Moving house and applying to secondary school - advice needed

[WhatWouldJackReacherDo]

Please help! I am clueless about how to go about this and hoping that someone can advise me. DS is in year 6 and I am thinking about moving before he starts secondary school but can't work out how on earth to apply for a place when the applications need to be in at the end of October and we won't have moved by then?

I want him to be able to finish year 6 at the primary school where he is now but would like to apply for a place at a secondary school in another county where we are planning to move to. It makes sense (to me) to move in time for him to be able to start at the new secondary school with everybody else rather than apply for a secondary school place here then move later when all the other children will already have settled in.

Is there a way to apply for a school in another county without having an address there yet? Or would I just have to apply as a late admission and risk him not being able to go to (what will be) his local school?

Who should I contact? My local council, the county council we are moving to or the school/s in the new area?

Thank you.

[RedSkyLastNight]

You can apply for a school anywhere you want. However you will have to use your current address so if the schools you are applying to use distance as any sort of over-subscription criteria (and most do) you will be unlikely to get a place unless they are under-subscribed.
You apply via your local LEA.

On the basis that this move is far from being finalised, I think you would be safer to apply for a local school and then make a late application after you moved. You don't want to end up in the position of not having moved and having no local (to you now) school.

[WhatWouldJackReacherDo]

RedSky thank you. That was what I'd originally planned to do but I wasn't sure if we'd get a place after we move either!

I just can't work out the best time to move and make a late admission if DS is to finish year 6 here. Seems the best time to move for us would be next summer but that's not the best time for applying for a new school. I think that would mean we would have to make a late admission after the summer holidays which makes it seem unlikely that he'd get a place at all!

[titchy]

Can't you move now? Get him into a new primary and start secondary with friends, rather than move to a new area and start secondary, maybe a shit one miles away, with no friends?

[bigKiteFlying]

Seems the best time to move for us would be next summer but that's not the best time for applying for a new school

Wouldn't it be an In year transfer for year 7 rather than a Late application?

We moved start of DD1 year 6 - it was a very big move and we wanted the secondary school sorted rather than taking were there were places.

We got here just before application process started for secondary so she got chance to meet people going to same school and had a great year 6 with new people and new area and chance to look around the secondary school.

Our children all went to a primary I wouldn’t have chosen, outside catchment and not great reputation locally though last inspection was good, but where there were spaces. We looked at all the schools with places but it was one with spaces for all three and on the whole it’s worked out quite well for them all.

We talked with the new council as soon as the sale of our house went through but applied later with temp address we were at out of area then updated when we got the new house.

Is the secondary school you want likely to have places at start of year 7 or just before? Or would you be offered a place at a secondary no one really wants?

You can go on waiting list for schools you do want - but councils only have to offer a place not a place you'd want.

[WhatWouldJackReacherDo]

Thank you.

I was convinced that it would be better to keep DS at his current school until the end of the year but maybe it would be less disruptive to move him sooner rather than later. It's so complicated!

[prh47bridge]

You don't have to move him from his current school just because you've moved away. As long as you can get him there in the morning and collect him in the afternoon he can carry on.

[PillowOfSociety]

How far away do you want to move?

The county a school is in makes no difference. If you live close to the border you have the same chance as someone who lived in-county the same distance away.

To move now, you would need to have your new address by 31st Oct. could you do that?

Otherwise move in time for the late entrants round next year, apply immediately and be there as soon as the waiting lists start to move after the 1st March allocations have to be accepted or rejected.

Do you know what school you want? Move tne first day of the summer hols on to the very doorstep of the school?

But you would need to be sure if the admissions criteria.

Are the schools even over-subscribed, where you want to move?