Moving house after primary application

[Jetblack6]

Hi all, am new to this and the whole school application situation, so please be kind!

My DD will be due to start primary school in Sept 21 - I know we will have to apply for her place in January.

We have a primary school at the end of our road right now, but we want to move house, hopefully to our "forever home" as much as circumstances allow.

So, my question is - what happens if we move after the application deadline, but before she starts. We'd move out of the current catchment area.

We don't know exactly when we'll move and in one sense, don't need to move. Is it better to wait until she has a place here and then either try and get in somewhere else for when we move (after she's started) or request to change our preference if we move before Sept; or to get moved before we have to apply (unlikely given its now Sept and we have 2 houses to sell and a new one to find (moving in with my mum and need an annexed property for her).

I hope this makes sense...

In my head i'd like to move before she starts school as I think it would be less disruptive to her (thoughts welcome on this too) but I don't know what we do about applying and the council website isn't overly helpful!

Thanks in advance for any insights!

[prh47bridge]

It depends on your LA. Some allow you to change your address and preferences for a few weeks after the January deadline without any penalty. However, many would treat you as a late applicant which makes it less likely you would get a place at any of your preferred schools. If you move before offers are made you can ask the LA to continue to use your current address for admission purposes but that will, of course, mean you get a place near your current home, not near your new home.

You won't lose any place that is offered just because you move. So, provided it isn't too far, you can move to a new home and continue to send your daughter to a school near your current home. But if you intend to move too far for that to be practical you need to try and get it done before January.