New to the UK, no place at primary school in my area

[summertree0088]

Recently I've moved to the Hammersmith&Fulham area, London, from Tokyo Japan. I applied for 6 schools at the end of July, but the council said there's no place for my 5-year DS because of a lack of capacity.

My DS is on the waiting lists of these schools but the council staff said the allocation process will not start until 2 September due to the summer holidays. But if they cannot manage to find a place, they said I have to make an appeal as the next step.

I am a full-time working mother and will start my job in the middle of September. I am very worried that the council can find a place for my DS at least 15 September.

Could anyone tell me how this process goes? Is such an appeal process common in the UK? If so, how long does it take to complete the process?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

my question is whether or not 2miles is a walking distance.

That's not my question either. If the school is further than 2 miles by the shortest walking route you will get help with transport, possibly a bus or a taxi.

Yes, you don’t really have any grounds for appeal. The coucil are obliged to provide a school but it can be further away. If the distance from school is deemed too far, then the coucil will need to provide transport. Not sure how that applies in London as children travel for free on public buses anyway.

So as above, you could ring the appeals people and seek advice. Realistically, though, you’ll need to work or a way of making the offered school work. Any super desirable schools like John Betts with have massive waiting lists so you’re very unlikely to get in.

If you win an appeal you don't go to the top of the waiting list, you get a place at the school.

So you have been offered a place, but have turned it down in favour of trying to appeal for a school that is closer?

It’s really easy to get a driving license in the uk. You could easily do it in a week if you find a test centre with free test slots. Hope you find a school. If you have the means try the independent sector, there seems to be more movement (except in the most desirable schools) from what I can see.

I'm not clear if you have refused or are waiting to see if the journey is feasible or there is wraparound care /cm available. Have you arrived now? If you were offered and turned down the space 2 miles away you may find that LA are not obliged to offer another place. Being without a place as a consequence of refusal is not grounds for appeal. If your closer schools are running classes of 30 they cannot take another pupil and an appeal will fail.

My LA consider anywhere up to 2 miles to be a reasonable walking distance for a primary school child to go to school.

They’ll provide transport for schools further away than that if it’s your closest school with places.

To clarify on getting places- if you were here before your child was due to start school you most likely would have got a place at your nearest school but you are applying later so it's waiting for spaces, they cannot magic one, it took three weeks when we moved mid term. You have been offered a place which is all they are obligated to do, under 2 miles is considered walking distance.

If the school is further than 2 miles by the shortest walking route you will get help with transport, possibly a bus or a taxi
No, as a Japanese citizen on a work visa she won't, as there is a no recourse to public funds provision attached.

This happened to us. All decent schools waiting lists a mile long, we were offered a (in our opinion) really rubbish school close by. Went for a decent school 4 miles away for yr 1 & 2 and switched to an independent school in year 3.

No, as a Japanese citizen on a work visa she won't, as there is a no recourse to public funds provision attached.
So no public schools then?

So no public schools then?
None for the OP, no publicly-funded education at all. Her child, however, has a right to schooling in the same way as a British child would have in Japan.
If the OP was invited to the UK by her employer, it means she is at least on ~£55K salary, which is the current effective cut off for the work visas, and her employer had to go through several circles of bureaucratic hell to secure this permit. Do you seriously think she was lured to the UK by the prospect of sending her child to a failing inner city school?

I thought access to state schools was exempt from the no recourse to public funds thing, because of the legal requirement to send children to school?

It is, which is why I'm querying the school transport issue.
I don't think anyone checks the parent's passport or visa when arranging school transport.

OP are you on the waiting lists at Brackenbury and Greenside? Both good schools and there seems to be a massive amount of shuffling around right now.

I don't think anyone checks the parent's passport or visa when arranging school transport.
You must be kidding. Of course they do, they don't need a passport for that, because "no recourse to public funds status" is linked to parents' NIN.
Same as for free school meals for KS1, 30 hours childcare and other extra benefits.

I have two primary aged DCs, nobody checked anyone's passport for UFSM, nor for 15 or 30 hours childcare.
Can you imagine the chaos and shaming if some infant children got UFSM and some didn't?
Plus I doubt schools are competent to check.

Ok - I get your point about NI number.
But we didn't give our NI number for the 15 hours nor for UFSM.

You give your NIN number on the application form for the setting. All schools and nurseries my two have ever been to have asked for it.
Don't quite get your point about shame. I was not entitled to public funds for some time, and my reception aged child was therefore not entitled to free meals. The school is applying for fsm for every child in Reception and Y1 individually (surprisingly, they don't inform the parents about it, I think it is to do with extra funding for early years they receive). Then you get a stern letter from the council warning that you tried to claim public funds, you foreign leech. That's actually how I know about this, I was pretty much oblivious to the existence of paid or unpaid school meals before - I pack lunch anyway as my older is diabetic. The only annoying thing is I had to put £15 as a balance for school meals, as the payment system starts sending you constant reminders that the balance is low otherwise. Cannot quite see what to be ashamed about here.

How old is your child though? Every child in infants now gets FSM. So being the only one that doesn't would be isolating. On a daily basis if they pay that way.
I can't find the forms now but I don't have any recollection of giving the DCs school my NI number.
For a start, schools are obligated to take all children whether parents are legally in the country or not. So some won't have an NI number.

So some won't have an NI number
And in some of the diaspora facebook groups I am on (probably more than half of people from my country are in the UK illegally) it is the most common question - what to put in place of NIN on the school forms. I think a consensus is to write there "still waiting for one".
My children are Y1 and reception. I have no idea who of their classmates pays for lunches and who does not. I know there is at least one child with undocumented parents, and they are in the same situation as me. It is not like the children carry cash to school, all is done online - the school office no longer even accepts cash payments.