school placements - siblings already attending v living distance

brians_daughter

Good morning- well, my 2 yo thinks it is morning, so therefore it is morning!

This IS kinda money saving... is a round about way, bear with me lol.

DS2 attends local primary school, DS3, we are hoping to hear next week that he's also got in to the same school. DD will not start until september 2014 and I am needing to move house.

Does anyone know what 'weighting' a local authority use regarding siblings already attending the school v location?

The house i wish to move in isn't in the catchment area of DS2's school and would mean an 8 mile round trip twice a day, i dont mind this as grand parents will/do provide most of the childcare whilst I work.
IF i move and siblings aren't weighted as heavily as location at application stage it will mean

1. DS's and DD will attend diff school.

2. Grand parents cannot provide care for DD as neither drive so couldn't take/collect her from a school 4 miles away.

3. so therefore I shall need to consider £200PCM for before/after school fees. Ive already made enquiries with local (to the prospective house) childminders and i am also required to pay for non term time to keep the child care palce -so almost £2500 per annum - :eek:

Im renting at the mo and landlord wants to move back in, I cant afford to buy in the catchment area where i rent so i will need to move further into the borough if I purchase rather than rent.


Just thinking if location out weighs sibling attendance I may be better renting for longer rather than buying 'out of area' but its so expensive to do all the agency checks and move etc it does seem a waste when i can afford to move into my own home and put these costs towards fees etc?

i have asked the school/LA directly and the answer was 'it depends on a number of factors' - nothing else,just it depends! If it depended on specific criteria i.e. over subscription or large numbers of sibling applications then fine, but they couldn't/wouldn't disclose what these factors were... anyone any knowledge they can share please? I don't wish to move out of area if DD doesn't stand a chance, but then again I don't want the costs associated with moving into rental properties and then within 12 months get the costs of buying a property

TIA

Anna x

jackyann

Most local authorities will publish their list of criteria, in order, on their website BUT it can only be used as a guide, because the biggest factor is the number of children applying for that school at the time of intake (and different authorities use different application procedures). Each authority varies, but you should be able to find it.

That is why no-one will tell you for sure - it really does vary with the number of children applying and what criteria they fulfill.

peachyprice

It usually depends on the individual schools, not the LA in general. Do your LA produce a brochure of schools in your area? It usually has the admissions criteria for all individual schools in that.

thegirlintheattic

Admissions criteria is published - usually on school/LA websites or in the prospectus. I was under the impression this was a requirement, but I may be wrong - saying that I'v never seen a school that doesn't provide it.

The criteria will be listed in order of priority, I've given an example below. Places will be allocated via the criteria. I think the 'factors' thing is mainly to do with numbers, for example if the school had 30 places but 10 children were looked after children there would be only 20 places to go onto siblings (in the example below). If 10 kids had siblings then only 10 places would be available for catchment kids and so on. No school will be able to say that you will be able to get in because of this but if siblings (without reference to catchment) is high on the list (2 or 3) you stand a good chance in my experience.

Have you considered moving both children to a new school in the area you would buy? Primary education is generally ok in most schools, and the real difference is made at home.

1. Children looked after by a local authority. If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to the main entrance of the school as measured by a straight line, those living nearest being accorded the higher priority.

2. Children resident within the school catchment area who have a brother or sister already in attendance at [school]. Primary School at the time of admission. If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to main entrance of the school as measured by a straight line, those living nearest being accorded the higher priority.

3. Children resident within the school catchment area. If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to main entrance of the school as measured by a straight line, those living nearest being accorded the higher priority.

4. Attendance at the nursery class. If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to main entrance of the school as measured by a straight line, those living nearest being accorded the higher priority.

5 Children not resident in the school catchment area with a brother or sister already in attendance at School at the time of admission. (Brothers and sisters are those living at the same address and includes step and foster children. ) If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to main entrance of the school, as measured by a straight line, with those living nearest being given the higher priority.

6 Where there are medical or social grounds for admitting the child.
(Supporting evidence from a doctor or other qualified person will be required). If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to the main entrance of the school, as measured by a straight line, with those living nearest being given the higher priority.

7 Children not resident in the school catchment area without a brother and sister already in attendance at School. If there is greater demand for places than places available, proximity of the front door of the child’s home to the main entrance of the school, as measured by a straight line, with those living nearest being given the higher priority.

flea72

For our school its children in LA care, siblings in catchment, catchment, siblings outside catchment, others

As you already have children in the school a quick chat with other parents can usually give you an idea on how many people will be applying for that year and whether you stand a chance of getting in. Or the choice is to move after your DD has been confirmed a place.

chickenpants

Hi, I'm a teacher and generally the catchment rules are as flea72 has listed above. It depends on the school really - I work in a small village but we take 60 children per year due to the popularity of the school, over half of these come from out of catchment area each year. Do you have a feel for how many children tend to come from catchment currently, heads are normally quite open and will give you an idea in a quick chat, especially if you are an existing parent. The appeal option is always there if you don't get in.

Another thing to bear in mind is what is their published admission number? Just because we used to have the capacity to take 60, but the admission number was 54, we would always take 6 extra on appeal or by parents moving their child at the beginning of September.

TeamLowe

Unfortunately the LA can't predict how popular the school will be in future years, the popularity of certain schools rises and falls and its all over the media about how much pressure there will be on school places the next few years anyway.
So the oversubscription criteria can tell you how places will be allocated, and the one posted above looks fairly typical, but won't tell you how far they get down it. Some schools in my LA didn't allocate places to all 'children in catchment' before they were full, so no siblings put of catchment got a place.

Also a word of caution about your move- DS3 will be offered a place based on your current address. I'd check with your LA what happens if you change address between offer date and start of term

Spendless

My own area does the criteria list as

looked after children
catchment
siblings
feeder school
distance

but my son's Secondary school which can set it's own admission criteria has switched siblings to below feeder school.

You really need to speak to the area/school(s) concerned because as you can tell by this thread there are variants around the country.

Also in my area, they take the address you live in on the deadline date, so check that out too.

daska

The advice you were given is correct, the school and LA won't know how whether a place will be available for your child until they allocate them and that's done according to their criteria.

Don't assume that the date at application or deadline will be the deciding factor, some schools double check once they get the lists, it's not unknown for very popular schools to do home visits!

Several parents had moved to be near DS2's original school to get their first child in because it had a very good reputation. They then moved out of the town as it's a quite rough by local standards. This combined with a reduction from 2 form to single form entry meant there were about 7 kids who had siblings at the school who didn't get a place in his year. The hoohah made the local paper but the admissions criteria had been in place for several years and their appeals were turned down. Ended up with most of the kids moving to be in the same school as their younger siblings because of the travel difficulties.

If you're determined that they must both go to that school then you need to stay near enough that your child gets first dibs.

onlyroz

As others have said, you should be able to find out the admissions criteria from the admissions website. Our authority also publishes how places were allocated each year between the various criteria categories and so you can see whether your chosen school is likely to be oversubscribed or not.

I think you have to accept that your third child will be a fair way down the rankings if you move. If they ended up in a different school and it was inconvenient could you move your other two children to the new school? Also, if you need to pay for wrap-around care you can use childcare vouchers (although you'd have to sign up quick because the scheme is being replaced soon and the new one doesn't apply to school age children).

balletshoes

you need to go by the criteria your own school uses OP, they are all different (ie feeder school doesn't even get on the list of criteria at my daughter's school).