School place

[Paddingtonsmarmlade]

So I need to put down 3 choices for next September

dc1 I’ve just moved from the local inadequate primary to another school which will be choice 1. Priority is lac, catchment siblings, out of catchment siblings (us), then catchment. Small school pan 12 hasn’t filled pan in the last couple of years.

choice 2 will be another local school further on the same road as school 1. Pan 30, didn’t fill pan this year or last.

so choice 3 is the problem, do I put a ok school (a) in opposite direction to school 1 as it’s the next best option currently or do I put the local school (b) (which I’ve removed dc1 from because of their extra needs I couldn’t wait any longer for them to fix it)

dc2 is neurotypical and probably fairly bright. Currently reading basic words and blending accurately knows most digraphs already. (Not pushy parent but loves books and picked it up from hearing me help older sibling)

school b is very unlikely to be at pan and is our catchment school

Put what you want in order of first to third choice, ensuring your catchment school
is on the list somewhere. 12 pan is odd! 36 over 3 years of YR and KS2? I’m not a fan of really small schools. Very limited opportunities by the time Dc get to y6. If you know and like the school, go for it!

I wouldn't list a school you have had to remove a child from. You will never trust them fully.

(How does the 12 Pan work in reality? A big class at the top and 2 smaller ones? Or do they split a year?)

12 pan is reception/year one, 2 and 3, 4/5/6,
the school with the 30 pan also has 3 classes for years 3-6 due to lack of children. There isn't 30 in reception or year 1 this year, under 20

most of the schools around here are tiny village schools with pans around 8-12 they're rarely full anymore but obviously it doesn't take many children to fill them up so you can never be sure you'll get a place even in catchment because a year could be 8/12 younger siblings.

Depends what happens if you get none of them, I guess. We only put one school for DS2 because if he hadn’t got into the same school as DS1 we’d have moved them both to a private school and we had no childcare if they didn’t end up at the same school. (The numbers were wildly in our favour as the school has never been full (they just put in an extra half class!)).

I expect we'd be allocated school b as it's our closes, hasn't filled the pan in any of the current years and has just been rated as inadequate by ofsted so is unlikely to attract students from outside the area.

if dc2 doesn't get choice 1 then I'll have no choice but to use breakfast/aftershool club in order to get 2 children to/from 2 schools.

Given the admission criteria and the fact it hasn't filled all places for the last couple of years, you have a very good chance of getting your first choice.

Yes. So put the schools in the order you want them.

If a school has a PAN that is only rarely filled and has mixed-age classes, I think there's probably also a fair chance of appeals succeeding. In a rural area, it would make more sense if the school could just guarantee to take everyone from the relevant village.