What are my chances of getting DD a place at this school?

[loubielou31]

I asking the wisdom of Mumsnet who hopefully have more experience of these things than I do what they think.
We have seen a house that we would like to buy in a very rural village. DD1 is currently in Reception class, if the sale went ahead very smoothly she could start in her new school in September otherwise and more likely it would be sometime in the Autumn term.
The house we've seen is 0.5 miles from the school, the next nearest school is over 4 miles away.
The nominal roll number for this school is 18, the current reception cohort has 21 and is mixed with the nursery class and has 33 in the class (this is in wales so children start school in a nursery class at the beginning of the term they turn 4). I'm guessing that nursery have a different child to teacher ratio and this is how they've been able to go over the infant class size limit of 30
I was told by the deputy head (acting head for next term) that next year this cohort (then Y1) will be taught in a single year group.
Other year groups are taught in mixed age classes and it's my understanding these are organised depending on numbers in each year group
Based on this information I would imagine that I wouldn't automatically get a school place but would have to go to appeal. How likely do you think it would be that I would win this appeal.
The thing is we can't make an application until we have a completion date on the house and then if my DDs couldn't go to the same school it would defeat the whole reason for the move.
Sorry this is longer than I expected but I'd be grateful for any insights.

[Laura0806]

I suspect you would get a place as in my experience, small, mixed class village schools generally try to accomodate their catchment if each year group is below 30 which in your case it would be. however, its not always the case. Did you ask the school?

[loubielou31]

The school just said that the admissions are handled by county and they couldn't say what the outcome would be. County admissions were very cagey, explained the procedure but wouldn't be drawn on probable outcomes.

[loubielou31]

I'm afraid I'm shamelessly bumping this because if you all say it's extremely unlikely then we wouldn't go ahead with the purchase.
Where we are currently living DD2 is unlikely to get a place at the same school as DD1 so the main motivation for the move is to secure schools for our DDs. What to do?

[Willsmum79]

Apply anyways! Do you live close enough to the school to travel until you actually move?

You can always turn it down if the move doesn't work out.

If there is a place, you should get it regardless of where you live. If there was no place, they would turn you down even if you hadn't moved into your new house.

[loubielou31]

No this would be a big relocation back to nearer my parents, DH would then commute weekly to work where we currently live. Our current house is rented (army quarter) and we've decided to buy our own house and settle in one place rather than continue moving with DH's job every two years. Our only reason for doing this now is because of the school situation for DD2, hence the school thing being a big deal.

[kilmuir]

Do they have a waiting list?
Its very hard to say. My olderDC went to a small village school, mixed classes and only one child left in 6 years!
What grounds would you put forward on appeal?

[mumineedapooooo]

I'm currently in a similar situation,although we have already moved house,the school we applied for has a admission number of 12 per class,as ds' year group is at 12 we have had to appeal, hearing was yesterday and still waiting for a decision.
I asked the appeals officer if she had any idea how it would turn out but she wouldn't say,she did say because its an overcrowding appeal and not an infant class size appeal we have a better chance of winning but I'm not getting my hopes up

[mushroom76]

Reigate Schools. We are about to move to Reigate in 2 weeks, what are the chances of getting into Holmesdale for reception starting now (Y1 in Sept) and what are the other good schools in the area? The house we are moving to is in a good location and puts us quite high up the wait list for Holmesdale apparently... but obviously without any movement in the school that doesn't mean anything. Any advice from the local Reigate mums would be much appreciated.

[mushroom76]

Reigate Schools. We are about to move to Reigate in 2 weeks, what are the chances of getting into Holmesdale for reception starting now (Y1 in Sept) and what are the other good schools in the area? The house we are moving to is in a good location and puts us quite high up the wait list for Holmesdale apparently... but obviously without any movement in the school that doesn't mean anything. Any advice from the local Reigate mums would be much appreciated.

[mushroom76]

oops sorry new to mumsnet - i meant to start a new post - sorry!

[loubielou31]

mumineedapoo hope you got a place, we're still considering our options at the moment. All very tricky.

[loubielou31]

kilmuir
Our grounds for appeal would be that we live within the catchment area, half a mile walk from the school and the next nearest school is over four miles away down little country lanes and that children who live in the village should be able to go to the village school in order to make friends and other reasons I could think of I guess.
I would say the school doesn't have a waiting list because it wouldn't be a class size appeal, there would only be 21 children in the class so if they went up to 30 that would still be 9 places.

[mumineedapooooo]

yes we won our appeal
found out Thursday that he can start Monday,im so pleased and relieved.
good luck loubielou just try and think of every reason you can,no matter how small or silly and write notes.