Are good schools oversubscribed everywhere? Or is it just London / inner cities?

[lowrib]

Having lived in London all my life I'm used to good schools being over subscribed, and this being a real problem. I just assumed it was the same everywhere.

DP is from Scotland, and says it's not like that at all. He says in Scotland you just go to your local school and it's fine. It that true?!

Also, in general are there places where great schools are easy to get in to?

The reason I'm asking is because we're planing to move out of London and settle somewhere less urban for DS's school years. Don't know where yet - we have ties to quite a few places in England, Scotland and Wales, and all bets are on right now.

So, in a few years time, DS will be starting school in the September intake. In a perfect world, what would suit us would be to move in the June / July, just a few months before term starts. But that won't work from a school application point of view will it?

Originally I thought not, but then again if there are in fact areas which good schools aren't over-subscribed, then we could just turn up next to a good school and get a place, couldn't we?

I'm confused - help!

TIA

Thank heavens for private education.

Choice? Only if you can afford to send your child to a private school/are willing to convert to a certain religion/are able and willing to get yourself into major debt with a massive mortgage in the right catchment area. There's no choice if you can't/won't do this, it's the nearest school, whether it's good or not.

The past is Another Country though Grumpy, though i do know where you are coming from. I agree with the principle that everyone goes to to nearest Primary School at least. Trouble is, these days, home ownership has kind of skewed it all. Schools have become another commodity.

I do think this idea of "choice" plus all these SATS and Ofsted reports don't help in the long run. In my case, we moved to Belgium when dd was 2. They start Kindergarten at 2.5 so I enrolled her (with no problem) in the school nearest my house. She is in her 4th year.

It is very mixed ethnically if you care about these things. There are NO tests. No Ofsted equivilent. The only thing I can tangibly see is that my dd is thriving and is happy. Dd's friends parents are happy for their dcs to be there. No-one here seems to get stressed about these things at all. And we are talking inner-city schools in the capital city.

I do know there is competition for secondary schools though and they keep changing the rules for application. There are NO catchment areas here.

Definitely varies from area to area, but is likely to get worse for the next few years at least due to the rising birth rate (and the inability of some LEAs to realise that every child born will need a school place in four & a bit years )

Lowrib- excellent point, the truth is that to guarantee everyone the school of their choice would require an infinite supply. It won't ever happen.

I don't think it's a good idea that every child goes to their nearest school, this is technically a catchment situation which we have now, there will still be a rise in house prices where a school is deemed to be good which is what we have now.

bigstripeytiger so it really is true about Scotland then? Sounds ideal!

DP says that it might change in the future though, as schools are being closed down at the moment.

My dcs go to a 'good' school and all the years have places. Our catchment school is 'outstanding' and has places. All my friends locally who have dcs in schools within 2 miles of me have spaces in their childs class but I couldn't say if there is spaces in every class in the school. I don't know anyone who didn't get their first choice for any of their dcs. All the local school are at least 'good'. I expect my dcs school will soon be rubbish as I have cluttered it up with my thicko, badly behaved and undiciplined 'ethnics' but at least there is a choice of schools to move them too when the rot really sets in .

BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny but if you have more places than children, all schools are generally good (and many people have a choice of a couple locally anyway) then the house price thing won't happen.

That's what it's like in Scotland, according to DP and bigstripeytiger

Sadly the house price thing is why are schools are undersubscribed as not alot of young families can afford them. We have a lot of second homes here and retired people.

Oh and a very fluid military population.

The present is literally another country when one looks at the demographics of primary school pupils.

Obviously, race and nationality is not the only thing that drives the pointless waste of time of the school admissions merry-go-round, although it is clearly a (the) big (unspoken) factor in London.

Look, I can see every day how liberals work. My children's primary school is about 20% "ethnic", and prides itself on it's happily "diverse" community. As do the parents of some of my kids school-friends.

The same parents who walk past a perfectly good primary school (similar OFSTED reports and value added whatnots to my kids school) which happens to be >50% ethnic with many non-English speakers. But is apparently not a "good-school". Wonder why?

No doubt these people are sincere, and can cite all sorts of reasons for their choice. But their actions speak loudest.

In their shoes, at primary level I'd probably go with the nearest school as most convenient, but then I am just a "racist".

The LEA's here won't let that happen, if there's too many surplus places they stick 2 schools together and close one of them to save money. Not all schools are good aswell, it depends on where you live. The inner city schools do tend to have more money put into them though.

we live in rural derbyshire and most of the nearby villages have their own primary school - with a headcount of generally about 60. they're mostly good (some "outstanding") and are all undersubscribed. most people go to their local village school as, cliche though it is, it's such an important part of the community. and also because you couldn;t walk or get public tansport to school in another village. However quite a few chose to go to school in other villages (have known this happen because of behaviour difficulties, and too-small class sizes) and changing school is v. rarely a problem. having just moved here from sw london this was really quite a revelation to us.

FiveGoMadInDorset I was just about to say it looks like Dorset is the place to be!

But reading your later post unfortunately it seems to be the other side of the coin IYSWM.
It's not a real choice is it.

I'm in the city hatwoman (not London!), it's different here. A few of the children from ds's old private school have moved to village schools because they are good/outstanding, I do know a few who have had to appeal in order to get a place though.

I hope that last post made some kind of sense! I was trying to say I agree, it is sad.

BarryKent has a point - our outstanding school in SW london that everyone was clammering to get into had about 10 spaces by year 3 and dd was in a class of 25. I think that was unusual though. (and has possibly changed with people coming back to state school form fee-paying school)

Dunno. DS goes to the local school because it's fine, and I'm quite lazy. I believed there has been a baby boom as well as a net immigration increase in recent years, hence more pressure on school places in many areas, isn't that true?

"The LEA's here won't let that happen, if there's too many surplus places they stick 2 schools together and close one of them to save money."

This is a real problem IMO

It means it's not really a system designed to encourage high standards (or genuine choice).

It's getting better Lowrib, house prices are dropping slowly.

No worries BarryKent, it's really hard not to get sucked in, isn't it!

"But if you have set your heart leaving London this probably means little to you!"

Your point about children leaving schools is useful actually. I'm really trying to avoid it, but there is a possibility that we may have to move - and change DS's school - when he is 6 or so. I hadn't considered that it might actually be easier to get into a school then.

(We wouldn't delay for this reason - I think it's much better to be settled at one school if possible - it's useful food for thought though).