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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Reception school application

32 replies

Omnaya · 25/11/2023 17:36

Hi everyone,

I am pretty sure I’m being completely
neurotic about this, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice?

My younger daughter is due to start reception in Sept 2024, and I completed my school admission application back in September of this year, shortly after the applications opened. I have received an email confirming receipt of the application. She currently attends the nursery of the school we hope she will go to (our first choice) and on Friday I received an email from the school saying that the council had informed them that we had not yet applied for a reception place for our daughter! I called the school and they said it was not a ‘blanket’ email, the council had specifically said that my daughter as well as 3 others hadn’t applied and they were chasing it with us, to either remind us to apply before the January deadline or let them know we’d be applying elsewhere. I told the school receptionist that we had applied, and she asked me to send her a copy of the confirmation email which I have done, and she’ll forward it to the council.

My paranoia had massively kicked in, so I also phoned the council schools admissions teams who checked my daughter out by name and details etc, and confirmed they had received her application and didn’t know why her name was on the emailed list.

i know I’m being completely paranoid, but I can’t help but worry that there is a glitch in the council’s computer system, meaning that for some reason my daughter’s record isn’t showing unless you search for it, and that when the offers come out, she won’t have been counted! Does anyone have any experience of council admissions and whether it’s likely this is human error or are the lists they send to schools computer generated?

I know I’m being completely neurotic but it’s been massively playing on my mind! I really can’t imagine my daughter going to any other school but this one in my local
area!

Any info would be much appreciated !

OP posts:

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Set a reminder

Original poster

Omnaya · 25/11/2023 22:53

CapturedLeprechaun · 25/11/2023 22:40

I used to work for a London authority in the Admissions department for 10 years, and so have lots of experience with this!

In the Eadmissions system, it will ask your child's current nursery. Sometimes parents don't select this, and manually type this. It then doesn't match up in the council's database if it has been manually typed.

The council obtain lists from all nurseries - both school nurseries and private ones. They then run these lists against the list of applicants who applied, by matching it against the current nursery field (which can only match if it was selected by the parents when they applied, not if they manually typed, or if they left the nursery field blank). Then they tell all the nurseries "X Y & Z kids haven't made an application yet, can you chase them". This doesn't mean that the school knows who has applied FOR THEM, as some of the kids attending their nursery may have made an application but not named their linked school as a preference.

This means that when you gave your child's name/DOB, the council can see you have applied. It just wasn't linked to the nursery list because of something in the online system at the time of applying - it's common for this to happen. Other times parents leave the current nursery field blank, and they would also get a message from their current nursery saying they haven't applied, even though they have.

Nothing to stress about - your application is done and will be considered alongside all others just fine!

Thank you so much! You’ve really given me insight! I couldn’t work out how it could have happened which I think was why I was overthinking it so much but your explanation makes perfect sense, and I did leave current nursery field blank on the application come to think of it so it was most likely that reason. You’ve really put my mind at ease, thank you!

OP posts:

MarchingFrogs · 25/11/2023 23:17

The exact phrasing in the email I received from the school was ‘I have been informed by Council that you have not made an application for your child to start with us in Reception next September’ so it does read like they were told I hadn’t applied there, but perhaps they’ve phrased it wrong and the council had maybe just informed them (mistakenly) that I hadn’t yet made an application

if that isn't just a misinterpretation by the school of the admissions department message...

@Omnaya with our LEA (and the neighbouring one), each time an applicant goes back into their CAF, even if they make no changes, the form has to be resubmitted, otherwise the application sits in limbo, so to speak, and there will be no allocation made on April 16th / March 1st.

If your area's system is different, then I apologise if I have caused you any greater concern tha you (understanably) have already about the situation.

AyrshireTryer · 28/11/2023 10:36

When I worked in school admissions in London a few local authorities let a school know the number of 1st, 2nd 3rd preferences etc - Harrow does this, but most local authorities don't. Most council release the list a few days after the January deadline.
I've honestly not heard of schools knowing this early.
Most applications happen over the Christmas period, many on Christmas Day, but OP you are way ahead of the timeline and lots of time to sort it out.

Original poster

Omnaya · 28/11/2023 13:41

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I spoke to the council again yesterday and they advised that they did send the list but like @CapturedLeprechaun said, sometimes kids that have applied can get left off for a variety of reasons. They said they always tell the schools to double check with them first before contacting parents, just so they can manually double check. In this case, the school contacted me without checking but the woman at the council checked again for me and my application is definitely there!

really appreciate the responses.

OP posts:

AyrshireTryer · 28/11/2023 13:53

Hurrah!

SleepingStandingUp · 28/11/2023 13:55

Can you normally apply from September?? We've just had letters out so applied in the last few weeks, deadline January, find out April.

Honestly I'd be inclined to reapply.

Original poster

Omnaya · 28/11/2023 16:07

SleepingStandingUp · 28/11/2023 13:55

Can you normally apply from September?? We've just had letters out so applied in the last few weeks, deadline January, find out April.

Honestly I'd be inclined to reapply.

In my local authority they sent letters in September, with the applications opening on 11 September. I can’t withdraw my application online, it is literally uneditable so I think to reapply would cause more issues for them with a duplicate application. Hopefully everything will be ok, the council seemed confident it would be fine but I’m definitely going to make sure I keep my confirmation email etc, just in case!

OP posts:

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