Nursery/reception/year 1

[SaritaBella]

Hello ladies.
I am so confused with all of these terms and admissions.
Help me out to understand please as after reading more, I am more confused!
So my little one is born 01 2019.
He is in an independent nursery at the moment.
I am willing to start reception class but I'm well confused when do I need to do this.
I've spoken to few school administrators and they have suggested that I would need to enroll him this year 2021 to start nursery (2022 September), attached to the school.
So I'm confused -

• can we remain in our nursery untill 2022 and apply October and enroll onto Reception class only? *if we submit application to our chosen school does that mean they automatically go to a Reception class before year1? Or you need to submit separately for the Reception class and separately for School Year1? Does that mean we can go any reception class and then different school? *as well I don't understand when would he need to start Reception class. If he is 5 January does it mean he would start September or on the next term time. If he goes to a nursery attached to the school does it mean once he is 5 he automatically enrolls onto reception class?

My apologies if these questions seems way too silly but I have no understanding

Thank you for your answers (even the snappy ones)

Which country
State or private

We are in London. State.

Starting school for 99% of children. Is starting reception. This is the September after they turn 4. You apply the previous Autumn. Nursery is just nursery. You can go anywhere. Each school has its own admission criteria. Most LEA's allow you to select 3 primary schools in order of preference. But you will only get in if you meet their admissions criteria. These are all published online. Do not miss the closing date for your LEA! It's all done online. All of this is assuming you live in England. If you are somewhere else I have no idea!!!

Im assuming you are talking about a state maintained school not a private school.
He doesn't need to attend a school nursery and you can choose to keep him at his current day nursery until the term after his fifth birthday. Having said that most children currently start school in the September before they turn five.
Being enrolled at a school nursery doesn't guarantee a place in the reception class.

You don't need to use the nursery attached to a school and in the state sector a child attending the nursery attached to the school does not impact on admissions. It's your choice whether you go down the school nursery route. We kept our children in private nursery until they started reception as they were open in the holidays and were more work friendly hours.

For state you apply via the council, not directly to the school. The process starts approx 12 months before they're due to start (and in England they start in September if they turn 5 that academic year, so they'll start the September when they're 4). You put what schools are your preferences and you need to look at the schools admission policy and the stats for distance admitted (some schools have tiny catchments) to see if you're in with a chance of getting in.

In my village there are 2 schools, one has not admitted a child who lives further than 0.2 miles for years, we live 0.3 miles away so know we have no chance!! (Lucky we're only 0.1 miles from the other school!!)

He will start school at 4yo, which will be 2023
You will need to apply for his place in late 2022. Through your local council, you put down six options. You may not get one of these, but they will find you a place. Then usually thats it until he's 10 and applying for secondary school. Unless its an infant school, which goes to 7yo.

School nurseries are completely separate. You don't have to use them.

We never used the school nursery as he was happy in the private one, we applied via the council when applications opened (about Xmas before he started I think)

I would start him in reception so September 2023 when he's 4.

Applications open in the previous Autumn so just before his 4th birthday for you.

You can usually put 3 schools in order of preference so look around and see what you like.

Don't move them after reception as they automatically have their place for year 1 and will be all moving up together.

Most schools around here don’t have a nursery attached so no you don’t need to use the nursery attached to the school.

For example DS1 went to a fabulous nursery half an hour away, his primary school is 5 mins from our house.

DS2 goes to the nursery 5 mins away. Kids from there will go to all sorts of schools, not just the one nearest where DS1 goes.

Nursery is from day 6 weeks old to 4 (technically 5 but vast majority leave age 4 to go to reception).

Reception is the first year of school.

Year 1 comes after reception.

Nursery is not essential. Nannies and childminders are an alternative. Some children never go to childcare and go straight from home with mum to reception.

You can technically keep your kid home until they are 5 but IMO there is rarely a benefit to that as they will miss out from forming friendships while all their peers are getting settled into reception.

Nursery is optional, some people, especially if they are sahp's whose children haven't been in childcare, choose to enrol their children the year before they are due to start school for part time (sessional) nursery, many are attached to state schools and are free (government funds 15 hours) for half days. My children attended mornings and it was next door to the infants school. Not all children starting in reception had been at the nursery, around 60% were (village) and no preference can be given.

You apply for reception the October before your child is due to start, so when your child is 3 (they turn 4 in the January).

Some people do choose to change to school based nursery if it's convenient, eg my friends had their child at a childminder but from 3 they attended pt nursery and the childminder collected them at lunchtime from nursery until they finished work. But it's your choice

You would apply in January 2023 for entry in the September. Anything prior to Reception (and even then) is optional. Attendance at state school nursery is no guarantee of a place in Reception at same school as the applications are separate.

Nursery - entirely optional. You can enrol where you like, and the nursery he goes to won't have any influence on the school he then moves to for reception and onwards. Nursery attendance very very rarely figures in the admissions criteria for a school; you definitely need to apply separately for reception, even if you want to stay at the school he is attending nursery. There is no guarantee you will get a space at the same school for reception.

Reception - as he was born in January 2019, he will start reception in September 2023, when still 4. You need to apply for a place via your Local Authority (not the school) the year before, applications are normally open from around Sept 1 - Jan 15, so for you that would be Sept 2022 - Jan 2023. There is no advantage to doing it as soon as applications open, it just needs to be done by the deadline.

Then your child has a place at the school until they are too old to attend, no re-application needed for Year 1 or other years. You don't then move again until Year 3 at the earliest, if the school is an infants school; more likely it will be a primary, so you won't need to apply for another school until the autumn of Year 6.

Reception is like a Year 0, or ‘preparatory year’ before you start Year 1. Children are normally 4 years old when they start Reception, so if your son was born January 2019, he will be 4 in January 2023. He will start Reception in September 2023. Applications would be the year before, so around October 2022.

Most of the advice you've been given is correct. The only things I'd add are:

1. In London, you have 6 options not 3 and you should use all 6 choices. Three choices is more common in the rest of the country but London is different and for good reason.
2. In London, the process starts in the autumn not in January. You should plan to visit primary schools in autumn 2022 to help you decide which six options you'd like to put down when applying via your local council. Schools typically arrange tours for prospective parents that you can book into at the appropriate time.

Good luck-- you don't have anything to worry about and plenty of time to decide what you are doing.

That's interesting @SouthLondonMommy - I am in London so I know the process here but I never realised it was different elsewhere.

OP as you're in London you should look at the primary admissions brochure for your borough on your council website (and neighbouring boroughs, if you're close to a boundary). They will have the last distance cut-offs (based on distance from home to school) and sometimes they can be very short (0.048 miles for one in my borough). So you can't just apply to your six favourite schools, you have to choose ones which you have a realistic chance of getting into. Or if there is a school you're very keen to get into, you could move close enough to the school but you will need time to arrange all that before the admissions deadline.

Some people do prefer to switch to a state nursery as they will often be with peers who will end up at the attached primary (most state nurseries here have distance as a criteria, so although it doesn't guarantee you a place at the primary there's a lot of overlap), and just general familiarity with the school site. But the disadvantage of state nursery is that it has much shorter hours than private nurseries, and only run in term-time, so I have preferred to stick with private nursery as well.

Dates aren't different across England; applications open in Sept across the country, and the closing date, and the allocations announcement date, are the same wherever you are in England.

What differs across local authorities is how many options you get to put down. London allows 6, as do some other areas, others allow 3.