Complete Novice - child due to start school Sept 10 - when to start looking at schools and whats the process?

[marymungoandmidge]

My DS is July baby so will start September after his 4th birthday (2010). What is the form and what would you do: we are currently renting, and have no guarantee of finding a house to buy in the village that suits us...The village school incidentally has only about 40 pupils and therefore teaches across ages (5-7 etc) which concerns me...When is it appropriate to start the process. There are a couple of good state primaries around - some in different counties because we are on the border effectively of two counties...what are your thoughts...? I do want him to start in 2010 because he seems bright so no issues about keeping back btw...

Go onto the websites of the councils - they will give you an indication of when and how to apply for a state school place.

The other source is to get the local listings/ Grapevine - usually they will have the telephone numbers of schools and you can arrange a visit and get an idea of what will be suitable for your child..

HTH

Thanks for that

I am also a novice and I'm struggling on the process. My DD is a June baby so she will be 4 next year. I assume I can start her in primary school therefore in Sept 2010 (although I have read they start at 5)? I'm also getting confused with Recpetion and Year 1...are these the same thing?

I also keep on getting told to apply now as everything gets booked up, but I've looked at my local councils website and they haven't published applications for 2010/11.

Feeling very confused and a bad parent at the mo

you will get a form through the post that tells ou when to apply
or your local council's website will tell you when you can do it online
your friends are wrong saying it will all get booked up
reception is the first year of school, year 1 is the second year of school

Thank you bigchris. Am I right to assume that the right age (or recommended age rather) for children to start Reception is 4 years?

It depends where you live Zanne to when exactly your DD will start school but it will be in the academic year starting September 2010. Some counties start all children in September and some split it so the younger half of the year group i.e. your DD start in January. She will start in Reception which is a play-based curriculum and move in to Year 1 (slightly more formal)in September 2011 with the rest of her year group. This means that depending when she starts (Sept/Jan) she will have either 2 or 3 terms in Reception.
Hope that makes sense