School place offered - what’s next?

[Eminybob]

We got our first choice, and have accepted the offer. Really pleased, it looks as though a lot of our nearby schools are undersubscribed this year so there will only be 22 in ds’s class.

Anyway, what happens next? Do the school contact us to let us know about settling in days, uniform etc? Or do I need to actively contact them?

The school will contact you. However it might not be for a few weeks!

Fab, thank you. Yeah didn’t expect anything right away, just like to know what I’m doing!

If you work watch out as some schools have a drawn out induction process which means some children don't go full time until half term. You can argue against it though.

Some schools do 'home visits' to see the child in their natural surroundings, and to give the parents a chance to talk about specific issues which they might not wish to raise in-front of other parents.

Probably not much will happen for a few weeks. In my experience the schools wait until everybody offered a place gives their answer, then any spare places are offered and accepted. That can take a good month. Then you will probably get an information pack through.

Great. Yeah I’ve heard about the drawn out induction period which does worry me a bit. Dc2 is due in November and I’d planned to finish work at the October half term, but it sounds like I’m going to have to take a load of holiday before then anyway.
I only work 3 days so can try and juggle something.

Do you know if it’s possible to enroll in the before and after school clubs right from day 1? Dh and I both work 9-5 so chose the school because of the wrap around provision, but we will be screwed if it’s only from after the first half term.

I think ds’s nursery does some kind of intergration with the local primaries, which would be nice.

So my DD is going to Yr 2 this September, she was in a private nursery up till starting school, our school had provision with the nurseries to get the kids to go in for a couple of settling/familiarising sessions, the teacher also came to their nursery to chat with the key worker, we also had a new parents evening in the June to go over what we would need for school but TBH it is probably the same everywhere, you need a non spill water bottle, uniform, I bought 5 so I didn't have to wash midweek, a waterproof coat, try and get one where the lining can come out so it can be used when the weather is warmer and then when it gets colder, the book bag, PE bag & PE kit (wait till they tell you what that is though - we didn't need pumps for the first 12 months), that was it really, our school also has the wraparound provision and DD started there straightaway, we contacted them beforehand and she went in for a few sessions just so it wasn't all totally new, they run a holiday club too so we put her in for a couple of the days over the summer holidays so she knew them, they knew her - it was fine, worked well and she still goes, she loves it.

Good luck with the process and baby no 2!

Really useful stuff, thank you.

You could always 'pop in' to the school and chat to the person in the office. Just sort of generally, to get an idea how the land lies. Use the impending arrival of DC2 as an excuse to wanting info before they send it.

You may find that they have an 'everyone starts full time' policy like my DD's primary (and I might have worried you for nothing), and you can also ask about how the breakfast club and ASC work.

If you discover that some start full time and others don't you could request now for your DC to be in the first wave, again citing newborn as a reason for needing the quick settle.

Don't turn up before 9:30 or between 11:45 & 1:15 or after 2:45 though as those are likely to be busy times. You want to get there when they might have a few minutes.

Also don't turn up week beginning 13th May as that is y6 SATs week.

School will contact you, usually after sats finished

I'd be suprised if he couldn't be full time by Nov unless it was by choice?? I don't know any schools like that.

In our school the summer born reception kids did first week half days, then the other children did the second week half days then all normal the following week unless a parent wanted their child in for short days. I know some schools do half days for a few weeks but not many go on longer than that round here (South East)

It can seem a bit of an anticlimax once you get the school of your choice! It takes a few weeks for everything to settle, people accept places, the schools get sent all the parents contact details etc.

They will then be in touch with further information setting out the process for joining the school. This will be different for every school, it may just be written information or a handbook. Ours had an induction session mid June which parents and child went to, including a visit to their classroom. There may be home visits from their teacher and/ or social events for parents/children (often organised by the PTA).

The actual start date and phasing in again differs - the easiest way to get an idea of what your school does is to ask a parent already at the school, or maybe pop along to the school office at a quiet time.