London primary school applications q

[Thertruthisoutwhere]

dc1 will be entering reception in 2022, we currently live in Wandsworth in a very small flat that with the imminent arrival of dc2 will be too small.

Dh is worried that he may be moved to Frankfurt (half his colleagues have already gone) due to brexit, if brexit is cancelled he wont but if it goes ahead it will only become clear in a year or 2. I think i need to apply for schools in sept 2021

As such we are are going to let out our flat and rent a house maybe a bit further away. To buy a house would mean paying around 3.5 x the price of our flat (which is fine with dh's current wage) but will be an issue if he gets moved & we are in NE so this seems the safest option.

If we move somewhere like earlsfield (have seen houses that let out for roughly the cost of our flat so wont be "wasting" too much additional money on rent iyswim) would the councils use our owned or rented address for primary school application? Im not 100% it will be earlsfield but basically somewhere geographically near but quite far in london terms!

I dont really mind either way but will obvs rent on the doorstep of an amazing school if it's a rented address. There are also great schools near our flat.

It’s wherever you are registered to vote, pay your council tax, are registered with the GP etc. So in this case would be the rented house. You can start applying in September but the deadline isn’t until January afaik, and if you move halfway through you can move up or down waiting lists for different schools if they offer on distance.

Your address that goes on the school application is the one that you live in. The one you pay council tax to and is the address you have for your voting registration.
You could own 100 other properties but school applications go by where you actually live.

You need to check the admissions document of the LA you are living in at the time. A lot of London LAs, and some others, won’t accept your rental address even if you are living in it.

If it's all within Wandsworth, they'll use your owned property.

And they are pretty hot on checking up.

"You could own 100 other properties but school applications go by where you actually live."

This is not true. When there are two addresses, they will follow their policy, and for Wandsworth it is your owned property that counts. Lots of address flipping in that part of SW London, which is why it's checked. And as it's a PAN-London system, it's likely that they'll spot all recent addresses.

And if you're after Beatrix Potter, you really don't stand a chance unless you sell up completely any other London address.

Ok thanks, will have to check when we find an area to rent in i suppose. Such a juggling act.

September 2022 applications will open in September 2021 (closing date of January 2022) so you have a bit of time to play with!!!