, I just wish we could have all of kids there.

To answer your question though it's a nightmare. I've had to cut my hours at work as the two schools are at opposite ends of town. I have to drop my Ds off at 8.30 were he has to wait on the playground on his own for 20 minutes which I hate doing. Then I race back the other way to get my Dd to school and I either get there just on time or five mins late usually. At pick up I pick my Dd up first at 3.15. I have to park really close the school run back to the car and then try and get though traffic back to my Ds's school. He finishes at 3.25 but I don't get there until 3.45 as I have to park further away due to the amount of cars and then have to run with my 5 year old. It's hard work but I somehow make it work. Once my Ds goes to secondary and if my youngest gets into dd's primary school things will be a lot easier but for the next two years I've got to continue juggling both schools.

I am getting increasingly nervous about it - we put school at the end of our road as first choice, both primaries in town are rates good, this one is non denominational and she'll have a couple of kids from nursery there with her, as well as my neighbours kids.
However, she can be quite sensitive (although she never stops talking ) and she is in a very small nursery setting (around 16 kids with 4/5 staff) and nearest school has intake of 45 with 2 teachers in same room. Am slightly worried it is not the best fit for her. However, we walk past it all the time and she does seem excited about it and also happy that she is near to home.
However the other school is c of e, we are not, it is much bigger, intake of 60 and is other end of town meaning we'd have to drive.
Third choice is lovely tiny village school which is on my side of town so we'd have to drive but it'd probably be quicker than getting through middle of town (as well as finding parking and getting dd2 out of the car as well) but both choices 2&3 have been oversubscribed in past years plus we are well out of catchment.

Originally our lea stated we'd find out on 16th but now says 18th. The website did indicate that if you'd applied on line, you'd be able to log in before emails were sent to find outcome.
Not long to go now.

Aargh am now over thinking. Saw headmistress at first choice school and she wouldn't meet my eye. Now rational me says she was busy etc etc paranoid me says she knows ds doesn't have a place at the school!! Help!

Oh can I join please?!

Waiting for news on DS (dc2). We're in the catchment for a good school and just outside catchment for outstanding school where DD attends. Hoping he gets in with DD.

Miaow We use a workplace nursery and it's the same - loads of schools represented. I already know of one neighbour at the nursery definitely going to our 2nd choice (sibling), one DC who he's been with since age 2 and who knows him well from always being picked up late like DS (oops) who lives right next door to our first choice, and his little friend since baby group is going to no 3 (large and undersubscribed so no worries for them).
So he'll be going with A, or S, or T, it's just a question of which.

Tiggytape can I pick your brains to check I've got this straight in my head with regards how it all works please?
My understanding is as follows:
If a school in my area is oversubscribed then the council gives the following priority: LAC, siblings then distance (in metres as the crow flys from the middle of the playground to my front door)
My first choice is always oversubscribed. I doubt I'll get it as I'm 1,200m away and the LEA have told me that places haven't been given out further than 1,000m in the last 4 years.
My second choice based on the last 3 years figures I would have got in two out of the three years so I'm semi optimistic about this one.
My third preference is the most realistic one, I live 100m from it but they have always been undersubscribed (they had 40 people start last year and 60 places)
My understanding is that I'm most likely to get my third preference.
My LEA said they manage the waiting lists until December and then pass them over to the schools to manage. They said you automatically go onto waiting lists for the higher preferences than the school you've been allocated.
So.... Should I accept the place at my third choice anyway? How does it work if you've accepted a choice then another preference becomes available?

No Tiggy, but I also sit on appeals panels...

Yes, accept the third. You will then go on waiting lists for your first and second. If a place comes up via the list, they will notify you, and you will have to choose (pretty quickly) whether to take it up instead of the third choice you accepted. Accepting a place has no affect on your places on the wait list for other schools. You can stay on waiting lists past Dec by letting the schools know.

One anomaly here is that one LEA (Herts?) will automatically assume that you will want a place at the higher up school if one comes available, so will just give it to you and take away the previous place you accepted. Fine, in many cases, but some people will now be happy with the place they have accepted - so double check this isn't the case where you live if you want to have the choice!

Joining you and starting to get very nervous with four days to go. London admissions so we find out later on Monday afternoon/evening. Thankfully we are sibling entry this year so less pressure, I spent the whole three months as a nervous wreck two years ago. But it's still a very oversubscribed, "outstanding", top of the LA tables, CoE school. I'm paranoid I've made an error but hopefully that's just anxiety. DD2 will probably do better there than DD1 who is suspected SEN, the less academic, more diverse, schools in the area have in house SEN provision. I'm very excited to see her in her school uniform.

ZoeQ I really feel for you. That must be so hard. Fingers crossed your DC3 gets your choice 1.

I really liked our second choice and it's the catchment so I'm starting to think that at least if we go there I won't have any worry for DS in 2 years time. We have the sibling rule and live 500m away.

Choice 1 has published admission criteria for 2017/18 and they are keeping sibling rule. They are an academy so I think they have to consult on admission criteria every year. I'd be worrying about them changing for 2018/19 which is DS's year.

Like you we live 10 minutes from choice 1 but it's not our catchment.

I actually think 'siblings in catchment' is a really sensible way to go but I'd phase it in with enough notice so that no one ended up in your circumstances without knowing that is a risk.

ZoeQ I feel for you too. I could understand if they were trying to route out unfairness by saying that anyone who has moved house and now lives a fair distance shouldn't get sibling priority but you haven't moved house or area!! Such a shame.

Thanks for the advice tiggytape and others. I'm going to accept what they offer me for sure. I am almost certain that even if I didn't put the school round the corner as any of my three preferences and I didn't end up getting any of them they'd still allocate it to me as it would be my nearest school with spaces anyway. From what I've seen in a few schools these special measures schools can be turned round and they are the next "outstandings" people are predicting the school will be the next place people are pining for as its on a lovely road so once it gets on its feet it can thrive. Here's hoping anway

Wow there's some really useful info on here, tiggy you've really helped!
What would you do if you get offered nothing? That's what happened to us for nursery, then we waited and got offered a place a few days later at our first choice nursery?
I'm thinking if ds doesn't get into a school I'm happy with we could think about moving (have talked at length about this with dh) but even then doesn't guarantee us a space anywhere does it?
I don't think I could accept a place at a school I didn't like. What happens if you defer for a while? Ds is August born so still 3 so maybe we could put it off for a year? But then you can't re apply can you? Do you have to go with what you're given this Monday?

You can hold a place without taking it up, and remain on a waiting list till at least Christmas, as I understand it.
We may send DS to another half term of nursery rather than put him in one school for half a term, if we're very near the top of the waiting list. He's got a spring term birthday so actually doesn't need to start till April.

Missesbloom I haven't been through the process myself yet but have found friends advice who have been so helpful.
One thing I've learnt from friends is that schools that might not seem good on paper (Ofsted paper that is) might actually be brilliant schools in their own way. For instance, the woman over the road from me that was 20th on the waiting last year for the "outstanding" school up the road was given the "special measures" school round the corner. She was apprehensive but accepted the place and decided to give it a go. She has absolutely nothing but praise for the special measures school. Her DS is thriving there! she said it's a combination of much improved teaching, and the class sizes because it's undersubscribed (there's only 20 in his class) she also has found the school to be down to earth and approachable and she has brilliant relations with them. She keeps me posted on how he's getting on and she says he loves every moment of it. In fact, he loves it so much she's put it as a first choice for her DD this year.
I read a quote that I found interesting re schools it said this:
"A schools popularity is often like the stock market: dependant on psychology and mob behaviour rather than intrinsic value"

Completely agree tarah. I refused to judge a school based on ofsted reports and visited each one to see how I felt about them.
I was actually horrified by our catchment school. I wanted to love it. It's on our doorstep. I hated everything about it. We were shown round by a family liason officer who wasn't able to answer a lot of our questions as parents. She was unsure of the future of the school (someone had heard that they were moving sites and this could happen potentially during the SATS for our dcs).
The toilets in the classrooms smelled strongly of urine and it hit you as soon as you walked in. The kids looked miserable and teachers didn't seem to be able to keep their attention. It just was an awful fit for us and my ds would be lost there.

The schools we are hoping to get are fantastic in very different ways. They don't have the best ofsted reports (not bad either) but I could see my son there iyswim?

I didn't obviously put catchment school on my list because we would definitely get it. I think I'd rather attempt to home school tbh if he got offered that.

I do agree though you can't judge a school based on what's written and I also think that a school is only as good as it's staff.