my son has not been offered a place in any of the schools requested

[vahidjr1360]

Dear all
My son has not been offered any of our three school choices and we are going to reject the one, which has been offered and is awful. I understand that my son's name has automatically added to the first three choices' waiting lists. I am wondering can I just call other schools that I think are good and ask if they have available places? Would they just tell us to register if they have a place? What if we could not get any school and my son continues to go to nursery for another year? Can we apply for the next year for year-1, or is the application only for the reception? Many thanks for your replies.

If you apply for year 1 the same schools will be full if there is a waiting list already. You should accept the place you have been allocated and wait it out lists for any school you would accept. When is your dc 5 as legally you can delay entry until the term afterwards. Whether a nursery will keep him from September though is up to them.

Thank you for your reply.
So how would be process if I want to wait? Should I go through the same process (i.e. deadline 15 Jan 2020) but instead of reception, apply for year-1? or should I just wait for the waiting lists?
Also, can I just go to any school now and ask them to put my son in their waiting list?

Your child needs to be in school by the time he's 5. I don't think you can just decide to keep him in nursery for reception. The nursery may not even accept him.

The first thing I would do is phone the three schools you wanted and find out where your son is on the waiting list - I think they can tell you this. This will give you a good idea of how likely he is to get a place by Sept. People do drop out (eg move house, go to private school) so the lists do move a bit.

Your son does not need to be in school by the time he is 5. He needs to be educated but that can be home education.

In our area school nursery have already made offers of places and most will be full.

No, you don't go through the process again (Jan 2020 deadline) for year 1 - that's reception only.

You might want to get this moved to Primary Education topic. For year 1 entry it would be an In
Year application which you would make in a year or so's time. However Infant Class Size restrictions mean you would only get a place then in an oversubscribed school if a child left and there was no waiting list or your child met the usual admissions criteria higher than those on a waiting list. You can ask the allocated school to defer your dc starting until he has turned 5 , as long as that is no later than Easter, in the hope you got a waiting list place elsewhere in the meantime.

You need to look at other schools and check up where you are are on the waiting list. You also need to see if you have grounds to appeal the decision. But be prepared for the three chosen schools not to have spaces so a plan b is essential.

Accept the offered place.
The council won't sort the waiting lists out properly for a couple of weeks yet but once they do they should be able to tell you where you are on the list.

You will need to sign up to the continued interest lists for the schools on your list, you won't automatically be put on them.

Did you put your catchment school on the list?

Whatever you do, don’t reject the place you’ve been offered. If you do that, you can be given any place left in literally any school in the srea.
Did you have a reasonable chance of a place at the schools you put down?

You should look into appealing in order to get into one of your three preferred schools. School places are usually allocated by 1) siblings and 2) distance. The appeals process is more on personal circumstances. Schools can be instructed to take additional children even if they are technically full. You might be able to speak to the schools in order to establish which one you're most likely to get into. Probably the closest one I would guess, as proximity would help with making your case.

Some places do put you on the list automatically, some don't.
The appeals process is more on personal circumstances It really isn't for reception places. It needs to be an error on the council's part or a serious problem to win an appeal because of infant class sizes.

You need to accept your place
You then need to get yourself on the waiting list of any school you would consider. There is a lot of movement between now and September.

If you decide to keep your child at home until they turn 5, you will have to do an in-year admission form but if the classes are full, they won't mysteriously have a place in year 1 unless someone leaves and there isn't already a waiting list of other people higher up the admissions criteria.

Check if you are automatically added to the waiting lists for your 3 choices, in our LEA there was a form you had to fill in to be added, it wasn't automatic.

Usually the school won't know yet where you are on the waiting list, the first round of reallocation is done by the council, only then is the list given to the schools to manage. At that point you can go on the waiting list for other schools beyond the 3 you applied for.

Only reject the place you are offered if you really wont send your child to school if you can't get another school. This is the "home ed or private school" option.

You can't apply for a year 1 place, but once you are on the waiting list, you stay on it, unless you ask them to remove you, we did this with dc1, we got his 2nd choice school, went on the waiting list for 1st choice, because it was a more convenient school for us, settled him into 2nd choice school, was very happy with it, but forgot to remove him from 1st choice list. half way through year 1 we got a call from 1st choice with a place offer. (We declined as by then we felt it would be too much upheaval for a slightly shorter journey to school).

Why don't you like the school you've got? Can you make the journey work? Often places become available in year 3 when dcs go into key stage 2, worth considering if it's an acceptable school for just reception/KS1.

Oh and worth noting, a lot of movement happens between now and May, lots of parents will have moved, or applied for state but taken the decision to go private etc, if you are likely to be close to the top of the list for any of your preferred 3, you may well get a place when other people decline their childs place.

How should I register to continued interest list?

Dear OrdinarySnowFlake, thank you for the info. We seriously wouldn’t put my son in the offered school as it is popular in many bad things such as violence, bullying, racism... I would rather work more at nights to make more money and put my son in private schools. How about change my address now? For example if I rent a property close to one of our choices would our place in the waiting list gets higher? Should I do it?... I am absolutely disappointed, my wife is just crying. I don’t know what to do...😞

Were you in catchment for any of the schools you applied for or are you quite far from them? This could affect where you are on the list, but you really need to find out where you are for each. My daughter got a place at our preferred primary school from a waiting list, it is possible.

Trust me, even a bad reception year would be better than staying in nursery.

If I were you, I would give it a try. Too often people just think they can choose whichever school they gaucho and make the mistake of putting 3 very popular schools down. If course, everyone else wants them too.

He needs to start Reception and then you wait for places at the others. Moving could possibly help boost you up the waiting list but you would need to let the local authority know you have moved.

Have you visited the "bad" school? It may be much better than you think. I think it highly unlikely that violence and racism are encouraged in the Reception class.
Did you apply for schools near you? It's not wise to just put down desirable schools that you live a long distance from.
You cannot rent somewhere near a desired school unless you actually move there (ie you don't own a house elsewhere and just rent for 6 months to get the school place). That is gaming the system and LAs are pretty wise to it. They will ask to see rental agreements etc and expect you not to have another home elsewhere.

Trust me, even a bad reception year would be better than staying in nursery.
My ds thrived with an extra year at Nursery. They can stay till term after 5th birthday. When is your ds birthday?

I would be surprised if there was much bullying, violence or racism in Reception. I would accept the place and hope for a place at another school before Year1. Are you in the catchment for any of your desired schools? And where are you getting your info on the one you’ve been offered? Local gossip is often very inaccurate.

Accept the place offered and go on waiting lists. Ask the admissions team at your council for information. Rejecting the place will not get you a place elsewhere any more quickly or easily.