School waiting lists

[djdaface]

Hello,

My Girlfriend was planning to relocate 100 miles to my home over the summer bringing her son with her, we did all the paperwork for school applications back in May but are getting non-existent or vague information about if he has a school to go to down here at all.

We have had no official letters but after repeat phone calls it looks like we are on waiting lists for the first two of our choices around 7th place and what we will probably be offered is a badly rated school almost an hour away from where we live, which is a shame considering there are 17 schools within 20 minutes.

The 7th place is prioritised based on her moving into my house which is in the catchment area
Quite understandably she doesn't particularly want to remove her son from a perfectly good school to a very bad school that was s far away she would be unable to get a job and both of them would have a terrible quality of life.

The wait list places we have are based on her moving down but does anyone know if she could stay where she is will son at the same school and remain prioritised on the wait lists at schools near my house or will she go up to 65th because she hasn't actually moved in?

Shes not takin the uncertainty of the situation well so any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

She has to live at your address to qualify for her position on the wait list. if she remains at her old address she will be at the bottom of the wait list as it will be ordered by distance so if she is 100 miles away she will be bottom.

Also it depends how big the school is to how realistic your chances of a place of the wait list actually are.. My daughter is just finishing year 6 and there hasn't been 7 children move for her entire time at the school.

Are there any other waiting lists you can join for schools that are nearer - get on as many as you can.

Up to the admission authority but the vast majority use the address where the child lives at the time of application or where they will definitely be moving in the immediate future, not the address they might live at if the application is successful. If she stays put and waits her son will almost certainly go to the back of the waiting list. To be honest, I'm a little surprised he isn't there now. I wouldn't expect him to move up to 7th until she has actually moved.

Which year is he in? You may be able to get in via appeal if the local authority allocated him a school that was an hour away.

He will be going into year 1
He hasn't finished his school year yet so he cant move now, he still has two more weeks at his current school and then the moving begins or may not if we cant find a way to find a school for him here, I wouldn't expect them to move down on the basis he might get a place some time before Christmas or you can travel 4 hours a day to get him there - its just silly

If the allocated school is genuinely an hour's journey away you will be able to appeal on the basis that this is an unreasonable distance so he should have been admitted to a nearer school as an excepted child.

Surely this would be treated as an in year admission and you would go to the schools nearest/you like the look of and ask to go on the waiting list or if they have a spare place.

Then if you are on the list at the17 other schools then it is just a waiting game

you would go to the schools nearest/you like the look of and ask to go on the waiting list or if they have a spare place

Depends on the local authority. I believe there are still some that handle in-year admissions rather than passing responsibility on to the schools. And if there are no places available within a reasonable distance it is definitely up to the local authority to find a place.

Normally you do not go down the list until you move or at least exchange contracts with a completion date. It's difficult as its a gamble. We are in process of moving now having just exchanged but LA is taking 3.5 weeks to answer e-mails and has a phone message saying not to call them. It's very frustrating and could lead to my son not getting a place at the local school due to delays and he has SEN. My daughter wants to go to a school who have places but LA hasn't processed it so she can't go. If its a mid year transfer 7th doesn't sound very hopeful, if its for y7 you could get in depending on size of school, ours is 180 intake and moves around 1 place per week. Could you move closer to her?