In year admission - how long

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We moved just before the summer holidays and applied for a place for my son at secondary school and were advised he was 1st in the waiting list at the end of August we therefore made the choice to continue to drive him to his old school in the hope a place would become available. My son has ASD and ADD and continuing to go to his old school and the fact he has to be picked up by different people, indifferent locations each day is increasing his anxiety.

I therefore called the school to confirm his wait list position to be told he has moved down to 2nd. We have decided to move him to our second choice school
In order to give him abit if consistency.

A place was confirmed yesterday and I was asked to contact the school to arrange a start date which I did but the lady was busy and she would call back. I hadn’t heard anything by this afternoon so I called again and I was told ‘well he won’t be starting anytime soon he will need a meeting with the head of year and the Senco together and I don’t know when this will be’ eventually I was advised the only time they can do together due to open evenings etx will be next Friday and after this they will discuss as start date.

Does this seem right? I have been left very upset and currently waiting for head of year to call as I feel making him wait in limbo without a date isn’t fair. It’s left me worrying I have made the totally wrong decision.

Any advice ?

Just add I’m also being told that at the meeting I will be given a form that will need to be signed by his old schools headteacher, this form will then go to the local authority and until this takes place a start date cannot be discussed.

I am afraid this is happening more and more that schools and LAs are making it more difficult to change schools. If you have received an official letter saying there is a place available and you have accepted the place then you should be able to start at the school.
Not saying a meeting with the head of year and SENCO is not a good idea but it is starting to suggest that they somehow will have a veto of joining the school which is totally incorrect.
In terms of the form it has no legal basis, you asked for a place, there was a place, therefore you were allocated the place. It is up to you what you do but I would suggest confirming the Friday meeting and saying that as the place has been allocated your child will be starting on the Monday. Accept the school may need to do some allocating in terms of pastoral care, sets etc but if you do not push for your son starting then the school will just take all the time they want before agreeing anything.

I totally take your point, admission, but I do have some sympathy with schools too. Parents who have already had their child at six different local schools and will move again as soon as they get the hump about something. Parents who take a place, the teachers spend ages getting everything ready, and they change their minds two days later. I work in a school, and both of those things have happened in our school just this week. You can see why schools sometimes try to put the brakes on a bit. Not the case here, and sounds really hard for you OP, but unfortunately some parents really do make things very difficult for schools.

Plus of course it's crap for the child as well!

The form being signed is fairly standard. Usually a place is offered, the forms to out and come back to us and then we meet to start the soonest start date.

The SENDco meeting isn't usual in itself in that school may want to make sure theyve got things in place for a smooth start rather than have a bumpy transfer.

Of course some schools will cynically delay admissions, but it's not the norm.

I applied for in year admission on Tuesday, had meeting at school on the Friday and DS started at that school the following Monday so in Year admissions can happen quickly and at this time of year it makes sense to have the move happen as quickly as possible as much easier for everyone is it’s almost at start of academic year

Thank you for all your replies.

I have a meeting next week with a hopeful start date the Wednesday after as they only start new children on a Wednesday.

I do have a further question. The school have just contacted me to ask me my current address as they were only provided with my old one by admissions.
This seems really unusual why would admissions provide my old address when I provided proof of address in July.
I have just spoken to our first choice school and they were quite cagey and asked me to provide my address and they confirmed that yes that’s what they are using. When I spoke to them on Wednesday they did say the last note from admissions said they were waiting proof of address.

Is there a chance they were using the wrong address ?