?separate primary schools for siblings

[jengles]

Hope this is the right spot to post.

We're moving in the summer (long distance rather than locally) & will be in the geographical catchment of the one of the local schools (school A) in a 2 primary school town.
However, when calling them today to check what info was needed to apply, we've been told they only have a space for one child (our older one) & while the younger one would be top of the waiting list & would have space the following year as they go up to 32 children/class from yr 3

Having spoken to the other school (school B) in the town they also have a waiting list for my younger child's year.

The admission officer for school A says that it is likely our son will have to go to school in another village (either 2 miles/8mins drive or 3 miles/10mins drive)... interesting school run given husband will be commuting to big city.

Understand application for son will be rejected and we will be given chance to appeal - are these ever successful/any salient things to put into it?

Or, does anyone have any positive stories about moving to a new area and having their children at different primary's in different towns/villages and still being able to make friends/get involved in school life/keeping up with admin?!

I am not sure which year group your younger child will be in in September. Will they be in year 2 or year 3, as that makes a massive difference.
In year 2 you are covered by the infant class size regs, which limits classes to 30 and winning at appeal for in-year applications as your would be termed is nearly impossible. When they say that in year 3, the class size can move up to 32, this is fairly common practice but I would be cautious about how it happens as it is not always the two at the top of the waiting list. If parents are savvy they appeal for a place in year 3 starting in September, which means that the 2 places may well be filled by parents who appeal, not parents at the top of the waiting list.
If your youngest is going into year 3 in September then I would get appeals in now for a September start. If your youngest is going into year 2 in September then you almost for sure will fail at appeal as it is an infant class size case and you will need to hope that places become available and you are still top of the waiting list.

I'd also consider that schools may not wish to take over 30 if DfE advice from September is to operate bubbles of 30.

The bubble argument has already been used at appeals successfully in our area as schools argue there will be no additional space for extra bubbles

So, have checked with the 3 other primary schools within 3 miles and none have capacity.

Youngest is current year 1/will be year 2 in September.

Am currently keeping everything crossed that things work out ok in the end as feel utterly powerless/unable to do anything else. Thought we were over the worst of it now that the sale is going through, but feels like that was just the warm up!

This happened to us. We went for the second closest one to have capacity for both, it's a 10 min drive away. There was one a 5 min drive away that also had space but the further one is a much better school. No regrets except the petrol bill

@Tsarboretum

This happened to us. We went for the second closest one to have capacity for both, it's a 10 min drive away. There was one a 5 min drive away that also had space but the further one is a much better school. No regrets except the petrol bill

Amusingly (am having to look for the funny side!), all have got capacity for our eldest but none for my son

This does illustrates the differences that occur from one year group to another.You can never rely on past history in schools when it comes to admissions