I have a three year old son and want to know what i need to do to
ensure he attends a good local primary school. Local means within my
15 miles of my home for state school or within 25miles for private
school.
By "good" i mean a place where he will be safe,happy and well-educated
. he is an intelligent child so will need similar peers and teachers
with capacity to deal with the challenges he will bring to them.
I guess we could use a blunt approximation of this as (say) a school
with inspection results in the top 10% for the county.
I believe that the info on this is on the BBC bbc.co.uk/education
website Education section which has the latest league tables and
possibly ofsted.gov.uk too.
 UK researchers will know that primary means aged 5 to 11. I think
this is USA K-12 but I suspect that non-Uk researchers should not
attempt to answer this. Really i want an answer from someone with
direct experience although a very insightful person with friends who
have gone through the process may also be able to help.
This is not just a research thing i am looking for personal experience
of the process too as there are ins and outs which i believe only
someone who has gone through it can know.

Specfic background - My son was born in late september 1999 and i live
in Kent.

Specific questions are:
STATE SECTOR
What dates are the deadlines for applying to state run primary schools
?
What is the process exactly - what forms do i recieve ? Do i need to
contact
them or will they write to me.
What age will he be when he starts school (some seem to go at 4)
What can i do about the fact that he will be old for his year ? will
he be accepted into the previous year ? (he is bright for his age)I
have heard that strict rules apply now and he will not be allowed to
go school "early".
How is the cut off date for his year calculated and what if any are
the exceptions.
How does the local area thing work - does the school he attends depend
on where we live ? totally ? how comes people from the same street
sometimes attend different schools ?
why are some schools oversubscribed and what can you do about this if
you want to go there ?
Is it really worth moving house to get a good school ?
What are the answers to these questions as regards to the state sector
?
and
PRIVATE SECTOR ASPECTS
What are the answers to the questions above where they still apply -
as regards the private sector ?
What are typical tuition costs in the private sector and primary
school age and what additional costs should i budget for (trips
/uniform) ?

SPECIALIST ASPECTS
What type of specialist schools exist in the Uk for children eg aimed
at particular talents or where the school has a particulary thought
out and/or unusual philosophy (need not be in Kent).
I have heard of Steiner schools for example and I imagine there are
ones geared at particular things like music academies etc.
Please provide a list of the types and a few URLs where i can get more
info.
Also state if you have personal experience of any of these.
This is a minor aspect of the question so don't spend more than 15% of
your answer time on this specialist bit.
In terms of detail given i  would expect you to spend the bulk of the
answer (60% say) to reply regarding  the state sector questions and
say 25%on the private sector
(I think that adds up to 100%      !)


thanks
feel free to ask comments to clarify question

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Clarification of Question by onetwothreefour-ga on 13 Jun 2002 16:13 PDT

typo correction - under private school section  "and primary" should
read "at primary"
clarification - i was alluding to but did not specifically mention
**school waiting lists** - do state schools have these ? some friends
say yes , some say no they don't  - what is the deal here ? when /do i
need to go on one

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Clarification of Question by onetwothreefour-ga on 13 Jun 2002 16:16 PDT

if you have a particularly good and detailed and experienced answer
regarding the state school sector but know nothing about private
schools then i will still accept your answer as full if you wish to
post it just on state schools

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Request for Question Clarification by grimace-ga on 14 Jun 2002 03:08 PDT

Hi - could you tell me whereabouts in Kent you live? This would have a
bearing on private sector choices.

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Clarification of Question by onetwothreefour-ga on 14 Jun 2002 05:23 PDT

I live in North East Kent. Sorry not to be more specific but as this
is a public site I don't feel comfortable giving out more details than
that. Hope that helps.

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Clarification of Question by onetwothreefour-ga on 14 Jun 2002 05:26 PDT

actually i think its east kent not north east sorry !

Must admit that I haven't had first hand experience of this process
myself since actually being at primary school but you may find the
following two links useful

The following is a leaflet produced by Kent county council detailing
the admissions process in your county (you'll need Adobe Acrobat to
view it).
http://www.kent.gov.uk/e&l/aet/Primary%20School%20for%20your%20Child%20A4%202002.pdf

For a list of schools in your area and various league table
information use the following link and enter you postcode in the
search box
http://www.upmystreet.com/lea_league/

Hope this information is useful

thanks i guessed that kcc would have something - so you have saved me
a little time there with the pdf address. and upmystreet is indeed a
great site for stuff i didn't realise the tables were there too.

i live in South East kent, and my son is just in his first year at
primary.

We found that attendeding the local pre-school (2.5- % years) this
helped dramatically his chances of attending the school in that
catchment area.

most good pre-schools are usually "connected" in some way to the
primary school.

I know this is over simplistic but it worked for us.

Hi!

Your question is too long and detailed for a full answer, but as
someone who is a parent, ex-primary school governor, and who has
successfully appealed an LEA tribunal to overturn an admission
refusal, I'm probably about as experienced as you're going to get - so
a couple of pointers:

Any school that meets your criteria - and you seem to have a good idea
of how to search for the info you need - will be in demand. With 99%
probability, the year you want will be full, and the admission
criteria set by the LEA will be applied. This is an area where the
school and its governors are not at liberty to overrule the LEA -
although they can still exercise discretion where candidates have
equal standing under the rules. They often do this according to the
time-honoured principal of first-come-first-served, but will usually
respond well to a friendly, respectful approach - which is an
amazingly rare thing.

Call the LEA to find out what the rules are. They will almost
certainly be

1) Sibling at the school
2) Living within defined local area served by school
3) Other stuff, like distance outside defined area

For the best schools, even children who meet 2) will have a hard time
getting in. If you don't meet this criterion, forget it.

So the bottom line is: choose the school, and move into the area it
serves. Get in your application, make friends with the Head and any
amenable Governors (Parent Governors usually love to get involved).
Ask to see the last Ofsted report for the school, and the minutes of
Governors' meetings (these are both public documents accessible at the
school).

If you are turned down because the year is full, come back here and
ask how to appeal.

Hope that helps!

For what it's worth, I may be able to help a little on the
state/private thing.

My little sisters both attend Dulwich Prep near Cranbrook and, if you
were considering moving to find the right school, it is an excellent
school to send your son to.  Class sizes are small, academic
achievement good, and the teachers are genuinely dedicated.  One of my
little sisters has special needs and, thanks to the excellent staff,
has not even needed to stay down a year.

One of the things I like most about the school is that, in addition to
providing a range of sporting and extra-curricular activities, they
also actively encourage the learning of musical instruments.  One of
my little sisters tries a new instrument each term, and instrument
hire fees are reasonable.

Tuition fees for lower school are, I believe, around £10000 per annum.

One of the best reasons for moving to that area is the Cranbrook
School catchment area (a local secondary school).  This is a kind of
grammar school, in that day pupils living within the catchment area
attend for free, while there is also a boarding facility for
fee-paying pupils from outside the catchment area.  Selection is based
on an 11-plus exam and the catchment area.

The school is good enough for house prices to be affected by the
addition of the magic words 'Cranbrook School catchment area' on the
estate agent's particulars.

Hope this is of some help to you.

m

Thanks to all those who have posted comments so far. This has been
very helpful. Indeed I think my question is largely best answered by
many people posting their personal experiences rather than a single
researcher in this case.
So I will leave the question open as long as possible to enable others
to post comments.
Thanks again , very much appreciated. 
regards
JD