If to move to allocated school nursery?

[Allme501]

So my son didn’t get a place at his preferred school today and unfortunately he is currently in the nursery there. We will stay on the waiting list but we are not holding out much hope. My question is, if his allocated school has space in their nursery, should I move him now?

Do you know how far up the waiting list you are? Is it an out of catchment school?

I think it depends what is convenient for you. Kids at that age make friends very easily and many of the children starting won’t be at that nursery so. I don’t think there’s much to benefit by moving unless you’d just like to get to know the school and join in with any events etc which may be useful.

I wouldn’t just for one term. There will be other kids who aren’t at the nursery. You might not even be able to get the funding as nurseries already have the funds for the new term.

I wouldn’t move him at this stage but I would talk to him very casually about how he will be going to his new school and making lots of new friends in September, I would take him for walks past the new school at weekends and peep through the fence at the playground , I would find out if they are having a Summer Fair and go to it, and make sure you go to any new parent/open days the new school is offering and ask at his current nursery if any other children will be going there too.

My daughter attended a different reception from her pre-school friends just because of logistics.
I do think it made it quite difficult at the start and then COVID made it nigh impossible and she's struggled socially. I suspect it was more COVID than preschool though

My son did it two years later and was absolutely fine. He was completely new whereas everyone else had been at preschool. He's a very sociable and outgoing character, clever and sporty. He's not been held back.

I'd say it depends on your son.

I don't think I would move him for one term. Well realistically by the time you've arranged it it might not be much more than half a term.
My DC all went to nursery near where I worked and school near home and had no trouble with the transition. As you know, attendance at a school nursery isn't usually considered in allocating Reception places so it's very likely that there will be other children in your son's class who haven't attended your allocated school's nursery, and there will probably be children in that nursery who aren't going to the school. I know it must seem daunting now but the staff will be used to children joining who haven't attended their own nursery and if you moved him now you'd have two transitions in a very short period of time for potentially no real benefit.

I wouldn't move him. The summer holidays are long when you are 4 and most schools do a decent transition in to Reception. Moving him now would be more disruptive I feel.

No, definitely don't move him at this late stage. Especially as you could potentially still gain a place from the waiting list anyway. That could be confusing and upsetting for him.

See the end of his nursery year as the natural end to that chapter, assuming he doesn't get a place at the preferred school, and the start of Reception at the other school as the start of a brand new one. He definitely won't be the only child coming from a different setting. Children that age generally makes new friends quite easily so no need to rush in changing his current nursery routine just so he can meet a few new potential classmates a few months earlier.

Reception will involve changes for him anyway, whichever school he goes to. New teachers, a new classroom, different children. He'll face those changes when the time is right, in September. Two new changes in the space of a few months is unnecessary and unsettling.

I'm sure he'll transition fine in September, wherever he ends up. Good luck.

i thought school nurseries had zero bearing on school places, and it was the address that counted?

It doesn’t have a baring and we knew that. The reason we put him in there was because we had to move him from his previous nursery and we put him in the nursery of the school we wanted him to go to hoping that he would get a place in that school but sadly that hasn’t worked out that way.

No, we don’t. Are we able to find that out? (We haven’t done this before!) We don’t know why he didn’t get in or any context whatsoever which is very frustrating but I’m guessing is the norm?

Thank you for all the replies, the points raised are very helpful. To be honest I was only thinking to move him as a friend suggested it but I think on balance we will leave him there especially given that we are still hoping to get a place through continued interest. Does anyone know if there is a way to find out why he didn’t get in and what his chances are now? As in how many other applicants they had and now have waiting and where we come in that list? Is that something the school will tell us? If he has no chance then I’d rather know now and fully embrace the new school (as someone commented; as a new chapter) x

I wouldn't. Dd didn't know anyone as noone else from her nursery got in to her school. She made a solid group of friends within a week. We were told that the 60 kids came from c 20 different settings.

You can find out where he is on the waiting list, not sure if the school can tell you that

I really wouldn't move him. It's a bit of a rite of passage leaving all together etc. If you move him there will doubtless be children in that school nursery going elsewhere too so he'll probably need to make new friends twice. Where I work the kids go to several different schools. Many go to the same one, but others are scattered. I'm sure others in your current nursery are going elsewhere. I would talk to his key worker and make sure they are preparing children for different schools, not just their own one. I would also ask if they know of anyone going to his new school. And finally, get on local Facebook groups and find people starting at your new school and try to meet up a couple of times over the summer.

I wouldn’t move him, it’s way too close to the end of the year to have any benefit.

Don’t move him. School will have lots of children joining from lots of places.

The council can tell you where you are on the waiting list.

Your offer letter should say why you did not qualify, such as which category was applied and if distance is the oversubscription criteria what the measurement used was. Have you checked your waiting list position (bearing in mind it could go down as well as up) to see if you have any realistic chance of a place before September. The LA will hold this information and should publish data on allocations on its website.

In answer to your query about why he didn't get in, it will simply be because they had more applicants than places, and the children offered places all ranked higher than your child in their admissions criteria. There will have possibility been some applicants with EHCPs or some who are looked after children (both are given priority in most schools' admissions criteria), then there will have been children who already have siblings at the school, and another bunch who live closer to the school than you. Most oversubscribed schools, unless super popular to the point where even siblings struggle to get in, cut off on the distance section. So, at a guess, I would assume this is where your child fell short. The LA website will likely tell you the break down of places, and how far away from the school the last child admitted lives. In many cases, it can't be less than a mile.

This is an example from one school in my LA, lifted from our LA website:-

Places were allocated to: Fewer than 5 pupils in public care or with an Education, Health and Care Plan; 30 siblings; 18 pupils who live closer to the school than any other school; and 11 out of 18 other pupils using the distance tiebreaker. The last pupil to be allocated a place in the ‘others’ criterion lives 0.918 miles from the school.

In that example, 7 more people listed the school as a preference than they have spaces for. Those 7 missed out because they live further from the school than the other children who didn't meet the higher criterias of having an EHCP, being in care, having a sibling already at the school or living closer to this school than any other school. They will all go on the waiting list, ranked in order according to the admissions criteria (so currently the closest of those children to miss out will be first on the list, but they could be bumped down if other people move into the area to an address even closer to the school, or if a child moving into the area has a sibling who is admitted to an older year group in the school etc).