Primary school appeal - valid reasons?

Spendless

Have you talked to your OH over the school problems?

My understanding of the situation is that if you move away you are unlikley to get dd2 into dd1's school but you will easily get a place in the catchment area of where you move to for dd2 but can't move dd1 there too as her year is full, so you are left with either having 2 kids at different schools or moving them both to a completly different school with places for both but isn't as good.

ALIBOBSY

Yep you have to apply almost 12 months ahead now and they go the sept after turning 4 (although as i understand it you can delay until the sept after they turn 5). For my first 2 they went at age 4 (both birthdays in spring), however baby 3 (age 1) is a winter baby so will be almost 5 when she goes.

Just applied for DS to go to secondary now for next sept, so all done very early. When he started at primary it was the start of the year they were going. Think its all to allow extra time for the appeals.

Just wait till you have to do secondary schools and the kids get to put their input in. We are fairly lucky in that we had 5 possible schools to look at. The "best" school from a point of results is always over subscribed, but it is a church school in an affluent area so without trying they will get higher achievers anyway. They are the biggest school (almost 1000 pupils), but you know what DS hated it, and we weren't impressed. The teachers couldn't be bothered and I have heard from parents since that the school is very hard on pupils who don't "achieve" as they want to keep the stats up.

The other schools had simular results, but one for us all stood out as the nicest atmosphere and the happiest pupils, plus by far the best computer labs (sons preferred career). They are a small school of around 400 pupils and have been improving constantly under the new head for the last 5 yrs, but they still have the lowest scores on the stats (although have been on the LEA's top 10 improved schools for the last 3 yrs and above the national average). On paper alot write them off, but for us we feel it is perfect for our son and we have much less worry that he won't get his first choice. In other words the scores don't always reflect the strengths of the school, perhaps you could have a look around some local schools that would be easier to get both dd's into?

ali x

Spendless

Jo- couple more random thoughts/suggestions.

I don't suppose that the area you are moving to the schools are seperate infant and junior schools cos if they are and your system is the same here then you have to apply for a junior school place and if you are in catchment would you get in? My other thought is there isn't any size restriction/you can go to more than 30 for the junior school years - yr 3 onwards, so would you get in then? I'm guessing your dd1 is in reception now so you'd still do an overlap of a year when you'd have to sort something but perhaps worth exploring these options.

Jo_R_2

Spendless - lol my brain isn't working today and DD2 is trying to smother me at the mo so I'll have another read of your last post and reply later when the old brain cells are functioning better:D!

moneypanicker

You need to contact local authority to find out what the admissions policy is. My daughter has just started reception and we didn't get our local school as siblings have priority even though many of them live a lot further away than us - very frustrating but it happens!!

If siblings are higher on the criteria than distance then you would only have a problem if there were more than 30 siblings applying then they would prioritise based on distance. The school we applied for was a church school and siblings still came up higher in priorities than church goers and distance. Each school has criteria and generally they do not allocate places its local authority.

Good luck!

moneypanicker

sorry just re-read post. that siblings from out of catchment come further down priority is this definately right? If it is that is unfortunate as in this area once you've got one child in a school you are generally guarenteed a place for siblings (unless there are lots of siblings) reguardless of how far away you live. I guess each area does it differently.

Spendless

Jo- I've had a further thought. Your dd2 will start reception september 2010 and even if you get her into DD1's school, your expected baby will be starting school September 2013. If I've worked this out right at this point your daughters will be starting years 4 and 6. You will then go thru the same dilemma as you currently have if you will be able to get your 3rd child into the school as an out of catchment but siblings attending place. If the school your eldest currently attends is not too far from where you are moving then maybe this wouldn't be a problem if the older ones are able to get to and from school themselves by then?

Maybe you would be better off applying to the catchment school of where you move to for your dd2 then your 3rd child can go there too, but going on a waiting list for a place at this school for your eldest. Have you spoke to the school concerned about how many children are waiting for a place there and how a waiting list operates, and hope one comes up before September 2010.

If it doesn't though, have you looked into the logistics of getting children to 2 different schools?

ALIBOBSY

moneypanicker wrote: »

sorry just re-read post. that siblings from out of catchment come further down priority is this definately right? If it is that is unfortunate as in this area once you've got one child in a school you are generally guarenteed a place for siblings (unless there are lots of siblings) reguardless of how far away you live. I guess each area does it differently.

This has recently changed in our area as well. It is refferred to as split siblings policy and as I understand it comes from government guidelines to "encourage" people to use their nearest school (supposedly a green issue to encourage you to walk kids to school as I understand it).

ali x

Jo_R_2

Yep sibling policy is right. Also the thought about when baby starts school and what to do then was something that had crossed my mind - one of the reasons why this was just one option to explore, bearing in mind it's not the only option, if you like.

What we are assuming at this point is that we will be moving before baby is born in February, that DD1 will continue to attend her current school as it's not very far away, and that when it comes to applying for DD2's place, we will probably put down both DD1's school and the catchment school, and am assuming DD2 will get a place in catchment. Bearing this in mind we shall be approaching the catchment school with a view to looking into getting DD1 a place there in Y1. Should this not be possible then we at least have the backup of knowing DD1 will still have her place at her current school, although the logistics could be awkward!

I don't know any better than this at the mo - to be honest I'm muddling through with a lot of 'maybes' and 'what ifs'.