In-Year Application Woes

Dear All,

Just looking for some advice. We've decided to move our 7-year old from an independent school to a good local state primary, particularly given that SEN support seems better supported there. In early May, we were told that there might be a place coming up and they would contact us after May half-term. They didn't. I emailed several times and finally rang them today to be told 'he was fourth on the waiting list'? The email from the admissions person never even indicated a waiting list nor that if the place wasn't available, she would contact us. They never did and it has been eight weeks (they are supposed to formally answer in 5 days). If they had, we would have also approached our second choice, which did have places in early May, but none 8 weeks later. Such incompetence.

Any advice? We do plan to appeal, but it has left me quite annoyed.

Thanks,

SK

 

Does your council have information about their policy for in-year admissions? Ours has a lot of detail online, although a few schools control their own in-year admissions.

You also need to be aware that the position on the waiting list can go down as well as up: the waiting list is not ordered by when people join it, but by the school's oversubscription criteria. So if people move into the area who live nearer the school than you do, he could go down. (The church primary I attended was usually oversubscribed. One family moved into the area with triplets due to start school the following September, but there happened to be a place in the right year for their older brother. The sibling rule meant that everyone else suddenly went down three places on the list.)

It does sound like the school could have communicated rather better.

 

I assume they meant 'we may have a place and if one becomes available, we'll contact you.' However a place didn't become available and other people wanting to move in to the school have greater priority, so now there is a waiting list, but wasn't before. (See @frustum 's post for an example of how this could happen.)

Not sure what you can appeal against...though I'd be furious as well.

 

We spoke with the Council today and have lodged an appeal with them; fortunately (or unfortunately), a few other things are at play here. I just didn't want to get into the bits and pieces here but the wording of the email back from the school was less ambiguous than I said above.....

sigh.....