No school place

[arrggh]

We're moving to a new area, hopefully in half term and after phoning all the local schools, only one has one space, and this could obviously be taken if someone else gets in there before we are officially in the area. The school with a place is about 5 miles from our new house and not a great school or in a decent area. It's quite a rural area and the closest school to our new house, which would be our first choice has a geographical priority area which we would be in, but has no space currently, we are on the waiting list but their admissions policy states that in year admissions can be appealed to the local authority from years 3-6, as our child is currently year two, does anyone know if this would be worth doing and maybe withdrawing from school and homeschooling for the rest of this academic year if we are unable to get a place? The next closest school is approx 2 miles, but this also has no spaces.

I am absolutely not an admissions expert. But my suggestion would be that you visit the school with the place and your closest one or two schools before you decide which you prefer. If you feel strongly that you prefer the local, catchment school, then as there are only 6 weeks left of year 2 and it is possible for you (do you have paid work during the school day? Would you need to put childcare in place to cover that time?) you might consider homeschooling until September. Then the infant class size rule won't apply and the school can take an extra pupil. How far are you moving - can you stay at DC's current school for 6 weeks, even with a longer commute in the short term?

I'm at home with younger one so keeping out of school is no problem. We're moving about 30miles from current school so wouldn't be able to commute really. We've had a deadline set by others in the chain to move by June so could be any time before then. I've got an appointment to view the school with a place, but it's the distance more than anything as ideally when younger child starts school they'll be at the same one so it's setting up for 7 years of school runs!

If you want a Year 3 place then you stand a good chance. The infant class size doesn't apply and so a school can go above 30 in a class. Budgets are tight and so many schools will be keen to take in an extra child (worth £25k wish over 4 years)

So. Don't panic. Choose the school you want- if rural I would always advise local - they need friends. Go and visit the school and talk to them. They may indicate a willingness to admit but you are probably going to have to apply and appeal. If there is no local place then the appeal will be more favourable. In practice many schools risk rate the chance of an appeal being successful and so just offer a place to save time and money (ie we think this appeal would succeed and so we are going to admit). You need to be in the house (not to visit) to start really.

In our areas all the local schools are 'full' in certain year groups. Parents who move to the area apply but the school has to reject but then the parents appeal and the child gets in. I have known parents have children at two different schools waiting for places but there always seems movement in the end. Ds3 has had 31 or 32 in his class from year 1 onwards and when a child left, their seat was barely cold before another child started.

The school we want said they have one space in year 5, as it's a smallish school they have one and a half classes per year (so next year will have a year 3 and year 3/4). The LA were no help at all, they basically said they don't deal with in year admissions but could tell me where their system shows places, although this isn't always updated! I think if we can't get a waiting list place we'll just have to wait it out until September and hope for an appeal!

I would be surprised if you have to appeal. Apply and see what happens.

If there is no place within statutory walking distance defined by the Department for Education (DfE) as up to 2 miles for children under 8 years old and up to 3 miles for children aged 8 years old and over the you would have a good case.. This is the distance the local authority has to work to in considering whether another school can provide a place.

The LA said they could provide transport until the end of the next academic year, however our younger child wouldn't be entitled if we wanted to send them to the same school as we would be eligible for a place at the closest school! They just seem pretty useless with helping at all!

You absolutely can apply for a place at your preferred school and when you are officially turned down can appeal for a place in year 2.
When you say that you are moving after half term, the actual date starts to come into play here. If say it is in June that you are moving then any application for a place can realistically be for September start when it will be for year 3 and therefore not going to be an infant class size case. There will be a period where your child might be not in a new school and I am not sure whether there is a possibility of staying in the old school or not for those few weeks till the end of the term or to home educate.
You do need to apply for a place and be rejected before you can appeal, so the timing of this is all important. If you are rejected by mid June then you will get an appeal before the summer break. Leave it much later than the middle of June and no appeal will be heard until September.

Hopefully the move should happen over half term so ideally we would have a school place from the beginning of the June term, if this isn't possible it is possible to keep her at home if we need to, when I've spoken to the LA on the phone they didn't seem to know anything and just said that all in year admissions are done through the school directly, even though we are moving from a completely different area

A place is now available in the next closest school, we want for a look and it's quite nice, but still over 2 miles and only in the mixed y1/2 class. We are definitely putting in an appeal for the closest school, the LA have said we can do this now but only for a y3 place but would be offered a place at the closest school in the mean time. Just unsure as to if we should accept the place we have now or risk it!

What are you risking? You can accept the place and still appeal.

My direct experience in East Sussex, rural. I applied for nearest school.year 5 so not infant class size limits. 32 in each class. Admissions at the LEA directed the school to admit under the fair access protocol. They had told me that they probably would do this because otherwise they would have to pay for transport. Whilst we were waiting I enrolled in brownies, dance, everything so she knew half the class when she started.
I don't know whether it would be worth waiting and just doing a year 3 application? We could not apply before the start of the holidays and that meant 3 weeks out of school in September.

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If you are likely to be able to get a place in the closest school for Y3, I would just have a lovely long summer holiday! (home schooling)

No one seems able to say if it's likely we would get a place on appeal or not, so worrying that if we don't take the place available we would end up even further away. I have considered home school but daughter wants to be at school. I think it's just the not knowing! I've got the appeal forms so just working through them this weekend to try an make sure I've got all the information covered and just hope they accept it's the closest school as a good reason!

The statutory walking distance for a primary school child is 2 miles for under 8s and 3 miles for over 8s. If the walking distance to school is over this they are entitled to free transport. It sounds like you might be right on the edge for the 2 miles, but that goes up to three when she turns 8 in year 3 next year so it's a flimsy argument to be honest. You need to make a case for other reasons she needs the more local school - are there any clubs it offers that would suit her?

Plus - if you don't take the place, you run the risk of an appeals panel feeling like you are blackmailing them -"she has no school unless we win this appeal" when you turned down a perfectly acceptable place. I would take the place and appeal.

That's what I was thinking about if we didn't accept the place, that the appeals would see that as us trying to force a place where we want it. Both schools have similar extracurricular sports etc, it's mostly the distance, that she would be able to walk to school and be more likely to have friends living in the area, but also the school with space is a church school which I'm not keen on and the other isn't. Think we're just going to have to keep everything crossed she gets in on appeal!