Not offered a place in reception

[Lab71]

We are in the horrible situation of moving into a new area(we have bought a new build house). Despite us having exchnged contracts on our house the local council will not accept this as proof of address. Our daughter has therefore not been offered a place in reception and am currently at the bottom of the waiting list.
My feelings are ranging from total anger , frustration to complete helplessness. Just wondering if anyone else has found themselves in a similar sitution and how it all turned out for them

I'd say your council are wrong and you should email them immediately insisting they allocate a place !

I have new build addresses two years old that my school database doesn't recognise. It takes ages for systems to update.

Do some polite yelling via email to your LA admission team and cc your local councillor and MP. And newspaper if you're feeling particularly pissed off

But when you exchange contracts, they will offer you a place? Admittedly, maybe not your first choice? How far off exchange are you?

Sorry. Completely misread

You have exchanged contracts but haven’t completed, yes? Therefore, you don’t own the property yet nor live there. As soon as you do, your place in the waiting list will jump dramatically I am sure.

Exchange is good enough.

Start that polite yelling.

Google admissions exchange of contract and you find all the sensible schools give the details of exactly that in their admission policies.

This is the horryfying thing_we exchanged contracts last week- council will not allocate a place until we have actually moved in. I could understand if there were no places in the local schools but out of 90 places 18 were allocate dto out of catchment children. We will be living very close to the schools but won't be offered a place

Starting Reception in September or is your daughter already in Reception? But if you only exchanged a couple of weeks ago you would have missed the January application deadline anyway?

I have done more than polite yealling-but council are just quoting admission policies back. Until we have moved in i.e. completed they will not allocate a place. The most annoying part is council has offered places to 18 out of catchment children and yet we won't be offered a place although we will be living just a few minuted away from the two local schools. Our address won't even be considered in the second round of allocations. The school admission policies are there to treat everyone fairly- I know but it doesnt give fair treatment to everyone in every case
Again-just wondering if anyone else found themselves not offered a place and how it all turned out for them

When are you moving in?

Many LAs will take exchange as proof of address, but they don't have to. They can insist on you actually living there before allocating a place. What does the official admissions policy say? It should be on their website.

If you only exchanged last week, you have missed the regular allocations anyway and will be on waiting lists; the LEA must allocate you a place when you have an address, BUT it will be the nearest school with spaces, not necessarily a school of your choice. If there is no school with a space within a reasonable distance, they can force a school to take another pupil but again that will be in the school best placed to take another pupil.

Just to echo PatriciaHolm, those posters saying the council must allocate a place now that you have exchanged contracts are wrong. The Admissions Code is silent on the subject, allowing each LA to set its own policy. Many, probably most, will accept exchange of contracts as proof of your new address but they don't have to. Some will not accept your new address until you have actually moved in. You need to check the LA's policy. This should be on their website, probably in a booklet about admissions to primary school. If they are not following their own policy you should complain. If they are, I'm afraid you will have to wait until you move.

The good news is that, once the LA accepts your new address, you will automatically move up the waiting list for your preferred schools and they have to find a place for you somewhere. However, as PatriciaHolm says, it won't necessarily be at one of your preferred schools.

How far off being build complete are you? Are you going to have moved in before September? If so it's pretty shocking that you haven't being allocated a place.

When is the second round of admissions?

Not quite the same because we got a place, however it was a small intake that year which I suspect was a massive contributing factor.

I spoke to the council prior to moving and asked what the process was in the instance that we had not completed in advance of submitting our application. They said that there was a second round that we could be considered for. We exchanged the day that applications for the first round needed to be submitted. I arranged for a solicitors letter that I sent to the council which stated the date we'd be completing and that we had exchanged. I have no idea if the letter made a difference and as I say there was a small intake that year, but my daughter got a place.

When do you complete?

Will you complete before school hols?

The closing date for applications was January so at the time of your application you hadn’t exchanged contracts (assuming you applied during the application period. So it’s more than likely correct that the LA didn’t consider you living at your new address. Now you have exchanged and are moving you may have to follow the late application or mid year application process.

As you hadn’t exchanged at the point the places were allocated I don’t think you can complain about the 18 out of catchment placements as at the time you were also out of catchment.

That's normal, we couldn't register for school until we completed, and registered for council tax. I completed at 3pm, sorted the council tax then registered for school. Until you complete you haven't got the property

I am afraid you are stuck with a poor situation. You had not exchanged contracts on 16th Jan which was the last day for on-time applications so you would not have got a place on April 16th as you would have been using your current address. If you exchanged contracts between 16th Jan and 16th April you would still have not been able to swap to the address firstly because any change of address at that stage would have been counted as a late entry and secondly because apparently the LA will only accept the address at the point you move in. Since April 16th you have effectively stuck in limbo with a new house on which you have exchanged but not completed.
The only thing you can do is complete as soon as possible at which point you should move to somewhere near the top of the waiting list an then hope people move. You could appeal for a place but this would only have a chance of success, in my opinion, if the LA have made a mistake in only allowing a change of address when you complete.

We had to prove to the school that we had moved in by providing a letter from the local doctors saying we'd registered and a council tax bill for the new house. Our local primary said that seeing these would help us jump the waiting list - and indeed it did. I agree that each area seems to have its own subtle version of the rules. Good luck.