Question about school registration - am an ignoramus!

[LadyThompson]

I know nothing about this stuff, but hope someone can give me the heads up...My DD is 2 in November, and we are soon moving to a village and will in fact be living opposite a very nice village school with a good Ofsted (last one puts it in the top 5% in the country). When does one register for school? They have a pre-school - when does a child start that? Is that something to do with the 15 hours of free nursery care you get when they are 3? Very confused. and would be grateful for the handle on the basics!

She'll start pre-school soon after she's 3, ask the school for a registration form, fill it in and they will contact you when a place comes up.

Your council will tell you when to apply for the school itself, there's no first-come first-served it's usually around the Christmas before the September they will start if that makes sense but each area is a bit different. If you live opposite it you should be fine. Good luck.

That is helpful, thank you very much.

Just pop in and ask at the school. I think LEA closing dates are usually a bit earlier than Christmas before starting, more like mid-October.

If you look at your LEA's website they will also have a timetable showing when people had to apply for 2010/2011 and may have one for 2011/2012. Closing dates vary from about October to January from what I have experienced.