How long were you on a primary school waiting list?

[lking679]

Thinking of relocating but school in area is oversubscribed. Don't think I am going to move in time for January applications if we're in a chain...
One daughter will be going into reception sept 22 so I guess she would go on waiting list .. and my other daughter is going into year 3 so they possibly have the option of going over 30 pupils or she will be on a waiting list too....
If you were on waiting lists for a school how long were your kids on it for before being offered a place, wondering how much of a nightmare it is!?
Also was it very disruptive moving, moving schools and then moving schools again once offered a place from the waiting list? Ta

We got our second choice school (reception place) but remained on the waiting list for first choice. DS started at first choice the beginning of July so had a couple of weeks before the summer break.

Entirely dependent on how popular the area is, how many places they have to offer, how much mobility there is and how high up the list of criteria you are (e.g. if you live next door to the school you will likely be higher up; if you can get your older child into Year 3, this may push your younger one up the list). I've known people wait a week to get a place and others wait years and give up. There will likely come a point where your child is settled at what you'd considered to be their "temporary" school and you won't move them anyway. Otherwise 2 moves in quickish succession is not ideal, although your children are young enough to adapt. However in your favour is that Reception and Year 3 are naturally year groups with some churn.

We'd be literally opposite the primary school, and i'm thinking if one of them got in on a place we'd obviously meet the sibling criteria for the other one so hoping we'd be pretty high up... but no idea on how much movement in and out of the area and so the school!

You have to be offered a place somewhere. It might not be at your preferred school, it might not be the same school as their sibling, but you should get an offer.
We went for not the nearest school, but one that would take both kids immediately (and was still walking distance).

My daughter started reception in September and had 4 new children take up places in her class during the year, 1 after October half-term, 2 after Easter and 1 about 4 weeks before the end of the school year.

So, I guess it depends where you are on the waiting list!

In year admissions are unpredictable.
I've done it twice in the UK (for two children each time).
1st time... DD2 offered a space in 2nd choice school straight away. They had five vacancies in that year group. DD1 originally offered no space, then a further away school with transport, then admitted to her sisters school on appeal a few days later. Whole process took half a term. She had originally been ninth on waiting list, moved to first after her sister started, then was child '61' the whole 18months she attended. Its the only year group no one had left in several years... the waiting list was from reception.
Second time.. again DD2 admitted straight away. DD1.. originally told no space in that school or indeed any in the local area. Fortunately a child had just left nearest school and place wasn't officially on the council system and she was given it when the school pointed out the error.

The difference is elder DDs birth year had a lit higher birth rate than younger DDs.

(Some councils have a later application date for people moving into an area... check to see if thats the case for your reception starter, gives you a bit more time)

Thanks for that. Did your daughters cope okay? Was it a nightmare?
It’s not something we have to do but would like to do not sure whether to go for it or not! No idea if there were high birth rates for their birth years tbh!

Um... about 1 day - but the school secretary had told us then we were exploring possible options for moving their school that there was tentatively a family talking about moving on from the year group in question.

It's actually one it's worth chatting to the school office about - they tend to have a general picture of how much turnover of families they have within the school which is affected by loads of factors from the local area. In our case there's a fair bit of population movement in very oversubscribed schools because we have a military base and families get redeployed a lot.

My friend was 11th on waiting list this year for place is a heavily oversubscribed primary to start this sept. She got offered a place by may before the sept!

We were on waiting list for our first choice after getting second choice, obviously we were notified in April and in June we got a call to say we had a place at first choice.
But our area is high movement, lots of new-to-UK families with children with no English, lots of movement out as well.

In my area, you’ll be on the list for a long time. I live in a popular, semi rural area. Very desirable. Movement out of the area is minimal. My neighbour moved in here 18 months ago & has been on the school waiting list for 18 months so far.. she really doesn’t like her DS’s current school but all the schools here are massively oversubscribed..