Too Cool for School

One of the main parts of moving to the Isle of Wight, and the main reason for moving in September, is so that the kids can start Primary School at the beginning. We think it will be better if we can make that happen, as it will hopefully mean that Dylan, especially, can settle much quicker.

The predicament that presents itself is that we need to be able to enrol them in schools in January for a September start. Sophie's school should be okay as this goes through a process called The Statement so this goes through other routes. Also there is only one school on the island that she can go to (Medina House), and she is prioritised due to her condition, so I'm not too worried about that.

But Dylan is another kettle of fish. He's just going into the mix of normal schools, to which there are plenty. The problem is that each school has a catchment area and you then have to apply for your three most preferred schools in order.

We aren't in any catchment area because we don't live there yet, and we only know a potential place where we are going to move to. And funnily enough that won't do it.

If, for example, our favourite school can take twenty children and they get 21 apply, then guess who misses out. Poor Dylan gets stuck in the ghetto of the Isle of Wight, which in comparison to where we are now will probably feel like Eton, but still not ideal.

Our plan, that we're going to take, is to apply for the schools and follow the process, but then try and leverage some kind of special exception piggy backing on Sophie's school. We're going to say that as Sophie is going to school in Newport, then surely it makes sense from our family's point of view to school Dylan somewhere near.

Who knows if this will work or not but it's worth a go.

If the worst comes to the worst we can always hold him back until March of the following year, but this is definitely the worst case scenario. I'm sure we'll be able to negotiate something when we get there if it all goes pear-shaped.

Who'd have thought that schools would cause such a problem, surely people just go to school. I get that feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are many other pitfalls waiting just around the corner.

Location:Heaton Rd,Stockport,United Kingdom