"waiting list for local primaries" - confused!

[TheWheelsOnTheBusHaveFallenOff]

Just read an article in yesterday's Sunday Times Home section about a woman with a 16 mo who has moved into my local area in order to get herself into the catchment area of our two, excellent, state primary schools. Fair enough.

But the article states that she has put her daughter's "name down" for these schools.

Is this possible given her daughter's age? I emailed one of these schools last year to ask about how the admissions procedure works and was told that you can only apply in the year before your child is of an appropriate age to attend, so this woman shouldn't be able to "put down" her daughter's name until the beginning of next year at the earliest by my reckoning, to get a place for Sept 2011.

Would I sound like a nutter if I rang the school to clarify?

No. Just check as things might have changed. Here you can only put their name down once they are 3.

IN Surrey you put down their names at a school just to ensure you get an application form, however, the process of actually applying and getting a place does not happen until the year before they sart ie Spet/Oct 09 for acaddemic year 2010/11

we can put name down at our local infant from 3, but this is no guarantee of a place a the school, it is simply to give the school an indication of the number of children likely to be in the year.

Formal applications open in about September, with a closing date of end of Jan, for entry to school the following Sept.

I am in S Yorks but think that this is similar all over the country.

hth

thanks all, what you're saying sounds in line with what I thought happened, you can't put your child's name "down" whatever that means in practice, eg on mailing list application form or saying you are applying, until the process starts for the academic year in which they turn 5 - surely there would otherwise be chaos with hundreds of people putting in applications years in advance. Different for private schools which can limit this by charging registration fees.

And she may have put them on the list for nursery admission, which is differnt in some boroughs - but there will still be no advantage in getting on the list early.

Silly woman.

her - not you!

thanks Blu - admit I also thought "silly woman" when I read it but to be fair she may have said she has asked for application forms and the journo has written it as "putting name down".

There is a big pic of her and her dd so should I see her in the street I intend to ask her outright, she must live v near me as the catchment area is tiny!

oooh, link to the article!

Is it in S London?

A pound to a penny it was written by a journo with (a) no children or (b) dc in private schools where you do have to put them down at embryo stage, and who didn't bother to research how primary schools admissions actually work.

Yawn.

Honeywell and Belleville. link

aha - frogs - it's an article about property, and most of the quotes are from estate agents urging people to buy buy buy as soon as possible, in the catchment of a good school!

It is an estate agents rallying call to solve thier particular industry by creating panic about fee-payers fleeing to the state sector!

Yes, blu and neatly failing to point out that most of the secondary schools under discussion are s e l e c t i v e, so no matter how much money you spend on your swanky house, little Thelma still won't get a place unless she passes the e x a m.

But hey, why let the fact get in the way of a good story and a cheesy photo-op. Not to mention the chance to name-check a few estate agents. D'you think the journo was on commission from Foxtons?

you've had to live within spitting distance of Honeywell to get a place for the past six years. Nothing's changed.

What a load of nonsense! Here's the article.

Ah yes, it's all making sense now.

I've just googled the journalist, or should that be 'journalist' who wrote the article, and her magnum opus appears to be a book entitled 'Shape Up Your Bum'.

Nuff said.

455m! And 500m for Belleville last time I looked!

Although I did hear about someone who lives just under a mile away from Honeywell who's daughter was accepted for last Sept.

Oh dear I've just closed that article but I do think anyone who would pay £1.15 million for a 3 bed semi with 2 receptions and 1 bathroom needs their bumps felt.

You could pay an awful lot of school fees (if that's what floats your boat) with that kind of money.

thanks all, now feeling more relaxed that I haven't missed out on some mysterious list to get ds into our local school.

reckon I am almost exactly 500m from Belleville ... judging by the number of cars causing log-jam outside the school for pick up today I suspect a lot of people are a good deal further away than that in truth.

you only need to be that close for child no1
after that they get in under sibling priority and you can live elsewhere

Yes.

It's funny how these newspapers never interview a non-property-buying family that lives 100m from the school but can't get in because all the places are taken up by siblings of numerous intakes of families who moved a distance away once DC1 was safely in the school.

So not fair. Especially when my four nearest schools are those two (not within 500m though) an RC Primary (no chance of getting in there unless I convert and live a lie), and one other I don't fancy, guess which one I'll get though...

That article was very . Most of the schools given in the box at the bottom are grammar schools and will accept selectively, not on proximity to school so, although it would be lovely to live close to Tiffin if your daughter got in, it would make very little difference to her application.

And yes, Blu, I am exactly in that position - we live less than 500m from nearest school and 650m from first choice, didn't get either at first and were looking at possibility of having to send dd1 to school 40min drive away (almost wish we had now but that's another story...).

Lotster - you must be my neighbour (a big Nappy Valley to you).

Is the one you don't fancy A? Guess where my dd1 is?