Primary admissions

[slp123]

Just a quick question but could some explain why it is a 3 month wait to be told which school your child has been allocated?
Many thanks

[DoodleAlley]

I'm guessing it takes that long to go through all the applications and work out what schools you qualify for or don't?

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

They have to sort through all the applications, put them all applicants for each school in the right order according to criteria. Then as they go through sorting out the highest preferences, places will be cleared further down the lists.

Presumably its the same staff who are going through the secondary school lists which are allocated in March.

It used to be longer.

[Snazzynewyear]

I'm actually surprised they can do it in the time, given the tasks involved.

[slp123]

I guess I just thought as most people apply online there would be some fancy computer programme that would sort it all. Obviously there is a lot more to it though.

[MerryCouthyMows]

I wish I only had a 3 month wait for DS1's Secondary application - I would know the answer as to whether I need to appeal or not by now!

We had to submit our forms by the end of October, and we don't find out until National Offers Day on 1st March.

I put it out if my mind until after Christmas, but now the wait I'd becoming unbearable. I just want to KNOW now!!

[sanam2010]

Slp, i am sure eventually it will happen much faster but i do think there's still quite a lot of parents who do paper applications and then council workers will type that all in manually, plus you have the annoying voluntary aided schools that need to check as well - and their forms are usually all paper.

If it wasn't for this, I agree with you the computer programme should actually be able to generate admissions lists within minutes...

[prh47bridge]

I disagree with sanam2010.

Tiggy's list of what has to happen is a good start but there is a lot more to it than that:

• If a parent has applied to a school in another LA the council has to contact the LA concerned and give them the required details
  

• The council also needs to get details from other LAs of anyone from outside the area who has applied for one of their schools
  

• If parents have claimed priority on medical/social grounds the LA has to get consider the evidence provided and decide whether or not the child qualifies
  

• If the parents haven't provided all the evidence required to support their application (e.g. proof of address or evidence for a claim for medical/social priority) many councils will contact the parents and remind them to submit the information. The LGO regards this as good customer care. Indeed, in one case the LGO suggested that, if the parents still did not provide the information after being reminded and were going to lose out on a place because of it, the council should ring the parents to chase the required evidence before making a final decision
  

• When the initial lists have been drawn up the council needs to tell the relevant LA for each external applicant whether or not that child has got a place
  

• Similarly for parents who have applied to schools in other LAs, the council needs to find out from those LAs whether or not a place has been allocated
  

• In some cases, the council will find that a parent has got a place in a school run by another LA but they don't need it as they have got a place at a higher preference school. They therefore need to contact the other LA to inform them that the place is not required
  

• Similarly, some external applicants won't require the place they have gained so, when the council is informed of this, they need to adjust the list for the relevant school
  

There is absolutely no way this could all be computerised so that admissions lists were generated in minutes.

[sanam2010]

Prh, at least for london, the online system is london wide so goes across all councils, the LA wouldn't need to be notified of anything. Maybe it's different in other parts of the UK but in london as of last year there is one unified online admissions system.

[titchy]

Plenty of London boroughs border other LEAs sanam!

[sanam2010]

Well presumably one day in the future the system will be England wide!! The technology is there already, it just needs to be used and implemented. I don't think people will manually crosschecking these things in 2030 (at least i hope so!).

[marquesas]

I didn't realise that schools themselves decided who qualified for admission - is that that case in all areas? I'm pretty sure that when I was a school gov the school itself didn't know which children had been offered places until the date when parents were informed.

I'm not sure that such a complex system could be computerised as there are so many different individual circumstances.

[titchy]

Doubt it sanem - that would mean 150 odd local authorities agreeing the same processes and to work together, and agreeing how to share the administrative and financial cost!

[Suffolkgirl1]

The schools won't know who has been offered a place they just rank the children in order according to their admission policy. However as they do not know the children's preferences they can't work out who has a place and who hasn't.

[prh47bridge]

sanam2010 - I am aware of the London-wide system. It doesn't simplify things as much as you think. It seems that every year recently I advise at least one parent in London who applied for a school in a neighbouring LA and didn't get it because their home LA didn't send the required information, despite both LAs using the London-wide system.

Even if we get a national system that handles cross-LA applications automatically (unlikely) there is still a lot of manual work to do. For example, the evidence for every child claiming priority on medical/social grounds has to be looked at by a panel including appropriately qualified professionals who decide whether or not the child qualifies.

[MerryCouthyMows]

Applications for September 2015 are going to he even worse for me - I will have a Secondary Application to do for DS2, probably without a sibling link if DS1 gets into the Grammar, as DD will have left, AND a Primary application for DS3 without a sibling link, as DS2 will be in Y6, leaving for Secondary.

In an area that is going to be 120 places short for Secondary places and 187 short for Primary places for 2015 start. With no additional schools being opened in time, and no space at the existing Primaries or Secondaries to expand ANY further as they have already expanded to their maximum capacity...

I'm going grey just thinking about it!!