School starting age, please advise

shirlgirl2004

kelpie35 wrote: »

I honestly can't believe how rude you really are. Face up, lots of people reading this think you are obnoxious rude etc.

I think for your own benefit you need to take on board your attitude.
The majority of people SURELY can't be wrong.

I agree, some of what the OP has said has been very rude but that isn't actually what he asked for help with.

Although the OP might want to reconsider how he comes across in case he'd like advice from MSE users again. I think how one is in every day life can be very different to how one reacts when attacked on a forum. I think anyone reading this thread must realise that the OPs choices have been attacked by some people and this is bound to make him defensive. Feeling defensive is not however an excuse for rudeness.

jellyhead

It's not that unusual for someone to not know the application deadlines.

I remember chatting to somebody in the swimming pool who had not realised that she had to apply for a nursery place (for september - 1 intake per year at the maintained nurseries) in March. The deadline was that day, and if I hadn't told her she wouldn't have applied in time.

A lot of people don't realise there's a central application system dealt with by the LEA, with deadlines timed so they can fit in the applications nursery, primary and high school.

There was actually a poster up in the swimming pool changing room, but she hadn't noticed it.

Once we were 'in the system' at a maintained nursery we were automatically given an application pack for primary school, but kids in private nurseries wouldn't have automatically been given one. If the kids don't have particular friends who they socialise with then the mums won't be chatting about which school they're going to etc. and it's less likely that the parents will hear about the application deadline by word of mouth.

I don't understand why the private nursery didn't have a poster up though, every private nursery I've been in (not many admittedly, because my kids don't go to them) has had a poster by the door, or at least by the door of the age 3+ room.

moomoomama27

Soniclord wrote: »

Well that's your opinion!



That's up to you, and I'm not aggressive I'm just passionate, their is a difference!

Yes there is. Passion I understand, and applaud! Calling people idiots, scum, fools etc is aggressive!

If you are so sure what you are doing is for the benefit of your child, rather than for yourself, why do you want other peoples opinions, especially as anyone who dares to have a different opinion to you is called names, and ''spoken'' to you in an agressivley patronising tone!

Before you teach your child her ABC's and 123's, teach her that in life the ''my way or the highway'' opinion probably won't get you anywhere, or earn your any respect in life! As is evident from the responses you have recieved!

SpikyHedgehog

jellyhead wrote: »

It's not that unusual for someone to not know the application deadlines.

I remember chatting to somebody in the swimming pool who had not realised that she had to apply for a nursery place (for september - 1 intake per year at the maintained nurseries) in March. The deadline was that day, and if I hadn't told her she wouldn't have applied in time.

A lot of people don't realise there's a central application system dealt with by the LEA, with deadlines timed so they can fit in the applications nursery, primary and high school.

There was actually a poster up in the swimming pool changing room, but she hadn't noticed it.

Once we were 'in the system' at a maintained nursery we were automatically given an application pack for primary school, but kids in private nurseries wouldn't have automatically been given one. If the kids don't have particular friends who they socialise with then the mums won't be chatting about which school they're going to etc. and it's less likely that the parents will hear about the application deadline by word of mouth.

I don't understand why the private nursery didn't have a poster up though, every private nursery I've been in (not many admittedly, because my kids don't go to them) has had a poster by the door, or at least by the door of the age 3+ room.

OP said it's not a private (profit-making) nursery, it's a Sure Start Nursery. As such, it is the obligation of the Sure Start nursery to make sure all the parents know about such matters as applying to schools. That's the whole point of Sure Start Nurseries, to give children and families a 'sure start'...

I don't work in a Sure Start nursery, I work in a 'voluntary' (charity run) preschool. I took 3 parents to the nearest school to make sure they got their applications filled in so thier children can go to school - I'm not usually quite so forceful with the parents, but these parents do need their hands holding through this or we'd have been in the same position as with their older children that they have no place allocated in the school they want their children to go to.

shirlgirl2004

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

OP said it's not a private (profit-making) nursery, it's a Sure Start Nursery. As such, it is the obligation of the Sure Start nursery to make sure all the parents know about such matters as applying to schools. That's the whole point of Sure Start Nurseries, to give children and families a 'sure start'...

I don't work in a Sure Start nursery, I work in a 'voluntary' (charity run) preschool. I took 3 parents to the nearest school to make sure they got their applications filled in so thier children can go to school - I'm not usually quite so forceful with the parents, but these parents do need their hands holding through this or we'd have been in the same position as with their older children that they have no place allocated in the school they want their children to go to.

Just because the nursery should have made parents aware of application deadlines it doesn't mean they did. I think we are all aware of people that should do things as part of their work but don't.

moomoomama27

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Just because the nursery should have made parents aware of application deadlines it doesn't mean they did. I think we are all aware of people that should do things as part of their work but don't.

It would be highly unlikely in a SS nursery that they wouldn't have made the parent aware. Most parents would realise that their child would start school at around age 4 or 5, and if I hadn't heard anything, and quite frankly you'd have to have your head buried in the sand for about 6 months prior to end of term, then surely you'd start to wonder and look it up?

shirlgirl2004

moomoomama27 wrote: »

It would be highly unlikely in a SS nursery that they wouldn't have made the parent aware. Most parents would realise that their child would start school at around age 4 or 5, and if I hadn't heard anything, and quite frankly you'd have to have your head buried in the sand for about 6 months prior to end of term, then surely you'd start to wonder and look it up?

It might be highly unlikely but I can give you instances of other things that are highly unlikely but which have happened. I have a relative who has to be fed by tube everyday. It is highly unlikely a nurse would forget to do this (as he can't fed himself) but they have on several occasions so please some to the real world. Professionals make mistakes.

Actually at my daughter's nursery discussions about school only started the day places were allocated so that would be too late too apply anyway. OPs child is only just 4, in reality until a few years ago children didn't start until the term before they were 5. Why would the OP think to start looking at schools when their child is only 3? If I didn't know anything about the time-lines involved and I was a busy working parent I might be more concerned with life on the treadmill rather than thinking to look up the schools application process.

jellyhead

My son's nursery was in a surestart centre. They had private nursery where people paid for all day or whatever, but there also 2 lots of 2.5 hours (it was called NEG funding) each day for the local kids. All in the same room.

I don't know if they deal differently with people who pay for their nursery, but people like me who applied for the free 2.5 hours per day for the academic year after they turned 3 (my son is in year 1 now, I don't know if things have changed in the 2 years since he went to nursery) had to use the LEA's centralised application system to get into the nursery. We were given pre-printed forms for our primary school application, with our reference numbers already on them because we were 'in the system'.

Weird. I wonder if it's different for every LEA?

DevilsAdvocate1

jellyhead wrote: »

My son's nursery was in a surestart centre. They had private nursery where people paid for all day or whatever, but there also 2 lots of 2.5 hours (it was called NEG funding) each day for the local kids. All in the same room.

I don't know if they deal differently with people who pay for their nursery, but people like me who applied for the free 2.5 hours per day for the academic year after they turned 3 (my son is in year 1 now, I don't know if things have changed in the 2 years since he went to nursery) had to use the LEA's centralised application system to get into the nursery. We were given pre-printed forms for our primary school application, with our reference numbers already on them because we were 'in the system'.

Weird. I wonder if it's different for every LEA?

We live on the border of 3 LEAs. My children went to a nursey at a school which is in a different LEA to the one where our house is located. Because of this, we did not receive any information about applying for schools. I was recently told that the children in the LEA we live in receive packs from their nursery. Our nursery did not hand me one because we do not live in their LEA.

For the last 2 years, my children's school has been over subscribed. In both cases, a family which live less than 2 minutes walk away did not get a place because they had applied after the deadline. Bizarrely, in both cases the family already had a child in the primary school, so their younger child would have got in on sibling link if they had applied in time.

I almost forgot to apply for my youngest and just got the form in using the on-line system on the due date. I was so worried about applying for secondary schools for my oldest that I forgot about my youngest!

So it is quite possible for people to miss the deadlines and I think its probably quite common.

balancelife

Does it depend as well if you've registered your interest with a particular school? when we put our dd's name down on the list for her school they took our details and then when the time came sent us out an application pack and the prospectus etc with the standard LEA forms in the post.

Finally, we then got a hand delivered letter from the county council saying that they believed there was a child living at this address who was born between Sept 05- August 06 who would be due to start school. this had info about which school was her catchment one and how to apply for schools on line or in the post and the dates to do it and what would happen next. (confused me though as I'd already applied to our chosen school.)