Primary school problems

[PersisFord]

I don't think anyone can help....I just need a hand hold I think! We bought our house pre DC, safe in the knowledge that it was in the catchment area of 2 great schools. Well....this year we would have been in the catchment of 1 school only and apparently the catchments are getting even smaller....and I'm worried that by the time the twins start we won't have either. And there isn't another school near us at all, there just aren't enough places for children so I don't know where they would go.

Our house was really expensive because it was in the area for these good schools. We can't move for a couple of years anyway (so would be moving them in year 1) and if we end up not being in any school catchment area we won't be able to sell our house anyway. There is a private school near which we could just afford....but it is very pushy and I'm not sure about it at all.

What do I do? I feel like crying!

Can I just check....the academy is prob 2 miles away but it's in the same LEA. Can I apply for it? (Assuming I like it).

You can apply for any school you like and think you have a realistic prospect of getting in

If there is an issue in the whole wider area of not enough school places then it is likely one of the schools will have a bulge class! This could work out for you if it is one of your local 2 schools that end up having to host a bulge class. You may have to fight and campaign to get one, but worth fighting for? - I'm thinking of that black hole you are mentioning just west of where you live!

Yes you can apply for any school you like. Near me many are in a different LEA to the one I apply through. They just communicate with each other to establish one offer.

I met up with some of the neighbours on Saturday morning - the ones with the kids starting this September (and last year) are a bit better informed than me. Apparently both schools are absolutely at capacity - there is no space to host a bulge class, or put in a portacabin, or anything. The nice one has already expanded over the last couple of years. There have apparently been various planning applications over the last few years which have been blocked.

I asked about the black hole to the West.....and that's where the Catholic school is so even if those kids aren't Catholic they get in because there aren't enough Catholic kids to fill it. I will have a look and see if we might be able to do that, but the consensus is that we are too far away. There's a kind of buffer zone in between where the kids go to private school (v posh houses so even though not that many of them they make up a lot of metres from the school).

I have emailed the school infrastructure officer today and basically asked what the options are. Apparently when my neighbours did that last year she advised them to start going to church and try to get into one of the church schools. They are Hindu and very religious. It didn't go down well!

I also looked on the local authority website and it basically said that as the birth rate should be falling again (although apparently it isn't in our area) they aren't going to make new school places because they would end up being redundant.

FruitCider, you don't have to be able to buy a house to get your child into a descent school. You could try moving further out to where there are good schools and rent! I know people who rented near a school just to get in and then moved further out! Obviously not the right thing to do, but people do what they have to do. And you do not have to be so harsh with PersisFord because they were able to afford a house near a good school and planned for the future. Everyone has a different situation financially and your attitude towards things does not help. And before you say anything - no we did not rent near a good school to get in. My daughter was going to an okay school, which we got in fairly. But decided to pull her out and send her to a private school. And circumstances change for people as well...I never thought we would be able buy or afford private school, but I didn't judge people who could! And somehow things worked out and we were able to buy and put our kids in private school.

I know people who rented near a school just to get in and then moved further out!

And I know people who did that, and who got caught out and had to remove their children. Also people who feigned religion for several months, Disgusting behaviour.

OP - you are right to do your research - I'd say you probably don't need to worry too much.Check out the academy. TBH I 'd be a lot more bothered about secondary school and your plans for that.

I'd carefully checked how long attendance is with the churches are too. Some are years, some are months and some are by number of visits.

It might be worth finding out a bit more about the school with the previous bulge classes. Bulge classes bring siblings, but after a while that tends to die out. So say they took a bulge class in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In 2014 they went back down. In 2011 there would be lots of first borns, same in 2012 (because the catchment will have gone further out). The 2011 siblings are likely to apply in 2013 and 2014 (as most families have a 2-3yr age gap). The 2013 intake will be sibling heavy but there is still a bulge class so that's ok. The 2014 intake however doesn't have a bulge class but they have extra siblings from 2011 (with 3yr gap), 2012 (2 yr gap) and 2013 (1yr gap). Relatively few first borns. 2015 will be similar but by 2016 it might even swing back the other way - many of the siblings are already in the school, there haven't been as many first borns in the preceding two years so there might even be more first borns in 2016/2017. Finding out when the last bulge class was will help you to know where you might be in that cycle. Obviously it does vary by school and average number of siblings etc.

Having said that 40/ 50 siblings out of 90 sounds standard. If you think that on average most families have approx 2 children, and you are somewhat unusual in having them both in the same year, you would expect that half the children in any one year would be the oldest in the family, and the other half of the children are younger siblings. So 45 oldest and 45 youngest (assuming an established school). Clearly it doesn't always work like that but 40 and 50 respectively would seem normal for a 90 intake year so again it will be slightly down to chance if you are in a 40 sibling year or a 50 sibling year.

Keep talking to the neighbours as they will be useful sources of information.

thanks guys, lots of helpful advice. I'm meeting the headteacher of my favourite school soon as I wanted to ask some twin stuff so I can ask him about the catchment area too. No word from the schools persob but I guess she has a lot on her plate. Perhaps I'll ring her tomorrow.