Getting stressed out trying to find a Primary school for DD next year (Y1)....need some advice!

[McDreamy]

We are currently living abraod and DD started in FS2 this Septmeber. We are hoping to move back next year at the end of the summer term. In the meantime I am trying to assess some of the schools in the area we think we are moving back to......but I'm baffled with numbers on the internet!

DH and I are planning a trip back to the UK next year to visit a couple of schools but I just don't know where to start!

How does it work when you are trying to get a child into an already established class? Who do you apply to? Are you just offered the nearest school with space? Didn't have to do all this to start her at school as all children automatically get a space at the school here, there is no choice!

Where we are you would be offered nearest school with space. They cant add to a class which is already full. Most good schools would probably be full

But is worth approaching/looking at all schools as there may be a better but further away one with space or there may be possibility of going on a waiting list and getting a space which comes up - at our school two children moved abroad/away from the area and places came up.
Places on waiting list would be allocated based on the schools normal admission criteria so it is possible to jump to the top of a waiting list if you move very close to the school even if someone else further away has been on waiting list for longer. (Well that's how it works where we are).
Good luck

Most local authorities will only allocate a place once they see proof of either an exchange of contract on a property or a 6-month rental agreement. We've ended up going private as we relocated at the end of the first term and it was just too stressful to deal with the application process, but the little boy next door got 'the last place' in the local, heavily over-subscribed, primary, so I'd say it's definitely worth sticking it out. I would also say it's worth being a bit sceptical about OfSTED reports, and asking around (if necessary on Mumsnet) for people's opinions of specific schools/areas. Good luck!

Hi -- you need to approach the schools directly about whether they will have a space available, though the Education Dept at the local authority should be able to give you a list of schools in the area (I presume you've already looked at the Ofsted website too? Put in your intended postcode and it will come up with schools within a certain radius). We've just been through this (moving to a new area), and talked directly to the schools, but actually applied via the LEA, giving our list of preferences. It's true that the 'good' schools will probably be full; our dcs were allocated places at schools quite some way away, so we decided we would appeal for places at the local schools (everyone has a right to appeal). As it happened places became available as some children moved away, and because we lived very near to the schools we did indeed 'leap frog' the waiting list. I think the rules on families moving into areas mid-year / outside the usual admission round have been up-dated, and your intended LEA could probably help clarify that for you. Hope that makes some sort of sense!

Oh, just seen in thread that it's a Y1 place you are after that might make things trickier as because of something called 'Infant Class Size Prejudice', Reception, Y1 & Y2 classes can't have more than 30 children and it is pretty much impossible to get round this. BUT you may well be moving to an area with much smaller classes than this anyway, and people do move all the time so places do come up (just might be at the very last minute we got DS2 into a Y1 class the afternoon before school started!). Toadstool is spot on about asking on MN about local schools -- you'll hear what they are really like that way!

Thought as much thanks for your advice and experience.

We're not buying anywhere, we're in the military. The nearest school is right by the RAF camp so I presume it will have alot of RAF families which means the children probably move in and out fairly frequently. We'll just have to hope DD can get a place.

This will be our last posting as after this we plan to buy somewhere so we don't run into this predicament everytime we move. Never thought it would be this much of a problem.

I would have thought there would be no problem whwre you are movuing to. It will be normal to them

You'd have thought but I don't know for definate. I know a couple of RAF families that have 30 minute trips to their DC's school because the local ones are full. Admittedly it seems to be families with a number of children to get in and not just one.