Post - school places Options

[Rachel]

My advice would be to appeal and then hang on if you can. Your child doesn't have to be in school til the term after they are 5. In my experience, most people drop off the waiting list by the start of September, as they want their child in school somewhere. If you are patient and pick your moment, you could be lucky. However, you need to remember that St Nic's won't be your catchment either and attendance at St John's doesn't guarantee a place at St Nic's, so this whole thing may be repeated in 3 years' time. Good luck!

Sound advice indeed.
I can see this from many points; My son started at our catchment school, but I moved him out of cathment at the end of year 2. I had many, personal reasons for this, the main one being that for him, in my opinion, his first school was not able to meet his needs. It's a great school in many ways, & the school he moved to is not without issues, but for him, at the time, it was the right choice. I was very sad, not least because it meant he couldn't walk to school with friends, that I'd moved house so that he could be in catchment 4 years previously, that I too think the best mix is gained when children go to school in catchment etc etc, BUT at the time, I decided that the pros outweighed the cons.
I feel sorry for parents faced with these problems, I've been there & will probably go there again at secondary school placement time. That's why my motto remains; Make your decision based solely on what's best for your child, having contemplated all the options yourself & don't give up.
The 'stay in catchment area' is now invalid; an outstanding/good/satisfactory/poor rating has evolved, choices have been given & we cannot go back, whatever we might like to do.

[Me-again]

Thank you all for your advice. I feel bad as I have kind of hijacked the OP's thread. Sorry! It would appear that I am not alone. The news page says that only 48% of people got their first choice school this time.

I have been on the phone all morning and have come to my decision, based solely on what I feel to be best for both of my children.

My eldest is happy and settled in her school and as I couldn't get both of them in the same school anyway, it would be pointless to move her so she stays where she is.

My youngest is in pre school and after talking to council funding people, they have agreed to continue funding her place there until July 2011, by which time she will be 5 years and 4 months.

In the meantime, I will appeal the decision with the school and if this doesn't work I will remain on waiting list. Should I still not have a place for her at school by July 2011, I will home ed her until she does get a place at either St Johns or St Nics at a later date.


The whole problem hinges on the fact that I can't be in 2 places at once, and wonder why schools don't stagger their start and end times a bit to allow more flexibility. This would also help with congestion as it would spread the traffic load out over a longer period of time. I also can't believe that there are no schools inNewbury that could fit both of them in, although I have been informed that Compton and Inkpen could possibly take both of them. But this would not be a good move for the older one and would involve a nightmare on public transport when I don't have the car. (I spoke to both schools and neither could provide transport as they only do so for kids in their catchment that have to travel a distance)

[Berkshirelad]

I do wish that government and others would stop banging on about choices of schools - there is no such thing and never has been.

All that is available is a preference, which has an entirely different meaning.

The major issue for the LA is not a lack of primary places (in fact, there is a surplus across W Berks), but that they cannot be magically moved around between schools. If you then add in the law limiting KS1 class size to 30, then you will realise that adding an extra child to the intake would take the class to 31, which requires another teacher and classroom; meanwhile, the taxpayer is paying for empty places elsewhere.

Schools are basically funded on pupil numbers - each child is worth about £2,500 pa in the school's budget. Teachers cost about £50K including on-costs. Classrooms cost considerably more and take time to build.

Better to engage with your school as allocated and improve it for all its pupils.

[part time]

As someone who went through this a couple of years ago I wouln't hold out any hope of the appeal process getting you a result. If they have allocated the places at the chosen school in the order of merit that they publish on the application they have played by the rules and the appeal has no grounds.
Have you looked into 'breakfast clubs' at the school you have been given? Some of these open from 8am, but obvioulsy you do have to pay.
As posted before, waiting lists would seem to be the best bet and keep fingers crossed once the term starts.
I believe the problem has been caused by publishing the league tables and sat results myself...........

[Smudgie]

However, you need to remember that St Nic's won't be your catchment either and attendance at St John's doesn't guarantee a place at St Nic's, so this whole thing may be repeated in 3 years' time. Good luck!

True, but in the over-subscription criteria for St Nic's, priority is given to pupils currently attending St John's over catchment area pupils (not currently attending St John's).

The only applicants prioritised over current St John's pupils are Children in Care.

Still a relief to get the letter confirming a place, though.