Planning to move within catchment of good secondary - timing advice needed!

[thecatsmothercompany]

We are looking to move house - from Islington to Muswell Hill - to get our DS into a good secondary school.

The logistics are pretty baffling though: we need to be residents of the area months before the school year starts, which means moving to the area and going on a crazy commute each morning to take DS to his Islington primary.

Has anyone experienced a similar move? Advice much appreciated :-)

[gazzalw]

Not meaning to be harsh but not sure you can have your cake and eat it...

Maybe you would have to consider transferring DS to a Muswell Hill primary school if you are motivated to be in situ in the right area for secondary school catchments in time to apply for Year 7 school application time

[thecatsmothercompany]

Fair enough!

[thecatsmothercompany]

... but it would still be great to hear from others who've made a similar move and how they managed it.

[mrsshackleton]

people make that move all the time, think you do have to just endure a year's commute.

[starlady]

Hi, we ended up moving for a school by the skin of our teeth. We hadn't planned to, didn't want to. We moved because nearly every child in my ds sat the grammar test - and then the riots happened. I realised I couldn't count on the 'protection of the herd' from his primary school mates for my SN ds to go to the local school. It was 'everyone out for themselves' - which made me very sad. This was our timetable:

August 2011. Our neighbourhood gets smashed up. I am comatose with fear. All our friends are busy sending their kids to tutor summerschools etc for october tests. One school I would be happy with - which we are about a mile out of catchment

I start scouring estate agents. We get fleeced on a house near our school of choice for rental in down at heel area (school is RC, so the house prices and rents aren't usually pushed up, as church-going is above distance) but they see how desperate we are September 11 (as ds goes into year 5). We rent out our house. I don't drive, so I had to get kids on train back to primary school.

Nearly all his friends fail the grammar or are too far to get a place. We consider putting down our 'old' local school, but DH says 'sod 'em ... where was their solidarity when we needed it?' So, we get the high achieving comp, and end up selling out house and moving into the area.

Basically, you need to be in by the September of year 6.

[thecatsmothercompany]

Wow. That must have been incredibly stressful. Sorry to hear.

I hope the move has turned out to be good for you all!

Re your solidarity point: sadly, we are experiencing exactly the same thing. Everyone we know talks about sending their kids en masse to the local academy, but the mass tutoring (at least the kids are honest) belies those good intentions.

Off to check rightmove now...

[GetMeOut]

Sometimes you need to give evidence in the October that you have lived at that address for a while - I had to send a council tax bill. I think details would be on the local authority website under applications for secondary schools.

[admission]

The admission window for on time applications is in effect from 1st September to in most cases something like the end of October for secondary school places. If you are not resident in the house by the end date then you will be a late application and your chance of getting into a popular school will be low.

So realistically you need to be planning to be in residence a whole twelve months before your child is actually going to start at secondary school.

[Littleturkish]

I would move ASAP and put into a primary to make the start of secondary easier for your DC.

[starlady]

Hi thecatsmothercompany- yes things have calmed down now!

But it's not perfect. We do miss our old area, although it's not far, it was nicer. My ds has had an 'interesting' start to yr 7 behaviourwise, but it's hard to say whetherI regret move, because who knows what would happen if we hadn't moved.

Ask me in 5 years time when (hopefully) he'll be on the straight and narrow with a good clutch of gcses!

[50shadesofvomit]

I moved my son to a new school in y6 for the same reason. It sounds crazy to move to a new school for y6 but I felt the pros (outstanding secondary school and 50% of his y6 class going to the secondary) outweighs the con (being new for 1 year). Nobody at his old school was going to be at his secondary so there were more pros than cons.

[Tansie]

Did the same 50.

Moved DS1 for the final half term of Y5 and therefore all of Y6. He's not terribly social so didn't make many 'mates' in Y6 but now in Y9, sees a couple of the boys from Y6 so some 'connections' were obviously made! 58 odd out of 60 DC go from this primary to the catchmented, outstanding comp. Also, like you, I had no intention of sending him to the secondary that 95% of his previous primary went to! And, tbf, most of his mates at that last primary were heading into dad's plumbing company at 16- nice kids, all, I hasten to add- but unlikely to have found themselves in the same sets at DS. There wasn't a strong academic 'focus' among them, or rather, their families.

We have no regrets at all.

[LadyWellian]

We moved house in the November of Y5 from Southwark to Lewisham. The motivation was at least 50% secondary school related and luckily it paid off for us. We did have an annoying commute to school for 18 months or so (DH took DD on motorbike most days, so didn't have to deal with it myself) and on several occasions did question if we'd have been better off transferring DD to the local primary in Y6, where she could have made some local friends in advance of starting secondary, but she wanted to stay where she was. Now she can walk to school in 15 minutes, and her friends from primary school who attend her secondary (music scholars and siblings of music scholars) have an annoying commute that will last for seven years!