Sibling place at primary if taking out my older child

[Threelittlemonkeyss]

Hi,

Our eldest child has struggled at the school she is at due to dyslexia and there being more higher needs children in the class the teacher has said privately she would move her to a specialist dyslexic school if it were her daughter as they don’t have resources to support her enough. So we have found a private specialist dyslexic school for her where she could start after Easter. However our son would be joining the current state school in September. Is it ok for me to put him down as a sibling space on the form if by the time he starts she won’t be there? We don’t want to loose the space for my daughter or I would wait to move her to make sure he gets his space. Just wonder if others have had similar experience. I am keen for him not to loose his space if possible as he is already at the nursery there and loves it there. I feel bad prioritising my daughters education if he then doesn’t get a place based on distance.

Thanks so much

I would check with your council if I was you.

Depends on the dates that your council use. I’d check carefully

It usually means a sibling who will be on the roll when the younger one starts in the September. Because the rationale is having the 2 DC in one school.

You got one place on distance for your older one, have things changed a lot? What are the other possible schools like?

just done the form for dc2 and it stated that the sibling has to be still at the school in September when dc2 will start. It might be different for different councils

You would need to double check, but in the LAs I am aware of, your eldest wouldn't qualify as a sibling for admissions unless they are on roll at time of application and also expected to still be at time of the youngest starting - which is not the case, if you plan now to remove them at Easter. So for example, a child in Year 6 in a primary would not count as a sibling, and given the timing, I think you might struggle to convince an admissions authority that the intention was for her to be still be there in September when you applied.

Is there a reason you think he won't get a place on distance? How old is your DD, and did she get a place on distance? The birth rate has been declining the last few years so the odds are good unless there's some particular issue i.e. they built a new estate between you and the school, school PAN ahs reduced etc.

Can you check what the furthest distance was for children admitted September 2022, and possibly for 2021 if the figures are available. It won’t be a guarantee of course, and there might be a heavy sibling year next year, but it would give you an idea of how admissions are tending to go re distance.

Thanks so much that is so helpful. I think we will take the risk that hopefully he will still get in on distance!
thanks again