Please help my friend who is facing the prospect of placing her children in two different schools with a 2 month old baby

[lingle]

My friend R has two children, A and B. She is expecting C this summer.

A attends school 1. B is due to start there in September when C is six weeks old or so.

To her horror, she was told recently by her head that School 1 has adopted a "priority admission area" which she does not reside in. Siblings of current pupils residing outside the new priority admission area rank 4th in the priority list - after children who are first borns but reside in the priority admission area.

The new priority admission area idea is a good one except that no provisions have been made for phasing it in to protect siblings of existing pupils.

The school is usually oversubscribed - sometimes ridiculously so - and the head is very keen to avoid a situation she faced a year or so ago when she had 34 kids in reception and had to employ an extra teacher.

A and B could probably both get into my kids' school. However, A has had a challenging time in his first three years and frankly the last thing he needs is to be unsettled. Leaving him at school 1 is impracticable though because she can't get the two kids to different schools.

Please please can I have your strategic ideas. We haven't had the places allocated yet but it is very likely that my friend will have to appeal.

Should she talk to:
a) her head mistress (why didn't the head negotiate a transitional phase when she was consulted on this?)
b) her local councillor, who is our democratic representative but also sits on the executive committee that made the decision
c) write to the local council to say that if she does not get in they can expect an appeal (we suspect they always leave a few places unallocated each year to leave space for the inevitable appeals)
d) other parents in the same situation - tricky because some may get in and others not.

Would the fact that she will have a six week old baby assist at any appeal against having to send the children to two different schools? Will the fact that A could get into my kids' school go against her (ie might they say "well it's no problem because you can move both your kids")

I feel this is very unfair. She had a legitimate expectation when she chose this school for child A that child B would go there too.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Council insiders and parents with experience of similar situations are particularly sought after.

b

You cannot seriously expect a parent to fund childcare in order to get her child to school in time. What if they cannot afford a childminder? What if they do not have any family nearby nor know anyone else able to take one of the children to school?

When we appealed to get ds1 into the school at the top of our road, one of the main planks of our appeal was that, whilst we had a support network in place of other parents we knew who'd be able to get ds1 to the school of our choice if we weren't able, we had no such network in place for our catchment school.

Hence we said, if he was sent to the catchment school, we might not be able to guarantee to get him there, and that by placing him at the catchment school knowing this, the LEA would be delinquent in its responsibility to ensure his education.

Obviously we never found out what argument swung it for us and got ds1 into the school we wanted, but this bit might have helped - and might help your friend too, myredcardigan.

You are absolutely right that it is totally unreasonable for the school to change the siblings' place in the priority for admissions without phasing this in. I hope that your friend either gets the place for her child straight away, or that she gets in on appeal. All I would tell her is what I said in my earlier post - that the appeals process seems designed to get people to give up, so she'll need to be persistant.

I think this is going to be me in a few weeks, we've just realised that dc1 school now prioritises catchment over sibs. We're sure it wasn't so until this year and we've only realised it once applications are in. To add insult to injury local school (which is better) normally has

Just to clarify, it's not my thread or friend. I just think the policy is unreasonable.

She'll have the same problem when her baby is big enough for school so I'd move all the kids to a school in the admission area. Easier to settle one kid in a new school than two further down the line.

Agree that siblings should have priorty though.

Unfortunately these are not grounds for appeal. Its likely that before the changes were made there was a consulatation but as per usual these are usually kept quiet and most people dont know about them!

My friend has the same prob one Dc in one school and the other DC in another and she is running around like a headless chicken trying to pick them up each day.

Wait for the allocations process, the sibling may get a place, wait for the CI list they may get a place. If they dont then it would be best if the elder sibling changes to the younger ones school

From myredcardigan - You cannot seriously expect a parent to fund childcare in order to get her child to school in time. What if they cannot afford a childminder? What if they do not have any family nearby nor know anyone else able to take one of the children to school?

This isn't about what I expect. My views here are immaterial.

I am trying to explain what my LEA expects, because it is very likely that the OP's LEA has similar expectations. The more she can find out about her LEA's policies and criteria, the more likely it is that the OPs' friend might construct grounds for appeal that have some chance of succeeding. All I am saying is that 'I don't want to have two children attending different schools' is unlikely to cut much ice - not least because many other parents could be in the same situation.

I have three children in three different schools. I had two children in two different schools when DD was born.
it is hard . it is a bit easier now as DS1 can help collect one if I need to. Plus I have used late rooms and early rooms etc as start and finish times change as the children move through their respective schools

This is really educational. Thanks boccadellaverita for telling me the harsh truth! No point in having any illusions about this. In fact, I'm so glad I started this because I was "revving up" my friend yesterday and now I realise that actually she may need to start thinking about plan B.

Myredcardigan and others - thank for feeling the pain.

NewTeacher - so true about the consultation period. As some of you know, I've been obsessed with the summer-born flexibility issue for at least 2 years, but still managed to miss a crucial consultation period last year. I had to turn up at the Council's executive meeting - talk about last minute.

Trouble is, my friend is going to have a really tricky decision now (assuming her son doesn't get in and the chances on appeal are minimal). Should she wait until the last possible moment until a couple of kids slip away off the list to school 2 or to private school? Or should she quickly move child A to my school so he can settle and child B can start to get familiar with it? If she went for the latter option, child A would have a full term in a mixed year class that included two of his best friends (they're year 1, he's year 2 and 31st August born and on the less mature side).

Also, I do feel that the headmistress should have warned the affected parents of the proposed changes whilst the consultation was running.

For instance, my neighbours are outside school 1 catchment. They have just sent their little boy there in Sept. 2009 reception. The head must have failed to tell them, when she met them last November, that they may have difficulties getting their daughter into the school in 2011! But she must have known! that is naughty I think.

Lingle - I'm sorry if my posts seem harsh. I don't pretend to be offering the truth here - I'm just trying to describe how the admissions process works in my LEA and how they tend to respond to appeals. But things might be different in your LEA, which is why I think that any time your friend spends now on research won't be wasted. In particular, I think it is worth investigating the background to the decision to create the priority admissions area, to ensure that proper procedures were followed.

If your friend's child doesn't get a place, I think the first piece of information she needs is where she is on the waiting list. After all, if she is (say) 2nd she's very likely to get a place once all the offers have been accepted or rejected.

Lingle - Just saw your second post. As I said, if your friend is determined to get her second (or third) child into her preferred school, the validity of the decision to create the priority admissions area (and therefore to change the admissions criteria) is certainly worth exploring.

Thanks Bocca! I appreciate your help. When you know the answer you have to tell people don't you?

At least one thing I said to her yesterday wasn't complete rubbish then! (I told her to look up the appeals procedure and also to go back over the agenda and minutes from when the decision was taken).

As I say, I actually feel quite guilty now that I was giving false comfort yesterday.

Lingle - But I'm really not claiming to know the answer! What I know (if anything) is the process in my LEA but I really can't predict what the outcome for your friend in your LEA will be. It sounds as if you've got her started on some useful research.

Bocca, when I say 'you' I meant as in society. It wasn't personal. I know you were only refering to your LEA.