Apply for Primary School or Not?

[LovedFedAndNoonesDead]

DT’s were premature and, as a result, ended up being born into the school year ahead of when they were due.

Now it’s time to apply for school for them but our plan is to wait and send them to school at CSA which would be 2024 not 2023.

Is there any point in applying this year for a school place we have no intention of taking up?

Have you spoken to the admissions team for your local authority? They will be able to tell you. I didn't apply for my child the year before they were CSA, only the year they were going to school.

You need to check what the procedures are for deferring summer born children in your area, and follow them. e.g. The guidance for Hants is here: www.hants.gov.uk/educationandlearning/admissions/applicationprocess/changeorlateapplication/summerborn

It says there apply at the normal time, but simultaneously apply to defer.

If you don't go through the right process you may find them being forced to go straight to y1.

Do you want to defer, and enter in Reception in 2023? In which case you need to check your councils procedure, but I think you apply this year for a defered place.

OR, do you want to send them into Y1 at CSA? At which point you need to do an in year transfer application spring/summer 2023 - again, check the local procedure.

Check with admissions what the correct procedure in your area. I live in an automatic yes county so don't need to apply until the year they'll be csa.
Join the flexible summer born Facebook group. They are full of knowledge and help.

If you want to defer and have them start Reception with the younger year group, you probably need to apply for a place this year and then defer it. I would contact your local authority and the head of your preferred school now to discuss your options.

I second the Facebook group “flexible admissions for summer borns”. Excellent resources and helpful advice for this sort of thing. They made it all very easy when I was applying for this.

You don't get allocated a place which you then defer.
You get told you may defer, and then apply the following year. Subtly different.
(ie you can't grab a place in a low intake year then hang onto it and jump the queue the next year).

No, I don’t want to defer their start in reception till later in the academic year, I want to delay to CSA and send them in 2024 when they should have gone had they not been premature. This is why I’m querying whether there is any point in applying for a school place in 2023 (which would potentially deny other families their choice of school)

Head teacher of the school we plan to apply for has said they do accept summer born children into reception at CSA if that is the parents preference (they also have another set of twins currently at the school who did this) and our local authority automatically agree to it so long as you have the school’s agreement. The local authority website says ‘you are still advised to apply for a place in school for the September after your child turns 4’ but doesn’t say you must.

There doesn’t seem to be a ‘right’ process as the local authority leaflet about delayed admission for summer born children says you’re advised to apply for a place the year they turn 4 but not that you must.

Sorry so they are late summer borns and you want them to be 5 when they start reception?

You need to check your LA. In our area you have to apply with their age cohort and then apply to defer once you have a place.

Heads tend to not have accurate knowledge of admissions procedures, so check how your LEA does things. As others have said you may have to apply in their birth year then defer. Other LEAs may have different procedures. Check!

I realise that we won’t automatically get to ‘carry over’ a place at any particular school if offered this year; and the local authority documents say an application out of cohort next year will be treated in the same way as those from in cohort applications.

The school we want to send DT’s to have a higher PAN than applications (currently PAN is 30 and current largest class in school is 26 with smallest class being 21) so I’m not expecting there to be an issue in that respect.

Yes, that’s right. I want them to go in 2024 when they will be 5 years and a few days old (as opposed to 4 years and a few days if they were to go based on date of birth). Had they been born when due in October 2019, this wouldn’t be an issue as we’d have another 12 months before even thinking about applying for schools.

The local authority leaflet about delayed entry for summer born children simply says it’s advised to apply for the year they turn 4 not that it is required. For reception start they say the school has to agree to it so you must get it in writing in advance of an out of cohort application.

In that case apply so your in the system. Then chat to the school when you have the place.

I would suggest you call up admissions if their info/leaflet/website is unclear.

There's no point wondering about what they mean by 'advised' as apposed to 'required'. Just ask

How can you get the schools permission in writing if you don't know which school it will be? It's ok applying but you might not get a place at that school.

You approach the school/s you’re interested in applying to, or those you’ve a chance of getting into if in an area with high competition for places (where we live there are a lot of primary schools - at least 7-8 that we are in the catchment area for so few are oversubscribed); get their agreement for delayed entry to reception and then those are the schools you apply to. The council asks you to provide written confirmation that you have the school’s agreement for a reception start at CSA when you apply out of cohort - which is obviously after they should have started as you can’t apply for a school place a year ahead of time.

If then, when applying for a place out of cohort, you don’t get a place at any school’s where you’ve agreed a CSA reception start, you have to accept a Y1 place or appeal the offer. Lastly, if you still don’t get a CSA reception offer, you can choose to home educate if that’s an option for the family.

You seem well up on your local procedure.

I wonder whether the 'advice' to apply for normal cohort is that they have had parents change their mind after applications closing date who then can't get a place? (e.g. Their child comes on a lot between Jan & August, or they decide they don't want to fork out another year's worth of nursery fees.)

No harm comes of applying in normal round. So apply.

I’ve hedged my bets and emailed the school admissions team saying we fully intend to delay to CSA as is our right and would like their advice whether there is any point in applying this year when we know we would be rejecting the places! I will see what they come back with - though I’m not sure how long it will take them to reply. In the meantime, we’re waiting for another local school to publish when they will be having an open day for prospective parents (though it’s very much a second choice school as they only take 15 pupils a year so we’re less likely to get places there if we do apply!)

I think "you are advised" is Local Authority speak for "this is how we want you to do it".

They probably stop short of saying "you must" because they have a statutory duty to consider the application even if it comes in 12 months later (i.e. for the year in which the children actually want to start school).

I was in the same position. Mine went in at expected time and was way behind until about Y3 met none of the milestones, physical or educational, then he steamed ahead. And he went to bed at 4.30 until the end of Y1.

This is one of the main reasons we plan to delay until CSA - we don’t want them in the position where they need an afternoon nap every day!!