Can someone just 100% confirm this for me?

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

DS is 2.6 and all I know about primary school is you have 3 choices (?) and you can only pick them when they are 4 or something? Is that right? You definalty don't put them on a waiting list? I checked my top school choices prospectus and for 30 places they had 82 applicants this year (or last year) and I have just noticed it's gone to the top of the league tables in one of the catagories , but it's the only RC school in the area so it's sort of my only choice...

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

Poo, forgot please in the title, sorry!

thanks

[MaryBS]

We never went on a waiting list. There was only really one choice though, as we live in a village, and we were given a form by the preschool to complete and send back to the LEA.

If you want to get your child into an RC school, and its oversubscribed, its likely there will be criteria which'll bump you higher up the list. Like being RC, having your child baptised (preferably in a RC church) regular attendees at the RC church near to the school, so that the priest actually knows who you are. If you are at all concerned, speak to your priest.

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

DS is baptised and I do attend the church , or the neighbouring one but it has the same priest, but alot of people do all that now anyway even if they aren't really RC. I am presuming most the 82 were baptised, practising RCs (or at least ticking the correct boxes (you have to go twice a month)). I always presumed you put their name down years in advance but then someone told me (I think) that you can only do it just before they are 5. It's so confusing!

[FrockHorror]

I think it depends on the area in which you live, but certainly round here, you don't go on any waiting lists for non-faith schools until your application for a school place has been sent to the LEA.

At the local RC school, parents had to fill in the common application form and then approach the school and complete their own application form.

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

Are you sent these forms or do you sort it out yourself?

Thanks for replying at this late /early hour

[MaryBS]

At our school, if you weren't at any of the nurseries, you had to go into the school to pick a form up, you weren't automatically sent a form, although I think the LEA did send a letter out.

Speak to either the school or the priest or both, set your mind at rest. Often the priest writes a letter of recommendation to the school. It may even be compulsory in the case of your school!

At the mixed faith secondary school that I hope my 2 will go to, the (Anglican) priest completes a form to say whether we are occasional/regular/"heart of the church" type attendees. My SIL even accused me of that being the reason for us attending church!

[FrockHorror]

The forms are collected from places like primary schools, libraries, children's information service, council offices and the school's own I'm not sure about but would guess you would have to visit the school and collect it yourself. Not sure though.

I'm happy to be chatting at this hour. DS is going to wake to be fed any time soon and I am avoiding doing my maths homework

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

oooo maths, I love maths.

I was worried I would have to sort it myself, I am so worried I won't know when the forms are available and miss them etc. etc. I shall get DH to ring the school tomorrow sometime to double check there is no waiting list [paranoid]

[MaryBS]

I love maths too . Yes, it'll put your mind at rest - or maybe do you know someone with kids at the school that you could ask?

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

I don't really know anyone around here TBH, not even really anyone with children at all! Except on here of course

[littlestrawberry]

We got sent the forms for our DS's through the post. Didn't do anything they just came, September the year before they are due to start school. You can check I think that your child is registered by phoning the council, don't know exactly who you would need to speak to though.

[Buda]

Don't they have to be in school by 4 if you want them to do reception? (Wouldn't want you to miss it by a year!)

AFAIK in England children do not legally have to start school until they are 5. However as children go into Reception the term after they turn 4 this is not always the case. You can choose not to put your child in Reception but they will then go straight into Year 1 in a lot of areas. You need to check this out for your school/LEA.

[MollieO]

Our LEA requires you to notify them when your dc is 3 (they don't start school here until the term after their 5th birthday). The LEA sends out forms the year before they are due to start. 3 choices. The number of applicants per school in our LEA is pretty meaningless as it includes all preferences. So if you put school X 3rd on your list your preference would still be included in the number of applicants per school list.

It would be a more accurate assessment if the LEA published the number of first place preferences each school got. That way you'd have a clue how popular the school really was. Of course it is always easy to spot the unpopular school in our list as they either don't allocate all their places or there is a comment to the effect that all preferences were satisfied - ie everyone who applied got offered a place!

[MollieO]

Should also add that if they have summer birthdays (any time after early May) then they miss reception altogether and go straight into Yr1.

[lingle]

£AFAIK in England children do not legally have to start school until they are 5. However as children go into Reception the term after they turn 4 this is not always the case. You can choose not to put your child in Reception but they will then go straight into Year 1 in a lot of areas. You need to check this out for your school/LEA. "



In Bradford and (I believe) Leeds you can defer summer-borns who are not ready for a year then place them in reception.
The more I research it, the more I suspect that it is illegal to force children straight into year 1 when the parent has started them at the correct school age of 5 (Education Act plus Human Rights Act combination).

[Buda]

I know where you are coming from lingle really i do! But I don;t think it works in practice everywhere. Much as we would like it to!

[majeika]

DS2 will be 4 in November and we have just been sent a letter so we can apply for a registration form for him to attend Reception in Sept 09.

Although he is in the school nursery we still have to apply for a school place.

seems a bit to me.

[bonkerz]

our local rc church has its own admission criteria. you can check this for the school by looking at the council website and finding the school. on it will be admission criteria!!!!!!!!

[monkeymonkeymonkey]

Probably best to check with the school that you want, but in my area there is no such thing as a waiting list, you apply the december before they start, there is no way of registering a preference earlier.

The other way to tell would be to look at the criteria that the school use in deciding who to offer places to - for my school it is something like: Looked after children/SEN, then siblings, then catchment. Nothing about how long you have wanted to go to the school.

[lingle]

Yes Buda but this is not an act of god or force of nature. This is just LEAs doing something wrong for the sake of administrative convenience. So I tell everyone I can about the Yorkshire exceptions in the hope it will help them if they have one of the children who really aren't ready.

[Buda]

Hope it works lingle.

[LadyOfWaffleIsScaryEnough]

Let me go pester DH to ring them...

[lingle]

thanks Buda!