# School Admissions



## chadwick13 (Jun 30, 2010)

I contacted our local primary school today about admissions for 2 little ones after the Easter holidays. 

They’ve just emailed back to say they’re full. Pretty much that. Full stop.

We really want to send our 2 (matching panel in 6 weeks) to this school as apparently they have excellent pastoral supoprt and it is literally a 5 minute walk from our house. Our sw and ff suggested we contact them to have a tour, etc.

I know looked after children (or ‘previously’ looked after children) get priority and the LA we’re adopting from has said they can ‘direct’ the school to admit. Has anyone else had this experience?


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

I'd suggest contacting the LA Education dept and discussing it.  Yes, they can direct schools to take children, if there's no other health and safety issues that trump that.  And don't worry, they'll come with pupil premium, so it's worthwhile to the school to have them, too.

Good luck!


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## rsm (Aug 20, 2009)

Hi Chadwick

Didn't want to read and run.....

I have been looking at schools to but for a September admission. We've got matching panel in Feb and fingers crossed LO will be with us in March. Admissions for September deadline is this week but I was told I can only apply once LO is actually placed and not before. 

I enquires as to whether we would get a place if we were applying way after the deadline and was told that looked after kids do take priority. 

Maybe contact your local council and have a word with them. Our council are actually the ones doing admissions, the school do not get involved in giving places they only become involved one a place has been accepted. I would definitely contact your local council and explain the situation. 

Good luck and keep us posted


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## Lorella (Jan 10, 2013)

Hi Chadwick
Definitely contact your schools LA. Am pretty sure they make the decisions on admissions , not the school. 
Good luck
X


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## RocketJ (Mar 29, 2014)

I'm a teacher, and would definitely recommend trying to get an appointment to speak with the headteacher so that you can explain the situation fully and discuss it with them. Go armed with reasons why you think it would be beneficial for the children to be at this school rather than elsewhere. I have just had a little boy join my class who has been adopted; my class was already full, but the head basically left it to me to decide (she knows I know more about adoption than her) and so of course I said yes!! The parents were really keen for him to get a place, and our head was very empathetic towards their reasons. 

Some reasons that might be worth giving; why the type of school is suitable e.g. large/small..., the reputation they have for pastoral support, the fact of being close (you could explain about how important it will be for your children to be thinking about you during the day and to know that you are thinking of them, and being close geographically could be useful), being able to become part of the school community (for yourselves as parents as much as for the children - though it may take some explaining why that will have such an impact on the children in turn).

If the school isn't prepared to listen to you and consider it properly, then it probably indicates that it might not be the best school for your children anyway, but hopefully if the pastoral support lives up to the reputation they will want to welcome you with open arms! Good luck xx


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## RocketJ (Mar 29, 2014)

The decision could be made by either the LA, or the school, depending on the type of school. I teach at a C of E school, and we control our admissions - the head considers applications, but the governors get the final say. Even if the governors say no, parents can then appeal, but I can't imagine that makes for a very good working relationship between parents and school!


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## chadwick13 (Jun 30, 2010)

Thanks for the advice. I forwarded their response onto our sw and the ff who pretty much said the same as you guys. Basically they said we need to visit to see if this is the school we actually want to send the girls to, and if it is, they'll instruct the school to accept them through the virtual head. 

I thought the school email response was pretty off. I had emailed the head directly, but the response was clearly from the administrator. I'm hoping this is an administrator speaking out of ignorance rather then it coming from the Head Teacher and we're being deliberately fobbed off. I've just emailed back to very politely thank them for the email and say we would still like to visit the the school (and offered some dates) as looked after children have priority status. It was more polite and professional than that, but you get the general idea. Let's see how they respond!


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## Lorella (Jan 10, 2013)

Good luck Chadwick. Hope it was just someone in the office with wrong information and you get a better response from the HT x


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

Yes, it sounded to me like a secretary replying without knowing all the parameters.  Good luck!

Great reply, Rocket.


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## chadwick13 (Jun 30, 2010)

We finally have our date to tour the school. After not receiving a response to several emails I called them up and spoke to the administrator who seemed quite panicky. I think there was a genuine concern not to offer us something and then be told by the LA they'd overstepped the mark. You're quite right, they didn't really know what the rules were and it had been left to the administrator to deal with rather than going to the Head. I'll see how we get on after we've visited!


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## RocketJ (Mar 29, 2014)

I'm glad you've managed to make arrangements to meet with the head, now you'll get a proper chance to see what the school and staff are like. Hopefully, it was all just a misunderstanding, poorly communicated (if they really are a good school they may get requests for places all the time, and the admin may have just been instructed to say no to them all). Please let us know how it goes!


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