I've been so stupid

[Sonicknuckles]

We are within walking distance to the school my eldest child goes to even so we are out of catchment. I didn't understand the admissions process and my youngest hasn't got a place at the school. I really thought she would get in. I've been so naive.
To make matters worse I didn't choose a 2nd or 3rd choice as I clearly want my kids to be together at school.
Youngest goes to the village preschool and she comes with me every day to drop her brother at school and pick up (I am SAHM).
We have integrated into the local community. My youngest has made friends and their siblings are in my eldests class.
It is all so horrible and heartbreaking.
We have been offered a place in a village in opposite direction that you have to drive to.
How can I be in two places doing school run at the same time when there is considerable distance between them.
The system is a joke.
If I could turn back time I would have chosen catchment school for my eldest but there wasn't much in it distance wise and we didn't know the area that well or understand the processes.
Please help

number 6 isn't bad, what's the intake? I'd look into deferring or home educating and talk to the school about how many people do drop out - we've had a few dropping out at the end of the first year of primary due to parent job moves, going private etc. and I'm sure there's a fair bit of movement before the first year starts too.

You could also try and fix getting her into the in catchment school. I was so stressed about getting our OOC place as you never know if you've read the form right and mistakes are hard to rectify.

number 6 isn't bad, what's the intake? I'd look into deferring or home educating and talk to the school about how many people do drop out

It's not necessarily that easy to predict. At the same school (60 entry):
Dc1-was undersubscribed so you wouldn't have an issue/
Dc2-you would have had a place at the end of reception
Dc3-no spaces became available until part way through year 2-and that space (only one) went to someone who'd only moved into the area a month ago.
However over year 3 (juniors so different school) 6 of the children moved away so there would potentially have been 6 places (only junior school had taken more than that on appeal so there weren't any spaces available) and 4 of those had siblings in year 1, so there would have been 4 spaces in year 1.

No it’s not easy to predict but the first two years of primary aren’t that big a deal, if you got to September then you could always make a better long term plan.