Primary school admissions - MNHQ needs your thoughts!

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We've been asked (in advance of primary school places allocation announcements in England, Wales and NI next week) for MNers' thoughts on the current systems for allocating primary places - so as ever we thought we'd come to you for your insights.

What do you think about how your LA allocates places? Have you found the process stressful? Do you think the difficulty/stress varies widely across the nation - and if so, which locations are particularly difficult and which are relatively stress-free? If you're in Scotland, where the system is different, do you think it works well (or not?) Would you support a change to the allocation system - and if so, how would you like to see it changed?

Any thoughts welcome. Best of luck to anyone waiting to hear about their child's place.

Oh and to all the people that state that the Catholic Churches and Schools are full of the White MC, ou obviously have never step foot in a church.
Our parish and school is very diverse with lots of different nationalities and languages spoken.
DH and I both went to Catholic schools, were both very diverse, African, West Indian, British English, Asian, South American. We also had lots of families from Malta and there were no MC families and guess what the school was a top performing school.
If you read your posts back, what a lot of you are insinuating is that it is only white MC who push their children!
Absolute Rubbish, all the parents at our school want the best for their children and push their children to do well and they are not all white and none are MC.

I'm the mother of a late August boy due to start this year age 4y 1w. At this age there is such a huge difference. My son is bright but he's not interested in mark making or learning to read - against children who are 25% older than him (have I got that right?) he's going to struggle and tbh I'm more concerned about his confidence taking a hit.

I live in a county famous among the summer born campaigners as being incredibly inflexible. I know with no developmental delays, not prem etc, there is simply no point in trying to get him to start reception next year.

As for other issues, I don't know what would be best. It's not fair that someone living literally next door to a school can't get in due to sibling numbers, but nor is it fair to expect people to pick up children from different schools at the same time - it's simply not possible without incurring expense for breakfast/after school clubs etc.

I do feel travel expenses for children allocated a school too far away do need to be reviewed to consider age/needs and funding a parent's bus fare etc. I wouldn't even consider sending DS on public transport alone when he starts school (who would send a just turned 4yo alone?) but bus fares daily for me as well would be ridiculous. Luckily, this shouldn't be an issue for us but for many it is.

I've found it moderately stressful here. I'm fairly hopeful to get into our first choice school as it's only about 100m away but we've applied for summer born status which has dragged on. Although I was given encouraging noises by the LEA they did say they would let me know by Easter and I've still not heard anything. Rang and emailed last week and have had no-one get back to me. Places allocated next week and I've no idea if we will be able to delay for 12months or not :((

Im afraid you are contradicting yourself there my friend. You are amitting that delaying entry is "a better deal" but your reasons for oposing it is that " policy should not allow it"? And that "clued up parents succesfully delaying entry (almost unvariably for very good reasons not just because they dont want their child to be the youngest but because of the implications of it) have. again. A better deal?? Make up your mind and if you cant understand why a parent want to delay entry why do you opose it??? Its like being oposed to the big bang theory just because you cant understand it...

I would like to comment on the current situation with summer born children .r dutton makes some very good points . My la have no policy that they can provide me with and are suggesting that I need to prove why my son should be treated differently ! The current statutory admissions policy does not say we need to do that or that we have to provide professional evidence ( my la wants this too ! ) I do not feel I'm asking anything other than what is allowed within law ie for my son to start school at compulsory school age . Ie the term following his fifth birthday .

tiggytape I'm curious as to what your answer is to the original post, ie: your views on the admissions system? Are your children entering primary this year?

tiggytape

Interesting that you fail to mention that towards the end of the article where you quote Cllr MacLaren it highlights how much Cllr Maclaren has come under fire for her comments and that there is NO EVIDENCE to back her claims a 'delayed' start has no benefits.

This article is outdated anyway. We are not debating here the school starting age (which I wholeheartedly agree should be later) but we are debating the admissions process.

The admissions process for summerborns wanting to start at CSAge is horrendous, stressful and unfair.

The Local Authority were very unclear on the guidelines for summerborns, as were the schools. Policies were outdated and not clear.

I would just like to weigh in on whoever said Y1 is first year of education, technically. I am yet to find someone (edu professional or otherwise) who would claim YR is not of absolute crucial importance. More importantly - if we are forced to start our child at CSA in Y1 (which seems likely), the likelihood of being allocated a sub-standard school is extremely high. Or even, as a very 'helpful' admissions officer pointed out: we are risking being left without a place all together - seeing Y1s will be full of - you guessed it - kids from YR. This whole process is making me want to quit my job and home educate (radical, I know) until at least such time when I will feel my child is emotionally ready to handle 30+ classrooms and a system that clearly doesn't put the kids first.

My concerns also lie with the 'summer born issue'. I believe that starting children in formal education too young is detrimental to their overall development. I think it is a disgrace that the Schools Admission Code allows individial schools and authorities in England to make any child starting school at compulsory school age miss a whole year of school.

I would also like to stress that this issue is about school readiness of the individual child. It is not about wanting to ensure my child is not the youngest in the year. It is about ensuring that my child is ready to benefit from formal education. Hypothetically, I would be happy for my child to be the youngest in the year so long as they started reception year at compulsory school age.

"Hypothetically, I would be happy for my child to be the youngest in the year so long as they started reception year at compulsory school age."

How could that ever happen?

Also, maybe I am overly suspicious here, but there are loads of posts from people who have never posted in that user name before and are posting on the issue of summer borns.

This is meant to be MNers thoughts. Are you all name changing (weirdly to InitialSurname names) or has some form of claxon gone out over on the summerborns website?

(I know some of you are regulars BTW. Not commenting on you.).

I did say hypothetically.

I agree with tiggy that the lack of enough places in some areas is appalling. I also think however the perception that we have a choice is a misnomer. For most of us growing up we were sent to the school that was nearest. The idea being that all schools were the same. For the record I went to a faith school which was about a mile from my home passing three schools on my way. There was no perception that the school that I attended was good in fact it had quite the opposite reputation because it was full of Irish catholics (think 1960s and 1970s why this was a problem). I like my parents chose to send my dc to a faith school not because I am a sharp elbowed mc mum but because I wanted my child to receive an education which encompasses my belief system.
However now we have league tables and irrespective of its status parents try to get their children into the best school for their child which is totally understandable.
Despite the fact that dd school when she started in reception had an average rating and then slipped into needs improvement I received a torrent of indignation from people who had failed to get their dc into the school because despite its ofsted report the perception was that it was the best school in the area.
Surely the best way of ensuring that school allocation is equitable is ensuring that all the schools provide the same high standard of education regardless of where the school is or the cohort that attends it.

We have had huge issues with our LA (Merton).

We requested that our summer born boy (29th Aug plus he was 2 months premature) started Reception at CSA. Our request has been declined and have been told he will have to skip reception and start in Year 1!

What is the point in having a CSA of 5 and then not letting children join the start of their education, i.e. Reception year if thought best for the child by the parents?

It would be great to think that parents could opt for a reception place at CSA without having to fight for it through this bureaucratic post code lottery that goes on in LAs.

It's a shame we can't be more in line with the majority of Europe and start children at 6 & 7.

SweetieXPie the presence of Catholic schools completely distorts the local provision. Nondenominational schools aren't being built fast enough because on paper we have close to enough places - the problem is we can't access those places.

If a specialised church education away from non-Catholics is so important to you, why don't you pay for private provision of that? Why should your children be entitled to a taxpayer-funded education that isn't available to other children?

Admission arrangements are supposed to be clear, fair and objective, so that parents can look at a set of arrangements and understand easily how places for a school will be allocated.

This is not always the case, some admission arrangements are extremely complicated.

It does not help when authorities ignore communications, refuse to answer reasonable questions, knowingly give advice which is misleading, incorrect and inadequate, ignore valid advice, overrule considerations which would produce an uncomfortable result for them (i.e would rather force a child into Y1 upon reaching Compulsory School Age against parents wishes and supplied 'evidence' in favour of 'targeted measures' at cost), have no clear procedures in places and a cavalier disregard of guidance. Many admission authorities appear to be guilty of maladministration, yet there is little governance or accountability other than parents taking them to task by for instance challenging them, complaints to the LGO or making a referral to the OSA).

There needs to be much more accountability.

I would totally agree with that Tiggy. And mostly using an InitialSurname username format that isn't common on MN. I hope MNHQ take note of that when deciding what to do with the information on this thread.

The biggest admission issue round by me currently is secrecy - the LA don't voluntarily publish details of furthest child admitted on distance.

For the next few years, I predict it being siblings as two very good schools have taken bulge classes in the last couple of years and it's going to send sibling admissions haywire from this admission round onwards.

Faith schools are a fairly minor issue (one failing one. One popular one, but not a massive issue).

I confess my DS went all through primary without me ever having heard of the "problem" with summerborns. I didn't even know "summerborns" was a noun, now.

I only knew one person who had an issue with a summer born child. Literally born in the last week of August. She deferred until January and her child started school then.

As you say there seem to be a different spread of concerns if you view the threads in general. Still I dare say MNHQ can figure out first posts from the slightly longer standing posters.