no automatic transfer from infants to junior and worried we'll not get in!

[babypeach]

Hi,

Have just realised that my daughter is not guaranteed a place at the juniors of her current school.

Does anyone have experience of this? Apparently children currently in year 2 are given priority but that's it. I'm going to chat to the teacher soon but wondered if anyone knows if generally children get a place in this situation.

We have moved since she started at the Infants and whilst we are not a great deal further it is a very over-subscribed school, plus we are now much nearer to another school. My daughter took an absolute age to settle and is really only gaining in confidence now so moving school would be bad news!

Thanks in advance!

Is year 3 the same number of children or fewer (or more). If it's the same and year 2 have priority unless there are other admission criteria above priority for year 2 you should be ok.

However you can't assume so I'd look at other options too.

What are the actual priority criteria?

If being at linked infants is only behind Adopted/Statemented then you probably don't need to worry.

Hi both I think its behind statemented and adopted. Logically I should think it will be ok as class size is the same but frankly anything schools admission wise fills me with dread. Combined with our recent move it just makes me nervous!
Thanks both for taking time to reply x

We have one like that nearby, instead of a primary school there are 2 school, Infants & Juniors.

Maybe talk to the school office & see how many children in previous years did not get into the Juniors? They may all have got in for the past 10 years...

This might be stating the blindingly obvious, but do make sure you get her application process right - i.e. make sure you know about any deadlines etc. Because even if those already in the infants take priority, that might not apply if you don't make the correct application on time.

Beyond that, you need to find out what the admissions criteria are for the juniors. No-one on here can give you categoric advice without that information.

Disclaimer: This is about to be a 'common sense' comment, may or may not reflect reality.

I suspect that if linked infants are immediately after adopted & statemented, then the expectation would be that all linked infants would get in. If an adopted child 'parachuted' in meaning a linked infant didn't, my common sense view is that that child would get in on appeal anyway. Juniors aren't bound by infants class size rules, so could go up to e.g. 32.

You could make a strong case for detriment of being excluded from her classmates - and juniors is a 'balance of prejudice' argument.

Remember - the LAC/SEN kid has to suddenly decide to join your school in Y3. Any existing kids would already be wrapped up in the 30 kids going up. At Juniors the HT could even argue to extend PAN.

I'd assume everything would be fine.

You need to check the admission criteria. Statemented children won't be mentioned as they are admitted without going through the normal admissions process. LAC will be first as that is compulsory. If children from the infants school are next the chances of you missing out are low.

Our school is like this, it's unheard of for a child to not get a place in the juniors and is also a very oversubscribed school. The only people who didn't get a place didn't submit their forms in time and got in on appeal anyway. Like a previous poster said, they can take more children in juniors anyway

Thanks everyone for the advice.
I'm back on school pick up duty this week so will be able to see the teacher but your comments have been reassuring.

There is a very oversubscribed school near us like this.
Every year there are usually about 5 or 6 children who don't get a juniors place. I know a few children it's happened to.
One of the reasons I didn't put it as my first choice