How long should you have to accept a school place?

[TheDisillusionedAnarchist]

I’ve applied for a place in Year 2 for September for my DD who is currently home educated and has SEN/ALN (we’re in Wales)

I emailed a number of our local schools to see if we could visit and meet with the ALNCO. Only one was prepared to permit this, so we applied for that school which was a good fit.

That school is full in her year group and they have offered another school. They offered at 1246 today and want us to accept by 9.00am on Wednesday. Is this an acceptable time limit? I’ve called the school but I doubt I can visit or meet the ALNCO before 9am on Wednesday.

Is any time limit on accepting etc set in the Admissions code and can I push back on this assuming we do decide the school would work?

If you need her to start in September you've left it very late for them to try and sort.

When does term end? It might be that the admissions team are term time only or at least reduced staff over the holidays and so trying to get as much sorted as possible before the end of term. I imagine the school would also like to know before the end of term if your DD will be joining them so that they can prepare accordingly. Given the timing, there won’t be much they can do in the way of transition which is a pity but they can at least ensure that they have the right number of chairs in the classroom and think about what resources they can put in place for her first day to support her

The admissions staff work over the holidays,

She has fairly complex needs and we’ve recently been through a mental health crisis with her. She is under CAHMS who think she should be in school part time only (hence need to discuss with school first)

I don’t care if she starts in September or not as either way she’ll need a slow transition but I think I need more than one day to make a decision as to whether to accept this place as I know nothing about the school (most of them won’t engage unless allocated). I could keep on home educating, apply for an IDP (Welsh ECHP) for her and go that route for schools but my son’s IDP took 39 weeks so she’d likely not be in school until next summer if we do that!

When CAMHS suggest part time school, are they doing that with a view to increasing to full time eventually, or permanent part time?

You’d need to know how that would work for your child and the school logistically.

I think that most schools expect a prompt response if they offer a place and this will be exacerbated by the fact that it’s almost the end of term. Would you consider applying in September?

Whether it’s a longer term part time timetable or we move to full time really depends on how it goes. She’s very high risk for EBSA due to anxiety and nobody is sure how it will work. Interestingly school on phone were open to part time.

We could apply in September but would be in a similar position except with schools definitely open. The schools will (apart from one) not permit visits or discussion until they are allocated. I can’t apply for a school I’m not sure can meet need so we’d apply, be allocated school X and then need to contact them to discuss need which whether now or in September will take more than 36 hours!