Attending preschool to increase chances of getting into primary school

[TheChineseChicken]

This is possibly something that varies by school so I may need to contact them directly but just seeing if anyone can advise.

DD is 18 months and attends a private nursery. The primary school we would like her to attend when she is 4 is very popular and oversubscribed - although we are only a few minutes' walk away I understand from their admissions criteria that proximity is fairly low down so we aren't guaranteed a place.

Would sending DD to the attached preschool increase her chances of getting a place at the primary school? Or does it have no impact? Does anyone have experience of this? And would it be worth expressing our interest in the preschool now to guarantee a place?

TIA

No difference unless that's in their admission criteria which would be unusual.

No impact at all around here

Wouldn't have mattered at our school as the criteria was additional needs, church, siblings catchment.

I'd look at the criteria but expect it's similar.

no impact at all sorry

Ha ha, thought as much! Never mind

Have a look at the primary admission criteria. Ours gives priority to those who've attended the preschool or at least put the preschool as first choice on application. Wouldn't be unusual for schools near us at all.

Thanks Nyancat I'll take a look at their admissions again. It's a very popular school so I suspect it won't help

It would be unusual unless part of an academy group which can set its own criteria.

We can't tell you whether it will help or not, it is all down to the Admissions Criteria for that school.

I've not seen one that does include attendance of the preschool as a criterion, but that's not to say one doesn't exist.

If you're having problems understanding the criteria, post them on here and we can help decipher them for you.

Thanks all. Just looked again and no mention of the nursery in the admissions criteria - and the nursery documentation specifically says that attendance does not guarantee a place at the primary school. Distance is 4th in the hierarchy of admission criteria so I guess we would just have to hope we get in. And things could change in the next couple of years anyway.

I'm tagging @admission and @prh47bridge as I didn't think it was even permissible to use attendance at a pre-school as an admission criteria, so am surprised by nyancat 's statement.

I know a church school nearby that gives preference to those who attend the nursery above distance

It is now in theory possible for a school to put down attendance at a nursery as an admission criteria. However, my understanding is that what the admission authority has to show is that this does not disadvantage other children who either did not get a place at the nursery, or went to another nursery or no nursery at all, when it comes to admission to reception year.
I am not aware of any Local Authority that has this in their admission criteria but there are both faith schools and academies who are their own admission authority who have this as an admission criteria. Personally I would always challenge whether the admission authority can prove that they are not disadvantaging other children other than those in the nursery.
The bottom line is how many children are being admitted to the nursery and then getting priority to reception year. If say the nursery had only 10 children who were moving to reception and there were 60 in reception year I think it is reasonable to argue that they are not disadvantaging the other children as there are 50 places out of the 60 in reception available to other children. However if it was not 10 but 45 or more places from the nursery then I think it highly unlikely that they could prove it is not disadvantaging other children.
If it is not on the admission criteria then the school cannot give any priority to nursery children for admission purposes. I do think however there are good reasons to consider a place at the attached nursery so you child benefits from a good settling in period in the school environment before "real" starts in reception

That's very interesting, thank you. Being a first time mother I have no idea how the whole school process works! We can't apply for preschool until DD is 2 anyway so will have to wait 6 months

OP I wouldn’t give up hope of getting in to the school in the future. Proximity is 5th on our schools criteria and the one in which 75% of the intake get in by.

1. Looked after children
2. Children with disabilities
3. Children in catchment area with sibling/s
4. Children in catchment area without sibling (this is where we fall).

How do you find out what % of intake fell into each category? And isn't there a site where you can see the furthest distance from the school a child was admitted?

Agree with Admission regarding the legality of prioritising children going to the nursery.

TheChineseChicken - I definitely wouldn't give up hope on this school. It is likely that they admit some children based on proximity every year. Check what has happened for the last few years and, assuming some were admitted on proximity, find out the distance for the last child admitted. That will give you some idea of your chances.

Chinesechicken I think that is a fairly standard set of admissions criteria, and unless there are unusual circumstances (a big spike in siblings for example) it is likely most of the children admitted will be on proximity.

I'm in Surrey and you can look on the Surrey website to find out how places are allocated. I typed Surrey published admission number into google and it led me to this...

www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/school-admissions/admission-arrangements-and-outcomes/how-school-places-were-allocated-in-previous-years

Sorry I can't make it clicky!

If you scroll down it tells you by area within Surrey. So if you google published admission numbers and your county (or London borough) you should hopefully get something similar.

Thanks Cocktail, I'll take a look at that.

I'm not necessarily worried (and it's a way off anyway). I'm assuming that criteria 1 and 2 make up a minority of places

Aha, I've found the stats. All looks good. Only 1 application in catchment area turned down last year

We had 10 siblings the year DD started. That left 20 spaces. No kids that applied were looked after or disabled , but even if they were , unless it was 20 of them, as soon as distance kicked in we were first on the list. I can see DD in the playground from my garden. I still stressed though.

Typically you would get maybe 1 or 2 children in the first 2 categories, in my kids School approx 10 siblings per class apart from DS2 year where there were 24 siblings!
You should be able to see what the furthest distance a place was offered (without being a sibling) on the past few years so you can work out what your average chances are.

Well the furthest child who received a place was over a mile away and we are only 0.1 miles so we're probably fine