Does anyone know how Manchester Education will deal with a change of address just after primary school admissions

[MumMan10]

We are moving house and should have moved by mid Jan, the deadline for primary school admissions for Manchester City Council.However our housing chain has just broken down and it is looking like we now won't move until Feb/March. The house we are buying is very close to the school we want our child to attend. We currently live within a mile of that school and have a very slim chance of getting in from our current address. Does anyone have any experience of how Manchester deal with a change of address (moving closer to a school) between the admissions deadline and the April allocation of places. I'm worried as from what I've read if we change our address after mid Jan it will be treated as a late application and we will go to the back of the queue.

[admission]

The cut off date for on time applications for Manchester is the 16th January 2013. The LA does give a small amount of leeway for parents moving into Manchester and the admission booklet says
^The LA will only process applications received after the deadline date as on time applications if there is a good reason for late submission. Such applications are valid late applications. A valid late application will include situations where children move into Manchester after the closing date, before offers of places are made. Late applications with reasons for late submission will only be considered
up to the 06 February 2013. This is the date when application information is
exchanged with other LA?s.^
My reading of that paragraph is that it only applies to those parents moving into the Manchester LA and not those moving within the Manchester LA. However your best bet is to email the admission office of Manchester LA and ask them the question. Do not do it over the phone, you want a reply in writing that you can refer to later if they say that the later date of Feb 6th applies to you.
You need to apply from your current address before the 16th Jan and I can only suggest that you put down your preferred school as first preference and then choose two more schools that you are more likely to get a place at, from the old address. The LA will use the old address for admissions purposes after Jan 16th. If you make any changes after that date unless within the FEb6th deadline, then it will become a late application and not be considered till after all on time applications - in effect you will have no chance of getting into the oversubscribed school in these circumstances.
You do need to tell the LA when you move, but what you should do is state in writing what the new address is and then be explicit that you are telling them only for purposes of written communications and this is not a change to the admission application. The advantage of doing this is that if you do not get your preferred school, that immediately after the initial allocations your new address will be taken as the address as far as distance to the school any further allocations to the school and if you have moved very close to the school, you should be near the top of the waiting list, if any pupils decline the offer of a place at the school.

[admission]

The cut off date for on time applications for Manchester is the 16th January 2013. The LA does give a small amount of leeway for parents moving into Manchester and the admission booklet says
The LA will only process applications received after the deadline date as on time applications if there is a good reason for late submission. Such applications are valid late applications. A valid late application will include situations where children move into Manchester after the closing date, before offers of places are made. Late applications with reasons for late submission will only be considered up to the 06 February 2013. This is the date when application information is exchanged with other LA?s.
My reading of that paragraph is that it only applies to those parents moving into the Manchester LA and not those moving within the Manchester LA. However your best bet is to email the admission office of Manchester LA and ask them the question. Do not do it over the phone, you want a reply in writing that you can refer to later if they say that the later date of Feb 6th applies to you.
You need to apply from your current address before the 16th Jan and I can only suggest that you put down your preferred school as first preference and then choose two more schools that you are more likely to get a place at, from the old address. The LA will use the old address for admissions purposes after Jan 16th. If you make any changes after that date unless within the FEb6th deadline, then it will become a late application and not be considered till after all on time applications - in effect you will have no chance of getting into the oversubscribed school in these circumstances.
You do need to tell the LA when you move, but what you should do is state in writing what the new address is and then be explicit that you are telling them only for purposes of written communications and this is not a change to the admission application. The advantage of doing this is that if you do not get your preferred school, that immediately after the initial allocations your new address will be taken as the address as far as distance to the school any further allocations to the school and if you have moved very close to the school, you should be near the top of the waiting list, if any pupils decline the offer of a place at the school.

[MumMan10]

Thanks admission, that is really helpful advice. I'd also read Manchester's guidance as meaning that the Feb date only applies to people moving into Manchester rather than within Manchester. I will email them to clarify this. Hearing that changing our address once we've moved in should help us with waiting list priority is good to hear. I was just concerned it would mean we'd be put to the back of the allocation queue. again I'll make sure I do it in writing and will stipulate we want to be treated as an on time applicant from our old address. thanks again for taking the time and effort to advise me, much appreciated.