Just found out dd hasn't got into ANY of the local schools - now what?

[lalalonglegs]

We live about 4-500m from two schools both of which we are eligible for (the one I prefer is a church school) but have been accepted at neither of them nor at the two nearest after that. I'm feeling a bit bleak and angry.

do you know how many children across Wandsworth haven't been allocated a place at all?

if there are many, they WILL build some more classrooms to increase the intakes. We had 2 (or even 3) really good primary schools increase their intake to 3 classes, so 90 children, last year.

No idea - where would that data be?

It'll probably be in the South London press next week or the following week

Lambeth offers aren't out until the end of April

End of April - bloody hell, that puts them at a real disadvantage if they have to try to get a place out of borough.

ds had settled in really well lala, with a big gang he'd been to nursery with. also, our school is relatively small with a one form intake. and a fab new go ahead headmistress who is doing great things. so our one is rapidly improving whereas the popular one is possibly resting on its laurels (i have lots of friends whose children go there, some are happy, some aren't - almost everyone at ours is happy....). sorry, that was an essay!

our house is on the market with currell now. 100k cheaper than f'tons put it on at initially. quite a few viewers in the first week, it's all gone a bit quiet. arrrrrrrrggggggghh. i'll link to the website on my original thread, though they haven't quite sorted out the right descriptions yet. grrrr.

I'd look slightly further afield. Sometimes you don't get to hear about schools and how good they are, if they're not your local schools and/or you don't know anyone with children there. Even better if they have a number of forms in their intake eg. 3 or 4 form intake = more available spaces.

good luck llll. It sounds like there is hope for you - all you need are 4 parents to go the private route, which in that area seems fairly likely. I'm not sure if the knowledge of how close you are is good or bad? It must be really scary.

We got a bit more detail with the letter that came from Sutton borough today. We narrowly missed out on two of our schools, so there is a chance we will get a 'private drop out' place. Although there are only two girls private schools in the borough, and not many places. There is also the chance that someone will move away.

If not, we are also going to put our names down on the WL for every school which had a large-ish catchment (ie the poorer performing schools), look outside the borough, enquire about private (and resign myself to living in a flat the rest of my life!) and hope for the best.

I know it might sound overly calm, but when it has all sorted itself out, one way or another, we will look back to this in a different way. We just don't know the outcome yet, but it doesn't mean it will be a bad outcome.

Before this I was determined to get a good school for dd, but now I will just be relieved to get anything. A bit but also annoyed. Everyone I spoke to reassured me that this wasn't going to happen, despite my fears (even the admissions officers).

Prior to that constant reassurance I was going to move house into a catchment, and decided against it on the basis that it would work out okay. Talk about a bad decision.

Can I ask a question, I live in Scotland so don't get this whole school place thing. Your child is of school age, you live within a council area and therefore the council are legally obligated to educate your child surely?. I assume they would prosecute you if you didn't educate your child, therefore they must provide a place? I find this school place thing bizare in the extreme, thank god I live in Scotland is is so much more sensible up here, your street has two catchment schools, a non-denominational one and a catholic one, you apply and go to which one you want. My non-catholic friend's little girl goes to the Catholic school as she liked it better and it was nearer.

Yes, the LA is legally obliged to provide a school place for every child but, they obviously hope that you will do the work for them and find a place yourself. The outcome of my conversation witht the admissions officer was: "We'll worry about it in September if you haven't found somewhere by then."

What I really resent is that I in no way played the system, I applied to the four nearest schools but lack of provision by each of them means that we just weren't near enough by a few tens of metres. Instead of having a reasonable/very good school within walking distance, like Cloudhopper, I am looking at a failing school - the only one likely to have space - a drive away.

HOw does it work in Scotland? What if a school has only 30 places but 35 children applying? Is there no maximum class size?

In Scotland only 10% of children put in placement requests. Schools seem to have catchment areas and places married up quite well . I assume the council would be required to expand the school or provide an alternative school and transport provision. Also I think schools reserve places to allow people who move into the area to obtain places during term. Also all placement requests must be allocated by 30 April each and the council can refuse a child a place only for certain reasons set out by law and if they cannot show one of these reasons applies, then they are duty bound to grant your child a place. With regards to class sizes the average class size in Scottish primary schools is 23.3 pupils. In P1-P3, 12% of pupils were in class sizes of 18 or fewer pupils.

DD1 is in P3 and there are 20 pupils in her class and she is at a very large primary school with nearly 600 pupils and 80 nursery children.

Sounds as if things are pretty sorted in Scotland . I'm sure that most LAs will be able to show that they do provide enough spaces for the children in the borough - it just seems to me that they are in the wrong places or at schools that are failing or in special measures. As for building new classrooms, I just don't think it is possible at the Catholic school because it has no spare land - they've just built a swanky new arts block that has eaten up half the playground - and at the other one, they have been "encouraged" to lease out areas of the building to other businesses such as nursery schools and so on so little chance of expansion there.

CH: I know how you feel. We were counting on getting our daughter in the lovely school and number two was very much a second choice but now we'd be delirious to get her in there to start in September. Good luck with finding something for your daughter.

The school DS goes to had more than one class of P1s start in August so they made a composite class of P1 and P2. Does that happen much in England? The only time I've heard parents worry up here is if they want to get their kids into a Roman Catholic school and it's quite busy.

well yes Scotland spend, iirc, 50% more per child on education, but that is a whole other thread!

lala - I wondered if you have made any headway up the waiting lists?

A friend told me that Balham Nursery newsletter said loads of kids have no school place

Does anyone know why Ecole des Benjamins are moving their under 2's out of the Alderbrook site?

How old is your dd lala? Because presumably the authority don't actually have to offer her a place until the term after her fifth birthday?