I received a letter informing me that my son has been allocated to the primary school further away from our home instead of the closest school.
Has anyone contested the allocation of school and what grounds to they accept.
Aside from the issue of distance and the busier main roads he has to cross, the distance means less time and more difficulty for him to get home for lunch (he’s already a painfully slow eater and a slow walker too).
Something similar happened to us years ago with one of our children. We requested a transfer to the closer school since our other two kids were already attending it. Ultimately, we were successful, but only because another child happened to switch places with our son. This meant that a student from the nearby school ended up attending the farther one for unrelated reasons, allowing our son to take their spot.
School authorities prioritize maintaining balanced class sizes, regardless of individual family preferences.
Looking back, I believe either school would have been just fine. Your slow walker and slow eater will gradually pick up the pace. A longer walk to school also means more time to spend with friends along the way. While it may seem challenging for a young child, most kids manage to walk to and from school and still have plenty of time for lunch.
I found out that most of his friends have been allocated to the same school, so was originally then happy to leave the school choice as-is. But then having spoken to the parents of this friends (some who have kids already in the closer school), they are now all planning to appeal the allocation.
Now I’m worried if we don’t also appeal, all his friends will end up at the closer school and my son will end up at the other school and without his friends.
There is a very low chance of an appeal being successful and certainly not multiple appeals from the same class so whatever happens he will be with some of his friends.
There have to be really good reasons for an appeal to be successful, it is really not common.
You could try a joint appeal with the parents of his friends, but keep in mind that classroom numbers need to remain balanced. If that weren’t the case, would you really prefer your child to be in an overcrowded classroom? Or might it be better for them to be in a smaller class, even if it’s at a school farther away?
At this young age, kids make new friends easily. If he ends up in a class with unfamiliar faces, you can support him by inviting classmates over to help foster friendships. Each of my children has been the new kid in class at least once, and I believe those experiences helped them grow.
Can’t he go by bicycle? Kids can cycle on the pavement legally and he can push his bike across the crossing.
They don’t change this allocation, at least I don’t know anyone who was successful. And it can be really frustrating for a family - e.g. siblings being allocated in different schools, whereas most parents (I think) would prefer to have them in the same school.
I know one person in my town who was successful, but he had to appeal and pay an expensive lawyer to fight. His kid was placed in another school separated both from most of his classmates and also his sibling.
It does happen, though it’s not easy to accomplish. I was a member and president of our town’s parent council for many years, until our youngest started Gymnasium. During that time, we received annual in-person updates from the school authorities on various matters, and they also answered our questions.
If you’re interested in understanding how the system works, I highly recommend joining the parent council and getting involved!