Year 1 school for kid

[Priyak0107]

Hi, so my last thread was little confusing. Let me start again .
we have moved house in November
we have applied for in -year application for my kid who is in reception now and going to old school which is far away. What are our chances to get nearby school we are on waiting list 1and our new house is just in front of school now. In case we dont get this September term does Council provide any other option which is atleast nearer than old school ?

Are you on the waiting list for any other schools? The council won’t automatically allocate you one unless you ask for it.

For the school you want, you can ask them your position on the waiting list. If you live that close then it’s likely you will be high, but you’re basically waiting for someone else to leave, which could be tomorrow or it could be two years away.

Honestly nobody can say what your chances are of getting the school you’ve applied for. Basically you need a child in your child’s year to leave, hard to say how likely that is.

Remember you can move down the waiting list if someone applies who comes further up the list of entry criteria than your child, such as a “looked after” child (in care/fostered etc), or someone who has a sibling going in further up the school.

However, your local council has a duty to find your child a place at a school in their area. So you should be offered a place somewhere near ish. Speak to the council and find out where has spaces. You may need to ring some schools individually to find out about spaces, if the council doesn’t manage their admissions numbers.

If you’d been applying for Reception intake for the start of the academic year, the proximity to school should have secured a place.
The school are unable to exceed the class size limit of 30 so as a PP has said you are waiting for someone to leave.
You need to contact Pupil and student services in your Local Authority.

The council is responsible for finding your kids a school place, pretty much straight away. However it won't necessarily be the closest school, if that one is popular and full. It's impossible to say if that is the case with your move, without knowing details of the individual school (which you probably should pur online).

If you are offered a different school, you can also go on the waiting list for your preferred school, but you'd have to weigh up the benefit against how unsettling it would be for your kids to change schools a second time.

The council is obliged to offer you a space at a school that is reachable; it might not be the school you want tho.

Applying for next Sept and year 1 is a red herring; as we said on the other thread, if a place is offered you will need to take it asap. Or it will be offered to the next person on the WL.

Have you gone through the application with the LA? It varies across authorities but as a rule you need to name the schools you are interested in and the LA will see if there is a space in any of them. If the desired school has one class of 30 then a place is not likely, even if it is across the road. You are top of the WL but you need a pupil to move so you are relying on that. It may happen but it may not. As others say, it’s impossible to say how soon that may happen, if at all.

You need to contact your admissions service at tge LA and tell them you can no longer get your child to their old school due to the distance. The LA will look for the nearest school with space. If it is over 2 miles away, they should offer travel assistance (usually a busbpass for the chikd but maybe a mileage allowance).

They have no onlifation to offer you one of your preferences if they are full.

No one can predict if a space will become available or not. I work for a Trust and 2 of our schools have not had a single child leave who srartex in Reception in the last 6 years. Others have had more mobility.

Out of curiosity, did you investigate the school situation before deciding to move to where you did? I mean, the answer from the LA would / should have been that even if there were places available currently in the area, a definitive answer re a place at a specific school couldn't be given unless you made a formal application, as the in-year admissions process is dynamic etc, but I really hope you didn't choose your house because there was a school very close by and therefore of course there would be a place there for your DC? (Or because the estate agent assured you that a place would be available...).

Yes we are on waiting list for 2 schools, in our council we can apply for 3 schools which are under our area.None of the schools has spaces as of now. In that case do we have to go to old school till year 3 or Council will provide us atleast nearish school

The council has to provide you with a place at a school with a vacancy in the area. If there is no such school as I understand it you can invoke the Fair Access Protocol which means they can go over 30 in a school to provide a place. I’m no expert on that tho so do check. But tbh I would be surprised if there is no school locally with a place in year 1.

If current school is 30 mins away, how far is that? Where I live that would be about 25 miles so no a reasonable commute (hence LA would have to offer somewhere nearer). You could stick with current school tho ofc if preferred.

How far away in distance and time is current school?
Councils have a cut off for these i think so if too far you can ask maybe for Fair Access Protocol. (Might have to stop attending though??)

I expect @prh47bridge will advise in due course when he's finished his turkey and mince pies.

If your new council can’t give you a space at any of the schools you’ve applied for, they have to offer you a space at a different school in their area, ie your new area. I would expect that to be closer than 30 min drive away. But it may be a way away if it’s the other side of your new council’s area.

Parents don't ask to evoke the fair access protocol (I'm a fair access officer) this is done if the local authority has no places available and the child is unplaced. How far away from your current address is the present school?
Could I just clarify... Have you applied for a Year 1 place for September or a reception place for immediate in year transfer? If the local authority has been unable to place for immediate start (by looking at all schools within a reasonable distance etc) then they may refer it to the fair access team if your current school is also deemed to not be within a reasonable distance. If you've applied for a Year 1 place for September then they wouldn't have an obligation to provide a place as you've effectively told them your child will remain at current school. Normally when a child is placed the parent has 10 school days to accept the place and for the child to be on roll .
At this age infant class size legislation applies, but again, the fair access protocol can have the child placed as an 'excepted' pupil particularly if a child has moved from out of area and there are no spaces available within a reasonable distance.
If however you've applied for Year 1 in September, you'll need to make a new application for your child's current year group or accept that your child just remains on the waiting list until at least July 2026 because they won't be offering Year 1 waiting list places to reception age now.

Hi, yes we have applied for reception place for immediate in year transfer.

Ok, so it all depends on the distance from your new address to current school and whether you asked the local authority to place if none of your preferences were available. If it's been passed to the fair access team then you'll receive an acknowledgement from that team and they have 20 days to find a school place (providing your application meets the fair access protocol) If current school is deemed to still be within a reasonable distance (normally 2 miles) or you've stated that your child will remain at the current school, then the fair access protocol won't apply and your only option is to remain at current school or appeal (very difficult to win an infant class size appeal)
Do be aware that these teams are term time only so you're looking at chasing an update on 5th January and if they have closed your current in year admission application then you would have to make a new application for different schools making clear that you will accept any place.

On your other thread you said that your child's current school is a 30 minute drive away. That is considered reasonable (anything up to 45 minutes each way is considered reasonable at this age), so the council don't have to find a closer place. However, if your child's school is more than 2 miles away by the shortest safe walking route (which it sounds like it probably is), the council must provide free transport to get your child to and from school.

You have the option of appealing for any school you want. However, if the school has classes of 30 in Reception, Y1 or Y2 an appeal is unlikely to succeed. You would need to show that the council made an error which cost your child a place. For an in-year transfer such as this, that is improbable.

It is possible the council will offer you a place at the nearest school with places available as an alternative to keeping your child at their current school, but that is not guaranteed. From the information you have posted, your best chance of getting a place at a local school is via the waiting list.

Ok, thank you so much for detailed information. We had no clue how and where to apply and what will happen with application. Hopefully we get it nearby if not preferred one .

I'm confused. Have you made an in year admission application to your local authority and received a letter stating the outcome?

You local authority should tell you (or should have told you) how to apply in-year. Is the info not on the website?

For instance here is the process for Nottinghamshire (obvs I don't know where you are but there will be similar details online for your area).

https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions/changing-school

You say you have applied for an in-year place already so did you fill in a similar form? How many schools could you list on the form? Did you list as many as possible? How long ago did you apply?