Scottish - no place in school please help!

[Baseline14]

We have moved area and been declined our place at zoned school. They have kept us waiting the whole summer holidays to tell us so now we have to find another school and go through the whole process again. They are stating due to significant expenditure and additional teacher.

Is it worth appealing? Is our only option to try every other school in the city that might have space and wait another week to see if they reject that one too?
I had been wrongly told that they have to make a place, I'm assuming he will be on a wait list but no information has come through and no one wants to speak on the phone.

It may have changed recently but you are entitled to a place at your catchment school, if the school is at capacity the council are responsible for finding a place for your child at an alternative school and possibly transport to get child to school

I agree with Chergar. If your catchment school is full the council must offer an alternative and arrange transport to it.

You are entitled to a place at your catchment school, if your catchment school is full you will go on the waiting list for the catchment school while being given a space in the closest school that does have space. If a space opens in the catchment school you will be offered it (depending on how many people are also on the waitlist)
If you haven't been offered an alternative to your catchment school if it is full you need to contact Education Services

Have you contacted your MP and MSP? They need to get your child into school and your MP's caseworkers may be best placed to cut through the crap (not saying your council are telling you crap, but in the current climate I wouldn't be wholly surprised.)

Hope this isn't hijacking, but I can't get my head round how this works in practice - do schools have varied sizes of year groups each year? If there's a high birth year or lots of movement into an area (or new houses built?) does the school just have to create another class?

Essentially yes. They wlll bring in portacabins if needed. A lot of areas of Scotland have composite classes and will make full year classes in bigger years. They do mostly know in advance by birth rates if there will be more children.

Renfrewshire Council completely messed up and built a whole new school but significantly underestimated how many children it would need to cater for.

Each time a major new settlement has been built in our area, the schools have been oversubscribed very quickly. The main problem is that if you build a big new estate, most of the families who move into it are moving because they need a bigger house, either because of additional children or because they want the children to have their own bedroom. So any new estate has disproportionate numbers of lower primary-aged children. Sometimes it settles over time, although I think in the long run they've still usually needed more primary school provision than originally planned.
(I was amused by one developer's FAQ about their proposed new estate. They claimed it wouldn't put pressure on primary school places because they were expecting that people would move into it from elsewhere within the village. They didn't seem to have given any thought to who might move into the vacated houses!)

My advice would be sent a FOI to the council asking for capacity of the school and your child’s year group, current attendance of school and your child’s year group and also number of placing requests outwith catchment that currently attend the school and your child’s year group.

Separately appeal and also contact local councillor and MSP.

Have they said you have to find your own place? Normally you aren't allowed to approach schools directly, all placing is done by the LA. If you don't want to go to your catchment school you have to put a placing request to the LA for alternatives, not deal with the school.

I would go back to them and check that they aren't finding you a place.

You’re only guaranteed a place in your catchment school in p1 or s1. Moving in otherwise the council should place you somewhere but doesn’t have to be your catchment school. I know some people who were on the waiting list and managed to get in a term later - some schools have more people leaving mid year than others. Often the catchment catholic school isn’t as full, and do take non catholics if that’s an option for you.
different councils operate differently so if you can share your council area other posters can maybe help more specifically.

Yep I called the education school placings dept multiple times. The last time she said "I don't understand why you think this has anything to do with us?' And referred me directly to the school. Who just keep telling me someone will call me back. We have called another school who has thankfully told us they have a space and to get our application in. Will just be a 20 minute drive and a time gap where my two boys have to be at nursery and school at the same time at opposite ends of the city. Still no place so no start date.

The depute head finally called today and said he is 4th on the waiting list of children in the catchment so he potentially won't get in to the school at all but my youngest will go there next year.

He has now been off for 9 weeks and the catchment school emailed me today stating 'would remind you that it is your legal responsibility to secure education for your child regardless of the outcome of any placing request or appeal and you must ensure that your child’s name is on a school roll for the beginning of the new session' as if it wasn't their fault we were in this situation!

@Baseline14 can I just confirm that you are in Scotland?
Which local authority are you in?

I'm in Aberdeen.

This is from Aberdeen city council webpage saying every child has a right to a place at their zoned school

Scotgov also say
Find a school
You dont decide which school your child is given a place at. It's your local council's choice.
You can request a place at another school, but whether this request is granted depends on whether there are free places.
How councils decide
Councils use 'catchment areas' to decide where your child is given a place at school.
A catchment area is an area around a single school. Any children who live in this area are given a place at the school.
Most Scottish councils publish catchment area maps on their website.
You can find out where your child will be given a place at school by looking on your local council's website:

It seems the school think you are making a placing request rather than a zoned request, find out who your local councillor is and ask them for help getting it sorted

This doesn't seem tight at all. The Education Authority (council) must offer you a place at a school. Sounds like there's some mix up in their dept.

www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/education-and-childcare/apply-school-place/refusal-school-place-my-preferred-school-what-happens-now

It seems like they think you applied for a place outside the catchment and are deliberately keeping your child out of school. I would send a letter to all your local councillors via write to them www.writetothem.com
Always interesting to see which councillor replies first!

Good luck. I hope you get it sorted soon.