Moving house for secondary school - would you / have you?

We are moving because dp does not like the local secondary school. I am not too concerned as dd will do well whereever she goes. But as I got my way over keeping her in the state sector I see it as a small compromise.

loveandlight - I really hope it happens for you both. If it's anything, it did for one of my bfs. He had a rotten early school experience, exited the schools system for a bit, was home schooled and then went back in and it was a good experience. I'm sure that's a common home schooling story. I hope it's yours too. As for the yr 7 thing, well here in London there really is a lot of movement. Hugs to you too.

Thank you for your apology cherryblossoms. It means a lot to mean. Thank you also for caring enough about my situation to reply to my messages. You have helped me see that I do have a choice and can continue to home school until I find a suitable place for my DS.

I was feeling immense pressure and stress as we are moving and I was trying to find my DS a school place by Sept as I want him to go to school because that is what he wants as well and I had a fab time at school and I want him to have good experiences as well. I will of course continue in my search for a decent school for him but you have helped me see that I do still have choices and I thank you sincerely for that. hug coming your way.

Sorry - i really didn't mean it like that. but I completely agree - reading it back it does come across as spiteful. I was genuinely thinking more along the lines of what you might get offered, especially as I had read your post earlier. And yes, I was rather hoping that you might get offered something OK.

I was trying to be cheering. And I was trying not to go into details about people I know who have had to move schools in yr 8 (and not because they have moved) and trying to be discreet. Which can affect your articulacy.

Honestly, I'm sure it's stressful and I'm sure I'm only repeating stuff you already know, but I wanted to be a bit positive.

You can be a little bit proactive, rather than hoping the council sorts out something nice for you.

I have just realised that you have put this. This is a very unfair and spiteful comment for you to make. I could list pages of the proactive action I have taken for my DS but this thread is not about that but about whether as parents we would move or have moved house for a secondary school and I was merely joining in about this particular subject as we are in the process of moving to find a good school for our DS just like others are.

Good luck. It does sound as though you and your ds have had a really rough ride so far. hope it gets better for you.

Thank you cherryblossoms. I am looking for my DS to start in Sept this year in year 8. I am home schooling him now so there is no great urgency other than it would be good for him to start in Sept as it is then a fresh academic year for him. I have already done as much as i can be expected to do. If I thought I could do more I would be doing it. I think I will prepare myself and my DS for home schooling for a while longer until he gets offered a decent school place.

loveandlight - in a weird way, you may actually be in a better position in applying in yr 7.

What you are looking for is casual entry. you need to decide which schools you like best and contact them now. Send them copies of your ds' work, write great covering letters explaining your situation (you're moving) and telling them why you think their school will suit your ds.

Can you wait until a place comes up? ie keep him at the school he is at now or home educate for a bit? Admittedly, casual entry in year 7 is a bit of a wait but in most schools places do come up and they come up in yr 7, before GCSEs start to bite.

Also, with gs entry he will simply take a test (in most sitautions) and the normal waiting list criteria will apply. In most schools that will be down to performance in the test.

You can be a little bit proactive, rather than hoping the council sorts out something nice for you.

loveandlight - in a weird way, you may actually be in a better position in applying in yr 7.

What you are looking for is casual entry. you need to decide which schools you like best and contact them now. Send them copies of your ds' work, write great covering letters explaining your situation (you're moving) and telling them why you think their school will suit your ds.

Can you wait until a place comes up? ie keep him at the school he is at now or home educate for a bit? Admittedly, casual entry in year 7 is a bit of a wait but in most schools places do come up and they come up in yr 7, before GCSEs start to bite.

Also, with gs entry he will simply take a test (in most sitautions) and the normal waiting list criteria will apply. In most schools that will be down to performance in the test.

You can be a little bit proactive, rather than hoping the council sorts out something nice for you.

yes I know moving doesn't guarantee a place which is why I said in my earlier message that speaking to the LEA gives you no confidence whatsoever. if I had a pound for every time i have been told that I would be a multi-millionaire by now. Even passing an entrance test doesn't mean they'll get a place either as so many grammar schools have waiting lists for children who have passed the entrance exams. i know what its like to be turned down for a school as it happened to us when my son was at primary school and he didn't get into the school I wanted for him then and in fact he didn't get into any school as I was told there were no places available anywhere and I appealed and at the appeal hearing there was only me and I was up against NINE members from the council and on the appeal board who were all on the side of the council. Needless to say my appeal was rejected.

I only found a primary school place as one neighbour got chatting to another who heard of a place going at a school I'd never heard of before so i had to get in quick. A year later I had to pull my son out of that school as he was being physically assaulted ( he was six and a half at the time) by the other kids and the teachers were bullying him as well and I have been home schooling him for the past four years and he is doing amazingly well. He has asked to go to school now and I have to support him in that decision hence why we are now having to move house to find a school for him. I am glad I only have one child as I never thought the education system would be so poor and so hostile as it is.

The area I am in is actually considered one of the top areas for excellent schools and what a joke I now know it is. All I want is for my son to go to a good school not a top school as his happiness is just as important and I know he will do well academically anyway as long as the LEA don't make him go to a bad school.

Unfortunately loveandlight even if you live in a catchment area of a good school it doesn't guarantee you a place and especially so if you are moving into the area after yr7.You could move then appeal. The only way having a high iq would help is if your Ds was hoping to gain a place at a selective school as it'd be more likely to pass the entrance tests I'd have thought.

We need to move to get our son into a good secondary school in time for year 8 in September. We plan to rent. Reading some of your posts you seem to state with some confidence that you will move into the areas where you know there is a good secondary school but how do you know the catchment area has more than one good school so if you don't get your first choice you'll still be okay with your second or third choice? We are in exactly this position and have spoken to various LEA's and they all give us no confidence whatsoever. Also my son has a very high IQ and apparently this is not taken into account either so he could still end up at a bad school. I feel really quite sick and sad and lonely and stressed about it all.

We're right now doing just that! And it's a right pita, tbh! I can SEE houses, across 2 fields that are 'in' but there may as well be an invisible Berlin Wall between us and them! You have to be 'in'.

Fortunately- and this is a statement I don't often make!- we rent thus we have the flexibility to move. Trouble is the size of the houses plummets dramatically whilst the cost goes up inside the catchment which somewhat arbitrarily cuts through a housing estate. I have more or less MEMORISED the roads which are in!

We actually want to buy in (want 'local' friends for the DSs) BUT there's just nothing suitable coming up- and those which might be are snapped up even now in 10 days flat! We are beginning to panic a bit, even though we actually have til Oct 23rd to get in. Also we have DS2 following along behind and only 2 DCs got in out of a 330 pupil entry this year 'who were 'out of catchment', 'not in a feeder but with a 'sibling in'. So far too great a risk not to be in.

And the honest truth is that should we fail to find a good, well priced home 'in', once DS2 has his entry assured (2.5 MORE years!), we'll buy a bigger, cheaper house just outside catchment which it seems many folk are doing judging by the number of DCs in that school's uniform you see streaming out of those surrounding streets every morning!

So at 4pm we are looking at a bog standard small box of an estate house, 3br for £995 pcm.

Thanks Hathor, I've had a look and it seems that we do not operate catchment areas. It is done the same way as primary schools - special needs, siblings and then who lives the nearest of those applying.

two pls and a downstairs loo! Oh and a linen cupboard.

I will point them in your direction. How many bathrooms would you like?

Quattrocento If you know anymore people like that can you send them my way. We could do a house swap. 4 beds with a dining room please swap for 2 and half bedrooms & not much more ha ha

I know two families who have done this. Both moved into the catchment areas of local selective state grammar schools to improve their children's chance of getting in.

Both families incurred substantial moving costs and had to move into a smaller house as the catchment area for the local state grammars were more expensive.

Both sets of children failed the 11+

We live one road away from a top state boys school. DH moved here before I was even a tinkle in his eye. Very few local boys go there. The natives are cross as we pay for it in our rates! We could sell our house for a mint. Sorry can't because local kids don't get in unless very very brainy!

Would you consider renting in catchment? We are in a bit of a dilemma in that we're one road outside the catchment for the secondary school we want. Dh has suggested we rent long term in the catchment - for 2-3 years or more if necessary - instead of selling (we have a 3 bed semi which we've extended, but would have to size down to afford something in the catchment for our preferred school). He thinks renting is fine, as we would do it long term and it would be our permanent address (our current house would be rented out), but I feel it's a bit underhand. Would be interested to know what others think, or whether anyone has done the same? (Apologies for thread highjack).

We will be moving in the next few years as we would like a bigger house. My question is, how do you find out what the catchment area is for a secondary school? I want to take this into consideration.

We had to move as our three children didn't fit in to our two bed terrace! When looking at houses the first thing I checked was the catchment area as there were three possible schools in the area we were lookinng at (dictated by my work and the primary school we already attended). 1 was very good, 1 was perfectly fine and 1 is utterly dreadful. Our dream house was in catchment for the perfectly fine school but actually closer to the very good one and after a nervous week on the waiting list that is where we've got a place. There is no way we could have afforded just to move because of schools - but as we had to move anyway it was a huge issue. It would have been rather dim imo to have not considered it as a factor.

We moved. We needed a bigger house anyway (especially as the girls were sharing a room as only two bedrooms) but the direction we moved in (only two miles or so from previous house) was totally dictated by getting into the catchment area for a particular school. We would have moved anyway but getting the 'right' school dictated the when and how and stopped us dithering.