Moving house, new school has room for one child but not the other..

[keepittogether]

Hopefully moving house in the next couple of months (council house). The school at the bottom of the road can take my daughter (year 6) but does not have a space for my son (year 3). The next nearest school is a drive away.
I haven't yet formally applied as it seems I need to actually have moved in before I can fill in a application even. They said that I would be welcome to put in an appeal about the decision after the refusal, and that a child got in on appeal last year. The year 3 year group has 45 children and is split into 2 classes so I dont see why they would refuse?

Anyway.. how long does the application process take? How long does the appeal process take? Should I start my daughter at the school straight away in the hope of getting my son in? What are the best points to use to appeal to the school..? proximity? social?

Any insights would be really appreciated

You can't guarantee either will get a place if you wait. How far is the move, could your dc2 reasonably stay put and travel back until a space came up.

Move th eldest asap and then appeal DC2, assuming your move is confirmed

As your eldest is year 6 I would move her to the local school ASAP. She can make friends for secondary and will be able to walk to school on her own so taking your son to school won’t be a problem

The house move is 12 miles away from where I am currently so not really possible to keep one at the current school.

I am worried that if my daughter starts the appeal for my son could still be refused and I would end up with them at different schools or having to move her again..

Also concerned about the length of time that my son could conceivably be off school with application, plus appeal.

In 9 months time they will be a different schools anyway, less by the time you would move. Would the alternative school for ds also have a space in y 6.

In yr6 she can walk by herself anyway if no SN so she should be able to get there and back herself until there is a place for your son.

You don't have to wait until you move before you apply. You can apply immediately provided you use your current address. They must offer you a place if it is available. However, the problem you will have is that you will be expected to take the place up within a few weeks so you will have children at different schools, at least in the short term. It might be best to wait until you know when you will be moving and apply a few weeks before the move.

Looking at timescales, schools and LAs vary in how long they take to process in-year applications so it isn't possible to predict how long the application will take. You can't appeal until you've applied and been rejected. Once you have lodged your appeal it must be heard within 30 school days - note that school holidays don't count towards this limit.

Whether or not your daughter is already at the school should not affect the outcome of the appeal. In order to win an appeal you will need to show that the disadvantage to your son from not attending this school outweighs the problems the school will face from having to cope with an additional child. So you need to show that the school offers things that are particularly relevant to your son and that are not available from any alternative school. Simply being the nearest school to home and having his sister there won't carry any weight, nor will transport or childcare issues.

By the way, are you sure the Y3 classes are not mixed with other years? With 45 in the year it would be normal to mix Y3 with Y4 to give 3 classes of 30, with Y5 and Y6 similarly mixed.

Thanks for the in depth reply

There are approx 250 kids at the school, reception and year 3 are the only years that have 2 classes. When I called the school they confirmed that there were 2 small year 3 classes, however a space would be refused.

My daughter is a very young 10 year old and would struggle taking herself to school. ( Cannot yet tell the time and frightened to walk anywhere alone!) If I kept my son at his current school I'm looking at a 45min drive (if not more) to get him there. Not sure I can make 2 schools so far away work..

I guess it's just weighing up some difficult options. I just don't want my son out of school waiting.

The school obviously has some small year groups in other year groups as they would have 315 pupils if each year group had 45 in it. The reason that the school are saying that they will not admit over the 45 is that in theory, more pupils could arrive in other year groups where they are not full and the school would have to admit, whether they want to or not. That would cause some re-arrangement of classes if they suddenly got an influx of pupils. However when they go to appeal with two small classes of 22 and 23 in classrooms presumably designed for 30, the school are going to have their work cut out to make a case that they cannot admit.
I would be tempted to put your son down on the waiting list now on the chance that a space will become available in the interim before you move. As PRH says there is nothing stopping you from applying for a place using your current address. For your daughter it is really a matter of balancing when you are moving and when you should apply for the place. I would suggest that the school will not keep the place open for more than 6 weeks, possibly a bit less, so that would suggest you apply for daughter's place in about 4 or 5 weeks,along with the son, so that an appeal can then be arranged hopefully at about the time you are moving.