Frenchiman - its hardly an 'issue' is it, unless you have personal vested interest on insisting the 'rules' have to be followed, which would be a mistake. A good school recognises each of its pupils as individual human beings with amazing potential - and evaluates them as such, with flexibility and understanding. I would be much more wary of any school that only does everything 'by the book' and treats every student exactly the same.

Also waiting lists are not the same for every year within a school - it was relatively easy to get our daughter into an older year, vrs her younger sibling. In our experience Reception, yr1 & yr2 are the years that have the very long waiting lists, many people leave when their kids get a bit older.