How do you ensure that twins will be put in the same school?

[KembleTwins]

I have identical twin girls. They are due to start school in Sept 2010. Last year, one woman from our twins group ended up with her twins being put in two separate schools - one got first choice, the other got second. Does anyone have any experience of applying for primary school with twins? How do I ensure they are dealt with at the same time? I am tempted to staple forms together and write TWINS TWINS TWINS all over them, but suspect this will not go down well. Advice needed please!
Thank you.

hmmm put your first choice as the one you are most likely to get into?

Can you ring your LEA and ask for advice?

There was a case in the papers last year of twins being allocated different secondary schools ... quite mad.

Perhaps if you put both forms in a big envelope upon which you write a polite request they both be allocated together even if it meant both getting 2nd choice rather than one 1st, t'other 2nd?

I wrote a note on their forms

Why not put your catchment area school as top choice and then you ought to get in surely

I think at the moment it depends on the kind heart of your LEA .I wrote twin on every page of my dds forms...

Aren't TAMBA campaigning for twins to be treated as a special case on school apps?

check with your LEA rep for your area as to how they handle it (you can also get non-twin siblings in the same school year, so not just a twins/multiples issue)

Our LEA give parents the option of either guaranteeing same school (which may mean a lower choice school if only one place left at higher choice one) or allowing them to progress as two separate applications (and could therefore end up in different schools)

In our LEA (I sit on admission appeal panels) twin, triplet etc applications are treated as separate applications.

It would be unlikely, though, that twins would end up in different schools. Schools rank all applications according to their admissions criteria. For most of them, that's (1) looked after children (2) documented special needs, naming the school (3) siblings (4) others in order of distance to school. The only circumstances I can think of where twins might end up in different schools would be if one twin was offered a place on the basis of special needs and the family lived too far away for the other twin to get a place on distance to school (although actually here I think the second twin would immediately be classed as a sibling, so probably would get a place unless there were more siblings than spaces) or if the twins were so far down the list ranked by distance to school that one of the twins got the last place on offer and there was no place for the other twin. I have heard anecdotally of that happening.

Have you looked at the DCSF website? This is what it says in the School Admissions Code:

Siblings at Primary schools
2.25 Giving priority to siblings particularly supports families with young children of primary school age who may not be able to travel independently. Families must be at the heart of the admissions system and the Government expects the admission authorities for primary schools to take the needs of parents with young children into account in deciding which oversubscription criteria will be used. The admission authorities for primary schools
should ensure in their oversubscription criteria that siblings (including twins, triplets or children from other multiple births) can attend the same primary school, as long as they comply with the Education (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 1998.

I think it's that very last bit which means that schools might not be able to admit both twins if that would mean 31 children starting in YR.

I agree it's a good idea to check your LEA's policy.

HTH

My local primary treated a set of twins as a single unit in terms of admissions. We had to go on the waiting list but were told that we were, due to proximity, pushing the twins into second place, and the next place would be 4th. The school said that it would have put the class over its -is it PAN?- but that they were prepared to do it for twins, which think is fair enough.

Admittedly, it was post YR and 1 which would have made a difference.

ds1 went to nursery with twins. One got a reception place this year at our school, one didnt.
But that was because they both got third choice, then a second-round place became available at our school for one of them, so their parents have accepted it, hoping another place will come up for the other twin at some point.