'Putting your child's name down' at a preferred school

Spendless

what you've said sdw happened when I applied for a reception place for my eldest back in 2003. The CofE school in the next village has siblings over catchment (parish). That year half of the children for a 30 place intake had siblings- with a good proportion of them living out of the area.

There was a further problem that year with the school offerring places to people who had stated they were religious on the application form, but hadn't submitted a letter from their minister saying they were regular church goers (as per the schools published criteria) and several parents whose children didn't get in took the school to appeal and won.

I had been offerred a place for my son, but a school that can't stick to its own rules totally put me off and I declined the place in favour of my local community school instead.

jellyhead

Here the siblings rule only applies if there are spaces after the catchment area children have been given priority.

I think siblings should taken priority over eldest or only children (if both are out of catchment) because it causes so much disruption and upset to children, staff and the rest of the class if one child has to arrive an hour or more late for school every day.

Most parents here seem to have a gap of less than 3 years between children and usually only 2 school year. You're not allowed to leave them in the playground or send them to school alone before they're in year 3 - so some mums have to rush between schools and let their children take it in turns to be late, especially if they are on foot. One boy at my son's nursery comes in so late after his sister is taken to school that he misses the whole free play session. There's no way that a sibling rule could help in this instance because it's nursery not school, but in a school I imagine that missing the entire literacy hour every day might cause problems.

jellyhead

Naomim wrote: »

Our council did not ask what we preferred, DS got afternoons and it's murder with a very tired toddler..

This will be no help for you, but for others reading it may be worth mentioning. Although my council did not allow a preference for mornings it was possible to register a preference with the nursery itself once I was allocated a place. It was just a note in pencil on the list of names, but it was taken into account and we were given mornings.

Sorry your boy is tired. I know 15 of the mums at our nursery and only one of the 3 year olds is tired in the afternoon, so it's probably not something nurseries consider.

Naomim

jellyhead wrote: »

This will be no help for you, but for others reading it may be worth mentioning. Although my council did not allow a preference for mornings it was possible to register a preference with the nursery itself once I was allocated a place. It was just a note in pencil on the list of names, but it was taken into account and we were given mornings.

Sorry your boy is tired. I know 15 of the mums at our nursery and only one of the 3 year olds is tired in the afternoon, so it's probably not something nurseries consider.

Thanks, I did call the school once I accepted the place to ask if it could be changed to mornings but there is a waiting list! He's 3rd on the list and I doubt he'll get a morning place now

Naomi x

Janepig

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

As for parents having problems if their children are at different schools, well sorry, that's just part of being a parent. IMHO it isn't the schools job to make your organising easier.

To say that the siblings rule is there to make parents' "organising easier" is to totally over-simplify the matter. For instance, the person I have mentioned previously who had three children in DD's school, moved slightly out of catchment and was knocked back for a place for her fourth child (thankfully she was given a place on appeal). The child who was denied a place was at the feeder play-group for the school (so all her friends were going there), had gone to discos, concerts, school fetes, etc... at the school and of course was accompanying her mother and grandmother to the school twice a day to fetch her siblings, so was very familar with the surroundings. Now I wouldn't want to be the one to break the news to her that in fact she couldn't go to the school with her siblings and the friends she'd made at play group after all.

Afaik, faith/maintained schools can still have their admissions controlled by the governors/committee, so they can choose who they want (well according to the website for my LA that's the case). In some ways I think that's a good thing, where you've got intake controlled by people who are more likely to know a family's set of circumstances. However I can also see that there are pitfalls to that system also.

But certainly my organisation being made easier is not the only reason why I'm hoping for DS to get a place at DD's school.

Jxx

milliebear00001

In addition, if the distance between the two schools is significant, one of the children will always be late for school to greater or lesser degree. This is clearly unacceptable, and will be detrimental to the child from an educational point of view. I think any parent who could show this to be a factor, would be likely to win a place on appeal anyway. Overriding factor is that it's not about what suits parents - it's what best serves the children's educational needs.