Or will this be a Hat Trick for False Hope?

March 4, 2015 – “The key thing is flexibility.”
Education Minister, Nick Gibb

March 24, 2014 – “we will take action if we find that schools are not paying attention to parental demand.”
Minister of State for Schools, David Laws

September 4, 2013 – “What we want to do is to empower parents… It should be the parents who are the primary decision-makers when it comes to deciding which route is most appropriate for their child and which environment will enable their child to thrive. We are absolutely clear that parents should be able to say to a school, “We want our child, who is aged five, to enter reception”, if they feel that that is in the best interests of their child.””
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education, Elizabeth Truss

Next month, parents of 3 year-old children who were forced to apply for a Reception class place this September (through fear of a missed school year and/or missing out on a school place altogether next year) will have to decide whether to accept their school offer, or take the gamble and FIGHT with their school or local authority next year, knowing they have no right of appeal, and that the DfE will not intervene with a ‘local decision’.

Will Nick Gibb’s assurances be any different to those of Ministers in previous years? Only time will tell – but for this year’s cohort of summer born children, time is running out.