Urgent Help - Year 9 school places for six children required asap

[2010louises]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who would prefer to remain anonymous, could any one help or offer her advice please ?
"Do any parents whose children are in Year 9 know of any local schools whose classes have room for 1 child (or up to 6 kids) ? My son is being forced to change schools at short notice , he is one of six kids in his year who are in the same situation, all the parents are now scrambling for a school that has spaces available. I have contacted my Local Authority (Bromley) and been told despite classes being full , not to worry as by law the local authority have to find him / them a place, so in the meantime we have to join the waiting lists "

Thankyou , i guess he wasn’t “vulnerable “ or anxious before , in fact the total opposite , a very happy go lucky kid
he understands the reasons he has to move schools , leave his friends (broke his parents heart telling him but there you go , that’s life ) . its just as a kid the uncertainty, means he can’t mentally prepare what school he moving too .. Im extremely blessed / thankful my two are grown up / not put in this position x

The parents had choices to make here have to live with the one they made. This has been on the cards for a few years now. All school kids in the UK lived through Covid. From reading threads on MN I'd say those in private education had a better experience than those in state as they had proper online lessons rather than the odd worksheet sent home.

I do feel sorry for the kids tied up on this. But their parents need to take responsibility for the situation. I'm quite flummoxed now that posters have started to suggest GP appointments and diagnoses of anxiety etc to try and help him get a place. The OP has said that the boy has no health needs. That he's worried about the situation which is a completely normal reaction to this shitty situation!

I thought exactly the same as you .. but the school have fair criteria and “ set in stone boundary” rules , they can’t be seen to give wiggle room .. harsh I know but I understand the huge can of worms it would open if they gave special preference to one child over another .. quite rightly if another parent got wind of it the school would have a huge legal case on their hands … can I just stress that’s my personal opinion , this is not aimed at you but after not posting on
mumsnet for years (mine are grown up ) I’m not liking the albeit spiteful minority , I thought this group was about all parents looking out for the better good of their kids .. over and out

I'm sure there must be spaces somewhere. I grew up in South east London and it was pretty common to travel to another borough for school or out to Kent Schools.
When I moved my children last year, I just looked at which schools were under PAN on the GOV website and contacted those ones.

I suspect one issue will be whether any spaces are acceptable to the parents.

Their children may need to move twice. Once to 'any' school and then again to a 'more preferred' one.

I was thinking more of a payment plan. Let's see what happens when they say they are leaving.

"I’m not liking the albeit spiteful minority"

I think what we are encountering here is that the spite is aimed towards what is an unfair system based on people with money attempting to buy priviledge for their children aka private education. The difference is that your friend and her son (and others in a similar position), are only now discovering how unfair it is.

My discovery happened 2 years ago when all the private schools I applied to turned my son down because of his SEN. Your friend is discovering how unfair it is now that she can no longer afford to send her son. It is all unfair - the spite is aimed at the unfair system, not your friend or her son.

So all the Labour government has done is move the goal posts of who finds the system unfair - your friend is just joining the thousands of us who already see private education as unfair.

And to be honest the more people who find the system unfair, the better the alternative will become.

I rest my case .. not one ounce of empathy for a childs well being just a comment of “ your friend is joining the thousands of us who see private education unfair “ .. I didn’t want be political but excuse me , what she chooses for her child is her business and no one else
my friend is an nhs nurse , an nhs nurse who during covid pandemic gave her heart and soul … and a few on this group still feel entitled that it’s ok that she she is sneered at and judged .. the political few have reared their ugly spiteful head and soured what I remember was once a beautiful and supportive group , supportive to all parents and all their children .. im disgusted with the judgemental posts like this , the hugest of thanks to all the informative helpful and dare I say it non judgemental posts , I’m genuinely shocked what was a supportive community of parents is now a community of politics on this site , judging parents .. a nhs nurse and an electrician ??? I no longer wish to to be part of this group , goodbye mumsnet

Sorry but where were the tears for all the other kids who couldn’t afford private education? I rest my case.

I wans not asking for tears or sympathy , read my original post , I was asking for state school
entry advice … shame on you

Very wealthy ?? The mum is an nhs nurse and the dad an electrician ??
I stand by my last post , this used to be a supportive Hertford fir parents and children alike , it’s clearly now an avenue for political judgement .. this post being reported

apologies for the last post typos .. this used to be a supportive platform for parents and children alike .. my question asking for advice was nothing to do with politics which is what the spiteful minority have twisted it to , if you don’t like a question asking how to get a school place , just scroll on by please

Hey @2010louises sorry you feel like that.

The good news is that your friend will find a space in a state school, I am sure her DS will do well, and assuming (as I infer) that they have been paying the £25k fees from income, they will have plenty of spare cash to pay for tutoring, sports, educational visits and whatever else may be helpful.

I think there is a fair bit of concern about parents suddenly needing a state school place. But in fact in my LA there are a number of schools with spare places and I imagine this is true across much of the country. So no need for anyone to panic. I see a PP has supplied a list of secondaries with spaces so it sounds as tho there won't be an issue.

(btw you keep saying that the parents are an NHS nurse and an electrician – nurses can earn up to £80k+ which, while not a huge salary in the SE, is a lot more than a lot of people earn. (of course your friend may well earn less). It's all relative. Tho I agree there is no need for anyone to be unpleasant and I hope I have not unintentionally been).

So first thing to do is for the parents to ring round all the local schools and see if any have spaces in the right year. If they don't, then the children will need to remain out of school until FAP (Fair Access Protocol) kicks in, which will mean that the children are seen by the LA as lacking a school place. Once this happens, the LA will have to find each child a school place.

Yes, another thread trying to give publicity to the cause!

No need to worry, there are plenty of school places across the country. A local LA has closed 12 schools over the last 6 years, another is closing a large secondary and another merhing two into one.

You’re talking the salary of a chief nurse. That’s one person in a hospital.

Apologies if this has already been answered, and also it’s a very slight derailment, but I’ve only skim read the rest of the comments.

Is it set in stone now/gone through parliament and came out the other side with a big tick that there will be tax on school fees?

I did some Googling to try and figure this out but everything just point to “potentially introducing” or “proposed to be introduced” I’ve not seen anything that says it’s definitely happening (although clearly is is, I think just expected it to be more of a bigger announcement or to be able to read a news article about it going through).

I can assure you my friend the nhs nurse is not on a salary anywhere near what you say , less than half that … if she was on £80k plus then she would not be in the financial position she is in now .. it’s ok , not aimed at you but I’m feeling like the minority on this thread are nasty bullies , I honestly thought mumsnet was what I remember it used to be , mums looking out for and looking after each other .. not a snakepit of spiteful judgy comments about wealth , politics .. but I genuinely would like to say thankyou to all the lovely mums who have given genuine and positive advice x

I'm a little skeptical about this post as me and DP have very similar jobs to the parents and so I am amazed they could afford the fees in the first place...
They amount to the average NHS nurses take home pay prior to any VAT increases. We couldn't live off one wage if the other was taken up by school fees.

If this is genuine certainly don't rely on the LEA legally having to find them a place. Parents will have to ring around schools within a fair distance, get on all the waiting lists, keep calling and take what they can. There will be places, they may just not like them. I work with a lot of children who are out of school (always been in state education, haven't done anything wrong) and LEA's simply don't care about them so they aren't going to jump to meet the needs of children who've never been in the system if they don't have a place available.

I am more than aware that not many nurses in a hospital will earn £80k! just that some (yes v few) will. It's like saying "he's a teacher" to show someone's salary- would range from new teacher on £27k or so to head of a big London secondary on six figures. That's all I meant.

If the boy is unsettled (which is not surprising really) then the parents need to explain that the reason they can't give an answer right now is that they, and the council do not know which schools will have vacancies in January yet. Places will become available for all sorts of reasons, like people moving away, or chosing a different school.

Why do you know so much about your friends finances? Strange thread and you’re over invested in other peoples lives.

You’ve never encountered “asking for a friend” before..?

NHS pay scales are public, no? So if said friend said “yay, I just got a promotion to grade orange 1” last year, OP could Google her salary range.

Or… some friends and family share stuff. I know DBro’s salary, for example.