waiting list for an academy. Is it worth chasing?

[Whereisthesunny]

my son is waiting to get into an academy. we are no 1. understand someone has to leave before we get a place.
Admission is through council but i heard that academies can have some say in the matter themselves.
Is it worth chasing the school for update or if local authority says they will be contacted by school when there is a space just leave it as it is?
Just wonder if sometimes school don’t rush or have no time to update the council and if parent chases it might make a difference?

@Whereisthesunny it makes no difference that this is an academy. If they have a space they have to offer it to the person who is first in the queue. Contacting the school won't help you.

you didn’t understand my question. Sometimes schools may not be in a rush to fill a space asap and since the council does not seem to contact them for update i wondered if it made any difference if i was on their case.
i’m not doubting that they would offer a space if they had one but the question is how quickly they do it after a student leaves

Our current pupil numbers are checked all the time by the council as there's always students moving around between schools and students needing places via the In Year Fair Access Protocol. Every county/LA is different though.

We do get people ringing us up to ask if there's spaces and the answer is always "yes, we're full".

It does not hurt to chase. Sometimes they do not want to chase people in the que, so if someone proactive, they are more likely to get it then not.

It does hurt to chase. It hurts the workload of over-stretched admissions officer. What do you expect them to do? Perhaps send an email out to parents to ask if anyone is planning to move out of the area soon because someone on the waiting list is feeling impatient?

Some schools actually know ahead when pupils are leaving...so I think it is better to call if keen. You don't ask, you don't get. My dc attend a school where people come and go and they know ahead when children leave...they don't suddenly disappear one day.

the question is how quickly they do it after a student leaves

Immediately. It's not in their interest to have a spare place.

As soon as the departing student is registered at a new school, they have to be de-registered at the original school..They can't be registered at both. The act of de-registeringbthem informs the local authority.

i’m not saying it’s their interest to not have a student but assuming they are not rushing to inform the council and if they don’t chase them, it can easily build up an even longer wait. I don’t know what the exact process is but emailed admissions this morning and asked if they chase schools or just wait for them to contact council and they said it’s the school who contact them when a space becomes available.
I don’t however want to hassle the school unnecessarily.

... sometimes the departing student takes a while to be registered at a new school (e.g. if moving abroad), so they will know a place is coming up, but they won't be able to tell you about it until it is confirmed.

I don’t know what the exact process is

That's why I just tried to explain it.

Have you appealed to the school? You can do that as well as waiting on the waiting list.

On what grounds? If you knew or cared how much time schools have to put in to defending appeals without a snowball in hell's chance of succeeding, you might think twice.

im a bit confused so are you saying that sometimes a child leaves a school but the registration to their new school takes a while so the old school has a space but the council can’t accept any new students in?

If you knew or cared how much time schools have to put in to defending appeals without a snowball in hell's chance of succeeding, you might think twice.

Are you seriously suggesting that people don't exercise their democratic right to something because it will create work for someone?

Yes, if their democratic right to appeal is just a waste of everyone's time (including theirs) because it has no chance of succeeding.

Obviously if the school has a poor track record of defending appeals its "worth a punt" but that is easy enough to check by asking them how many appeals have succeeded in recent years. (For our school the answer would be zero).

The school can't de-register them until they know where they have gone and that they're not coming back, either because they're registered elsewhere or confirmed to be home schooling. Otherwise they may just be "absent". It's not unknown for families to say they're moving away, find they can't get into another school, and so they stay on role and commute until a place comes up nearer their new home.

ah ok i see

Yes, if their democratic right to appeal is just a waste of everyone's time (including theirs) because it has no chance of succeeding.

You can't possibly know an appeal would be a waste of time though - unless you know OP's dc and the school?

Presumably you'd never vote as it would cost time to count, you don't report petty crime because it creates work for a police officer, and you'd never report possible neglect because again it would create work for a social worker.

I'm not sure why trimmed thinks they can't be deregisyeted until they have a school place elsewhere. If a parent says they are deregistering from x date then that's all there is to it. Plenty of kids leave school and are not registered at another state school. I'm guessing trimmed keeps such leavers on roll in perpetuity...

That’s not what @trimmed said though.
Didn’t say they had to be registered elsewhere, said:
“The school can't de-register them until they know where they have gone and that they're not coming back, either because they're registered elsewhere or confirmed to be home schooling”
Which is exactly the case at the school where I worked. Otherwise all these persistently absent children that the government are making crappy posters about currently would all have been de-registered without their knowledge ages ago!

True - apologies. It sounded like trimmed would only deregister once they'd been registered elsewhere.

Presumably you'd never vote as it would cost time to count, you don't report petty crime because it creates work for a police officer, and you'd never report possible neglect because again it would create work for a social worker.

No, those aren't analogous.

I would only appeal if I thought I had a solid, defensible, evidenced reason to need a school place more than the people above me on the waiting list (which may not be a requirement of the appeal code, but would be a requirement of my conscience), and enough to justify the school increasing its class sizes to add my child to their role even though they're full.

OP is talking about a state school. If someone leaves the place has, legally, to go to the person at the top of wait list, regardless of when they last rang or how proactive they are. Pushy elbows won't get a place above others if there is a waiting list - it's not like private schools where repeated expressions of interest might tip the balance.

Good morning. a bit of an update on this. A student has just left (to a private school) this info came from current students at the academy. Council has not been notified yet so spoke to the academy who said they have to follow a process before they can open a space and let council know. Does anyone know what the actual process? Are they waiting for documents from the child who left to confirm their new school registration?
Also she said even when there is a space school will have a meeting about whether they are able to accept that student. is this correct?

Hi @Whereisthesunny . See my post above at 25/01/2024 17:32 for the process. The departing student may not yet be registered at their new school (and, at this time of year, may not register until September). They can't re-offer the place until that happens.

Also, if the year group is over PAN, e.g. due to EHCP or Fair Access Protocol admissions, or managed moves, then the place may not be re-offered.