Nursery place secured but reception…

[ComebackQueen]

Hi all

I know that having a child at a nursery/feeder school is not a guarantee that a reception place would be offered however, the nursery criteria for allocating a place was stated clearly as the same as reception criteria - looked after, SEN, sibling and then distance.

Therefore, am I correct in thinking it would be likely my child gets a place next September because he already met said criterion for the nursery?

Does your LA have primary school catchment areas @ComebackQueen or is it simply straight line distance behind siblings as the last criteria?

Our LA has no catchments and the most popular schools always have an extremely low intake on distance alone and the distance is usually very small. Birth rate seems to make no difference. Always a high percentage of siblings, I assume because people move but obviously don’t want to move their kids from the best school. I feel for you as it’s a stressful wait the first time round when you are purely relying on distance.

Purely on a straight line after all the other criterion have been allocated.

Ah, I really feel for you. It is really horrible not having any idea. I don’t think the catchment system is perfect, but at least you know you are higher up the priority list for your local school if you are in catchment and, likewise, not to get your hopes up if you aren’t. It’s interesting that at our school all of the first born DC walk (as by default, they are <0.4 miles) while lots of DC who are younger siblings are driven in. I also think the issue with straight line distance is, if you just happen to miss out on the nearest schools (maybe by just a few tens of metres), you are often then given a school a fair distance away. That’s really common around us - a lot of the kids are commuting a couple of miles to the other side of town past multiple schools if they just missed out on the 3 local schools (1 of which fills up every year on church attendance alone, hasn’t had anyone admitted on distance in 4 years).

Anyway, a long winded way of saying I feel your stress and good luck for allocation day.

nurseries are not feeders as far as i am aware!

the admissions criteria is distance/siblings/looked after etc (whatever order)!

nothing to do with nurseries

You have to be realistic on your first choice. Don't put down a school you have no hope of getting into because you will end up just being placed where the council has spaces. You need to know what your realistic options are.

But this is the issue with living in an LA that has no defined catchment areas. It’s hard to be realistic when you have very little to gauge your decision on other than previous year’s admission data, where the maximum distance admitted may vary hugely year on year, depending on sibling numbers and birth rate.
It sounds like OP is potentially in a bit of a black hole area which aren’t uncommon in such LA’s (we are the same). Less than 0.5 miles from the 2 closest primary schools but potentially just too far to get in to either.

Where we live, the majority of kids stay in private nurseries until school (due to both parents working FT). Lots of children at our very oversubscribed local school's preschool don't get in to Reception each year and I've met a number of disappointed parents who had not appreciated the number of (closer) children who would be applying or done their research on the council's distance stats.

Yes, I live in a similar area, but the main thing is not to make crazy choices, which people I know did in the mistaken belief that somehow it would work. Like, our nearest school was a tiny Co E school which offered half its places to local kids by distance, but after siblings and sen kids, so you had to live practically on the door step, but some parents who didn't have a hope applied anyway. And it sounds like this mum is in a similar situation. I don't know what her other options are but I suspect it's not this particular school. Anyway I hope you find somewhere. Black holes are real and cause so much angst.

I am being realistic which is why I asked the question.

these two primaries I mentioned, 0.5miles and about 0.4 miles away are the closest to where I live.

Yet a friend who lives closer to the school was placed 1.5miles away.

I find it amusing that the two primary schools closest to us we have no hope of getting in to based on distance yet the LA have no qualms placing my child potentially 1.5miles away.

That doesn’t make sense because presumably the other primary school has the criteria, which is does when I looked at it.

Its what happens when schools are close together... a larger schools catchment further away can completely surround a smaller schools. And those in the middle have a choice of which school they want.

That's what areas with "priority admissions areas" try to avoid... it may not be your closest school but everyone is higher up the list at one school.

But there's no system that can be completely fair for every child. Places are limited. They consider 2 miles to be an alright distance for Infants.

Why is it amusing? Clearly your closest school is either more popular, therefore far more people apply and some therefore inevitably miss out, or they have less spaces available than the other school. Schools have to stick to PAN (usually 30 in a class so x by however many classes they have in a year group). They can't just give everyone their closest school, as schools can be so randomly spread out. Some people have 2 schools on their road less than 0.3 miles apart. Other people live more than 3 miles from their closest school.

You're talking about 1.5 miles as if it's a very long way away. It really isn't, in terms of school allocation. It's obviously not ideal, if you have another school much closer to you, but they can't give that school to everyone on the estate if they don't have enough spaces for them all.

You're talking about 1.5 miles as if it's a very long way away

Well, I for one would have been gutted if we had had to spend the next 10 years driving 1.6 miles through rush hour traffic to the primary school a lot of kids round us have to go to when they miss out on 3 schools < 0.5 miles away. I know the prevailing wind on MN is that you absolutely cannot be disappointed with your primary school allocation. And in more rural parts of course 2 miles is reasonable. But I do think there is something wrong when families in urban areas are driving past multiple primary schools they could walk to because of allocation black holes, even just from an environmental perspective.

1.5 miles away in the context of this situation is three times the distance for both schools.

The underlying sneering and condescending attitude is duly noted.

When you live in London and do not drive and have a disability what appears to be not a very long way for some is much different for others.

So I stand by that I find it amusing that you can not get into a school less than 0.5miles away due to distance but can get into a school three times as far on the same criteria as distance.

It is really tricky in London. Close friends just had similar issues with choosing secondary schools here. They loved in a bit of a black hole pocket where getting into several schools nearby wasn't at all guaranteed. It can be really tricky if there are a lot of houses and really tiny admissions distances. I know 1.5 miles isn't far but it is frustrating when there are loads of much closer schools you can't get into.

Two things to just keep in mind. First research all of the schools nearest you and rank them in genuine preference order on the form. Use all of your spaces and hope for the best. You honestly just never know how it's going to go from one year to the next.

Second, if the only reason you're splitting your child between two settings is to get into Reception here, when you've researched that it's not a criteria for that school, then don't bother and just consolidate your time in one setting and be done with it.

Good luck with it when the time comes to apply.

Admissions policies that allow you to get one child on then move away add to these problems... one patent is driving their children one way, then the children who can't get in are being driven in the opposite direction.
Added issues like the OP who can't drive due to disability

Good news is lower birth rates are expanding admissions disyances

Thank you all for the kind replies.

I have downloaded our local authorities guide on primary schools and how they were allocated.

I’ve printed all the ofstead reports too and I’ve prepared myself that I will have to just make provisions for the longer commute for that school. I just noticed it requires improvement too which probably has now compounded my anxiety on this!

Admissions policies that allow you to get one child on then move away add to these problems...

Completely agree. Likewise faith schools that aren’t bound by catchments, so can prioritise a child who lives 10 miles away whose granny is a church attendee over a child who lives across the road. Literally the case at the extremely popular CofE school round the corner from us - having any family member who attends church anywhere in the country prioritises you over distance.

Sibling priority and religion priority should be limited to a certain sensible distance if catchments aren’t used.

There is definitely no sneering and condescending attitude to my post. I'm just explaining facts. There is nothing 'amusing' (as in strange or odd, right?) about this situation because different schools have different PAN numbers and some are more popular than others. Whilst I totally understand it's annoying, it's not daft if more people than they have places for apply to your chosen school, meaning you miss out, and less people than they have places for apply for the further away school, meaning you get in. What is 'amusing' about that? It's how the system works. They cannot magic a place for a child, simply because it's their nearest school, if more than their PAN live even closer 🤷🏼‍♀️

Could public transport be a solution if you have mobility issues? At least in London you're more likely to get a school relatively close to a bus or tube stop, as opposed to living out in the sticks.

Again, I know it's not ideal. Just trying to help with solutions.

Yes, I am fortunate there is a bus stop 7 minutes away from our house that will take him to the road of the school.
I was mapping out the routes, my husband can also help on his wfh days with pick and drop offs. He can do the morning and I can do the pick up via bus in afternoon as I only work 25 hours a week.

You really don't have to be realistic with your first choice. Preference order doesn't make a difference. It's perfectly fine to put a long shot in first place as long as you have a realistic option somewhere on your list, and in London you can list 6 schools. You will only get placed somewhere random if none of your choices are realistic (or sometimes if you are just unlucky that you aren't close enough to any nearby schools to secure a place).