Applying for a primary school place

[SallyCinnamon2009]

My son is due to start primary school this September. He turns 5 in October. We never received a letter inviting us to apply for a school place, so we missed the deadline. We have sent our application in now but the local council (Leeds City Council) are saying we will just be allocated a school and have to go on the waiting list for the schools of our choice.
They have admitted we were not sent a letter as they did not have our son on the census, yet they billed us for his nursery fees in September 2020 and the letters for school went out in October 2020. Can anyone suggest anything else we can do? We have pointed all our concerns out and asked them to reconsider our applications and give us a fair chance of applying.

Thank you

I appreciate this has been a very non-standard year and not all the normal communication routes would have happened, but I'm not sure you can argue that you didn't realise you had to apply for a school place. Not everyone is sent a letter anyway, but it's normally publicised via nurseries, children's groups, doctors' surgeries, adverts in local paper, notices up outside schools ... Plus presumably you know other parents of children his age who would likely have mentioned it!
The main problem is that presumably your preferred school is full, and Reception classes are restricted in numbers, so they can't just take an extra child unless in very exceptional circumstances.
I would suggest accepting a place at the school you prefer out of the ones with places available and put yourself on waiting lists, as suggested.

As pp, we didn’t get a letter but I knew my DD was turning 4 and school was coming up so I think I just googled it. Plus we talked amongst friends about school choices, open days (lack of) etc

Second the suggestion, take what you’re given and get on the waiting lists for preferred places.

I’ve never received a letter about applying for school, & I’ve lived in 3 different councils with kids during the Reception application window. I don’t think it’s much of an argument.

Most areas do not send out letters and forms. Nurseries, libraries, ads on social media etc often advertise application deadlines, although trickier this year. The Reception date is always mid January before the September start date. It is not an obligation for LA to check they receive applications from all eligible children on time, since parents may have private options, homeschool or be planning to move. Unfortunately yours was late and will be considered after the on-time applications are dealt with. You may be lucky anyway, but if not you could appeal although you may be up against infant class size restrictions.

I have 4 DC and have never been sent a letter about primary school applications, so I agree this is unlikely to help your case.

Also the census is done every 10 years so I can't see what this has to do with it.

We moved nurseries at the point applications opened. And our nurseries were closed so advertisements would have been pointless anyway even of they were there, as we weren't there to see them. There hasn't been any other advertising locally that I have seen, and due to lockdown I have only been going to and from work.

Thanks anyway everyone ☺️

I’ve never heard of any local education authority writing to parents to invite them to apply for a school place - the pitfalls are obvious. Was this a special arrangement your LEA made during Covid (although I still can’t see how they could do it, as they don’t hold address lists for every child in the area)?

The advice they’ve given you is correct. Yours will be treated as a late application. I’ve occasionally heard of LEAs agreeing to treat late applications as on time, but that’s where there’s evidence that the parent did attempt to apply (applied online but a computer glitch meant the form didn’t upload etc).

Surely it was common sense to be thinking of primary school places with less than 6 months to go?

Leeds.gov.uk 'how to apply' clearly states they will write to each parent inviting them to apply for a school place.

We send out letters inviting parents to apply at the end of October. You can still apply if you don't get a letter.

If you saw this you saw the admissions timeline below it and link to do so online. You might be able to argue at an appeal that your child was disadvantaged but onus is still on parent to do so.

I just looked, it says ‘We send out letters inviting parents to apply at the end of October. You can still apply if you don't get a letter.‘

I'm Leeds and didn't get letters for mine when I applied. best you can do is see what options you get given and phone round the schools you want now to find out how you get on the waiting list, there is a LOT of movement and changes before they start, just make sure once offer day is here your one of the first to get on the waiting list at your chosen school.

So are you saying you were aware of the application process but were waiting for a letter, or that since you didn’t receive a letter you didn’t realise you needed to apply?

I’ve never had a letter telling me to apply.

Presumably you now just follow the advice given to anyone else who doesn’t get their first choice school? Accept the place offered and go on waiting lists for others?

I don’t know anyone who received such a letter. Didn’t with either of mine. Every primary school in the area has banners up outside, advertising virtual open days and application dates. Our of sheer curiosity I would have looked for the deadline. As well as the fact that everyone I know with kids has mentioned at some point about applying and the deadline. No idea how people can miss it.

Thank you 😊

Never had a letter. Chalk it up to experience and a very abnormal year. See what place you get and then get on a waiting list if needed.
A lot of people move house whilst kids are young so you may well be lucky and get preferred place anyway.

He’s your kid. You must have known he was due to start school??

I'm very surprised they made such a commitment because (as I said) how could they be confident they'd reach every child, and their comment about "if you don't get a letter" seems to recognise that they won't.

If you haven't already, email them (so that you have a paper trail) saying that you were waiting for the letter and so their failure to write to you meant you missed the deadline. Ask them again to treat your application as on time. They're likely to resist (as they'll say that it was clear from the website that you could apply without the letter) but you have nothng to lose by trying.

I have never heard of letters being sent. I thought it was just like nursery - ie up to you to make sure you knew what to do and when. Nonetheless it's worth joining waiting lists etc and seeing what happens and moves in the first few months of school. You may be able to move in year and get a better place than the one you are allocated.

Agree with PanelChair that you have nothing to lose by trying. However, my view is that the wording on their website falls short of a commitment that they will write to every parent and, as others have pointed out, it does set out the timetable and make it clear that you can apply without a letter. I suspect you won't get anywhere with this, but you should certainly try.

Since your son is 5 in October I don’t think you have much of an excuse to be frank! If he was a late summer birthday so currently only three you might think he was young for you to be to be applying, but a four and a half year old should have set your spidey senses twitching.

Yes, I was using the word ‘commitment’ very loosely - their own wording implies that they knew they couldn’t and wouldn’t achieve it.

Oh gosh OP, what a nightmare.

I’m amazed really this doesn’t happen more often as there does seem to be general reliance on word of mouth / parents doing their own research. Most people will figure it out for themselves but surely there must be quite a few people who slip the net every year.

I’m afraid I don’t see how you can use ‘didn’t receive a letter’ as an excuse. It is somewhat bizarre but it seems there is little onus on local authorities to directly communicate about primary school applications, and it seems Leeds have gone further than most in even suggesting they will send out letters.

Fingers crossed that you’ll get where you want via the waiting lists.