Hampshire Year R places- anyone have experience with waiting lists?

[Januaryblue]

We are due to move to Hampshire in the next couple of weeks but unfortunately couldn't go through the admissions process as we only recently found a house to buy. I now know what school I'd like dd to go to in September but pretty sure it will be full or near full going on what the school said to us about previous years. I think we can now go on a waiting list as we are due to exchange contracts next week. But does anyone know if they will give us a place straight away if they have one or do we have to wait after the appeals which is mid-March according to their website? We will be moving into the schools catchment area by the way.

not in hampshire but i would suggest the minute you exchange contracts you go to the office dealing with allocations and show them proof of address and amend your childs form.do this asap as it will make a difference to your placement and will hopefully get you higher up the waiting list quicker if a place can not be offered imediately.....just bleat on about school transport (if applicable)??

Fairly sure I will have to deal directly witht the school now. Will dd be further down the waiting list than say someone who didn't get in because they are just out of catchment?

bump

My experience of waiting lists is that they move fairly quickly, so if you are 10th you could find your quickly near the top as people dont accept places. I am in Hampshire and found this to be the case.

you will have to apply through the 'out of round' application process as on the website - although once you have exchanged if they have a place they should offer it to you once all the ones already in the system have been dealt with. unfortunately you are right in the middle of the annual allocations debacle lol, excellent timing!
we moved in the summer and needed a yr r place in hants - the only reason we managed to get one lol is bacause we took a place for an older sibling (they come up more frequently) and they held the place for the max 6 weeks before the end of the summer term. we then got to the top of the wait list as a sibling in situ... (although she wasn't lol, we just had the place and they both started in the september)
ime, the head is your best bet to start with - arrange to visit the school and start building your relationship lol. i spent most of june and july on the phone to the school, and in the end the head had to doorstep a family to get an accurate date of birth for the only child above us on the wait list... but we got there in the end...
good luck!

I don't know what happens right now but I can tell you that Hampshire waiting lists are prioritised in the same way as the criteria for allocating schools ie. SEN, sibs in catchment, cathcment, sibs out of catchment then out of catchment (check on the hantsweb for accuracy) so assuming that you do go on a waiting list because you are in catchment you will be higheron the list than those who didn't get in and are out of catchment. Does that help?

Thank you that's really helpful. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to go on the waiting list until 9th Feb (the school is indeed full but everyone in catchment got in apparently). I am hopeful we will be ok- fingers tightly crossed that not everyone accepts their places!