Applying for a Primary School place

[GreatGooglyMoogly]

"On 11 September 2007 a letter will be sent to all parents/carers who have been identified as having children of the appropriate age..."

Does anyone know how they identify the child/parent/carers? Also does anyone know how they go about letting us know where DS1 has been accepted, once they have allocated places?

I am worried as we are currently living in the US (our house in the UK is being let out) but will be back in time for DS1 to start school in January 2009. Our mail is forwarded to us but can take weeks to get here and it seems that we will only have 2 weeks from the day we are told where he has been accepted until the day we have to accept the place. HELP!!

We applied on line on the local Borough website. We were informed in writing of which school she'd been accepted at, but we knew the date the letters were being sent out. Maybe if you explain your situation to them, and the postal delay they will fax the letter to you or maybe give you a bit longer to reply?

A lot of the LEAs or County Councils let you do the school applications on line, so it may be worth keeping an eye on the website.

I don't know how they find out that you have a rising school age child but we've just moved counties and I've already had a letter asking me to fill in a form to apply for an application form (confused yet? I am ).

Would it be worth ringing the school direct and asking them how it works?

Yes, we have the online application option too but I wasn't sure if we had to have had a letter first or if anyone can just apply online?

Will you be able to prove residence at your place in the UK?

Only asking, because here with the application (we had to choose a shortlist of 3 schools) we also had to supply a current Council Tax bill addressed to myself or my dh, a current (within 6 months) utility bill and a copy of the Child Benefit annual statement. All to show that we were resident in our house when applying for schools. If you are letting the house out, I'm not sure how you will be able to provide these.

I'm not sure how this works if you are planning on applying from overseas. Might be worth checking with the LEA?

We then had to resupply up-to-date evidence when the school we accepted/that accepted us completed their list of admissions, about 6 months after we first applied.

That's what I was worried about pooka, thanks. I will have to look into it.

Thinking about it, maybe they are able to make a concession if you are able to supply proof of the length of the tenancy?? Should imagine it would also depend on the area - here it just happens that most good schools are able to fill all their places super-fast.

Hmmm, not sure about proving the length of tenancy. They have had a few contracts but they have all expired so they can leave with 1 month's notice now.

I've e-mailed the LEA about our situation so we'll see I guess.

We left nothing to chance and contacted the LEA to arrange to be sent the pack direct, explaining our temporary absence from the UK, and the schools concerned. Noone had an issue with it or asked for any paperwork, even when we accepted (then cancelled) a place.

That's the sort of news I was hoping for LIZS How long were you away from the UK for?

Hi GGM, do contact your local authority do ensure they have your details. When I contacted mine, they said they obtain the relevant info from children registered on Doctor's records. I have kept my original doctor, who is not in the borough that I now live in, so I would not have received the info if i'd relied on that. They took my details and said that they would post out the info as well and that I should call them back if I havent received the pack by the 17th. Hope that helps.x

We were away for 4 years in the end but kept our UK house. Initially it was only for one so I visited schools before I left then got application pack etc sent to me that Autumn. When we realised we would n't be coming back in time I wrote to the Head of the School whose place we'd accepted and explained . Had we returned before the end of Reception the place could have been open for him otherwise it would have depended if there was a space in year 1. As it was, we cancelled it before the Reception year had started. Then, when we were next due to return, I went through it all again for both kids - same infant school for Reception for dd , ds for juniors - and got places but then decided to go private after all ! hth

Well, LEA have said they get records from doctor's (which we still have) and also nursery (which we have never had), so we have to wait and see whether we get the info and let them know if not.

Still waiting to find out whether we are allowed to apply for schools or not though.

Well, it is basically the worst possible news - we can apply for a place but we have to use our US address (so we will get given the school that no one wants, as our only plus to getting in was location). We are therefore going to look into private schools, though still apply for the schools we wanted so that we have somewhere as backup.

Does anyone know when you have to apply for private schools?

Hate to tell you but we put dd down when she was 6 months and ds had been since 3. She got a guaranteed Reception place but we had a nailbiting wait for ds to get into Year 3. Having said that we ahd another shcool offer us places for both in the May for that September so it varies. Still apply to state schools - send a covering note explaining that you do have a local permanaent address to whcih you paln to return. If needs be go on the waiting lists for the ones you do want once spaces are allocated as there will be some movement before term begins. Good luck

GGM it will depend very much on the age of your child and whether or not the school is selective. For selective schools the children usually sit an assessment. Sorry I don't know how old your child is or where you will be returning to, but the times list here might be helpful in choosing a school if they are of prep age?

Thanks LIZS and janinlondon.

I can't believe it. I am so stressed. We thought living abroad whilst the children weren't at school was a great idea and that we would skip any problems by returning before they start. Aaargh!

Having clarified things further, we will not get offered a place at all if we don't get any of our three choices (-which we won't, as our only advantage was our UK address which we aren't allowed to use). So we will apply online anyway; I will write notes to all of the schools explaining our situation and when we get back I will get us on the waiting lists for them and hope. Not sure what happens if we don't get in after that

Oh no, how stressful. I hope it works out ok, greatgoogly - keep us posted on the US thread.

Fingers crossed that this all works out ok.