Advice for a friend re nursery place for her son..........

[lottiejenkins]

My friend has just rung me up she is trying to find a nursery place for her youngest son who has global delay and dyspraxia.... She has been advised that a school outside of catchment(ooc) area would be better for her son..... she has until tomorrow to let the nearest school know if she wants a place or not. If she says no and goes for a place at the ooc area she wont know till next Feb if he has a place.. she (and I) are wondering what will happen if he doesnt get a place there and she has said no to the local school, the ooc school is much more geared towards what her ds needs........... its so complicated and i feel so sorry for her! Advice please,,,,,,,,,,,,

has she visited both?
no decisions until she has visited.
particularly if the place is for next year - sooooo much can happen in a year.
why does she haveto say no to the local school anyway? say yes and then change your mind later, write and say you don't need the place.
unless this is the lea pushing to name a school for the statement of course, in which case tell them to shove off as it is unrealistic to make a decision without visiting (nicely) and that you will let them know by 7/14 Nov (ie visit after half term).
has until tomorrow. what a lot of baloney. (not you or her, but whoever is calling the shots - they just want it wrapped so they can go on their hols for the week.)

Can she say yes to places at both schools? Her 7 year old is at the nearest school and she has visited the ooc school and really likes it!

Who is she saying yes to? is this the lea for 'named school' on statement? (in which case, no), or is she just getting her dc on the list for her choice for a next sept place?

this is a pre-school place, right? not an application for yr r?
is this a state funded pre-school? an independent day nursery? special nursery attached to ooa special school? (in which case it would be statemented named school presumably)...

She has just rung me back she has been on the phone to the education transport dept....... they have told her he wont get transport to the ooc school as that is their (the parents) choice of school, the ooc school is a primary school with a nursery attached with a unit within it for sen children. She has to say yes or no to the local school as they can then offer the place to another child! I feel for her i really do its so complicated!

is this for next september? is this for named school on statement? i'm just slightly staggered that they are statementing a whole year in advance... some kids don't even know which school they are going to on 1st september - or they do but their statmenet isn't written...
what does her offical letter say? she should have been given 6 weeks i think to agree the statement and return it with school choice? is the actual statement ok? do they agree all the wording?
i still don't understand this situation really... if the child is under 5 then the statment has to be reviewed every 6 months - if the child is not in educational provision until next september i just don't understand the rush? sorry if i'm being a bit thick and have missed some really important point...

Its not for statementing........... thasts only just started, its for his nursery place for next september i think! They arent being very helpful are they?

i'd tell them you want the place in the local school.
if you don't want it later, tell them you've changed your mind. they run a waiting list.
if this isn't 'named school' stuff you've got a bit of leeway.
as long as the ooa school are happy to keep her on the list until feb and see whether she gets a place it will be fine. as it's not a statement choice though she will be responsible for the transport, which having kids at school in two counties, i can assure you is a royal pain in the butt. she needs to work out if it is even possible time-wise...
fwiw, here we have to apply to two different leas for school places 1/2 mile apart, and the deadline for accepting one county is a month before the other places list comes out. so we often have parents who accept an x county place and then give it up when they get a y county one. it might help if leas actually spoke to each other and co-ordinated their application procedure, but sometimes it does work in our favour.
and bah to the transport dept. always talk to the case officer. the transport dept does what they are told, they don't make decisions.

Shes just been on the phone again..... if she takes the place at the local school her ds can start there in Jan in the nursery but............. she wont hear about the ooc school till Feb.... AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Poor poor her im confused too now. And she doesnt have a "case officer"

hahaha. sorry i missed this yesterday! hopefully it is sorted. i'd take the place in jan and keep the application in for the other school. dc can switch in sep 09 if she feels it would be better and she gets a place. this is good news, not bad.
statement not got as far as draft, so no case officer. i'd still speak to the department and any of the principal special needs officers rather than the transport dept lol.
hope it all works out to her satisfaction - but as long as she takes a step back and remembers that no decision is permanent - some of them are more difficult to change afterwards, but none are impossible to change! what hse thinks is best for her dc now may be totally different next september - so difficult to work a year in advance when they are so little.
(fwiw dd2 was in 3 different nurserys prior to just starting yr r - all of them very good)