Choosing a school - seperated parents - help or advice please ?

whiteswan

Hi

I am separated from my sons mother.

We still get along very well and our son spends 50 percent of the week with myself and 50 percent of week at his mums.

He is 3 years old and begins school next September.

Now this is our problem.........

We want my son to go to a school that's nearer to my home than nearer to his Mum's - because I am disabled if he went to a school nearer his Mum's I would not be able to get him to school on the days he spends with myself.

However as his Mum drives etc then she would (and has agreed to ) be more than happy to put him down for a school nearer to myself - there's not huge distances involved (maybe 2 miles more away from his home address )

But how would this work ?

If I put his name down for the schools near to my address - is it very unlikely that he will get in ? There are 2 nearer schools to his mums address ? But there is a school literally 2 minutes walk from my front door - all the schools are what I would call good schools.

His mum gets his child benefit as he is registered at her address.

This is worrying the life out of me at the moment as I don't want to lose him for half of the week as he is very very settled into a routine and a very happy young man.

Are there any special circumstances for cases like this ?

Any help/advice would be appreciated.........

Dave

Spendless

Check the admission criteria for your local area. Where I live the main criteria is catchment. I'm sure though as I've recently filled in an application form for a school place it said 'in cases where the child divides time evenly between seperated parents, the parents must decide the address that they are applying from' I have no idea whether you'd need to produce any documentation that you are Dad at that address though, but worth having a look on your council's website.

Also you put down 3 choices, so you could put school nearest to you first, followed by next 2 closest. Whether your child gets in to them will depend on the admission criteria applied and if the school has more people applying than spaces.

fluffnutter

I think you have a very good case. As he spends his time equally between the two homes, what's to stop you 'registering' his address as yours? In which case, you'd be in the right catchment area for a school near to you.

Even if this isn't possible, you could include with your admission application a letter explaining that your disabilities mean that a school nearer to your address, not his mother's, is best for the family. I'm sure this would earn you extra 'points' or however it works.

Good luck.

peachyprice

There's no reason why you can't apply for a school from your address, schools are now used to children who have shared care and parents are free to choose which address they wish to use.

For primary school you usually only need to provide a copy of your council tax bill and a recent utility bill in your name, not proof of where the child is 'registered'.

If you check out your own LEA website for the admissions booklet it will be explained.

carolan78

I never had to provide any proof of address when my children started school. I would just use you're address for the forms (most LEA's have an online form now).

If the worst comes to the worst I think yo would have a very strong case for winning an appeal anyway. Good luck

Alan_T_2

I'm in a very similar position to yourself in that my ex and I share custody 50/50 of our soon to be 5yr old daughter.

I would have assumed that given our arrangements either of us could register her in school, however our council take the view that the parent claiming the child benefit is the only one that can make that decision.

The school in my catchment area were happy to enrol her based on my address, but 2 weeks down the line the council advised that they weren't and insisted that it had to be in mum's catchment area.

Thankfully we did a placing request for another school entirely, which we would have done even if she was accepted in my catchement area, and this was granted so we got what we wanted in the end.

DigForVictory

Have you considered visiting the school & asking?

Our school's Secretary could & did advise on application forms, and go through the how, who, when, where & what of it all with a wonderful reassuring competence.

tyllwyd

If you and your son's mum get on well and trust each other, and your son spends equal amount of time at both homes, so that the only difference is the child benefit, if the child benefit address is crucial, to me the obvious solution would be for you to claim child benefit instead for the relevant period of time. You could always give his mum an equal amount of money back so that she doesn't lose out.

carolan78

Changing the child benefit to the father could have implications for tax credits or any other benefit the mum is claiming so they'd have to look into this before doing it.

Janepig

peachyprice wrote: »

There's no reason why you can't apply for a school from your address, schools are now used to children who have shared care and parents are free to choose which address they wish to use.

For primary school you usually only need to provide a copy of your council tax bill and a recent utility bill in your name, not proof of where the child is 'registered'.

If you check out your own LEA website for the admissions booklet it will be explained.

Same here - we only needed a council tax bill along with our application. Nothing about child benefit. There's also no mention in the criteria about a parent's disability so I don't know when that might come into play. OP, it's a good idea to visit any potential school you might have got your eye on for your child, and any school should be happy to accommodate this, so it might be worth your while going for a visit and asking this sort of thing at the same time. Although you may need to also contact the eduction department of your LEA as they deal with admissions, not the school.

Jx