To think nobody moves house once their kids start school? Is school oversubscription really a deal breaker?

[TypicalMeBreakMyTypicalRules]

Can't change my message off AIBU so I'm going with it.
If you move house is it difficult to get kids into the schools you like? How big a problem is this?
My DH and I are renting in a town that we don't want to stay living in long-term. We want to move further south.
Our problem is we need to register my DS for school this time next year but we won't be in a position to buy in that time.
Option 1 is we stay where are for a few more years then move once we can buy BUT I'm worried about not getting him into a good local school due to oversubscription.
Option 2 is we move to where we think we would like to buy and rent and get him into school. The big problem with this option is that we don't yet know where we'd like to move to. If my DH only needs to be in London 1-2x a week then we would look to move to Bath or Exeter. If he needs to be in London more frequently then we'd look at Reading area. But it make take a while to see what his work situation is going to be. If school oversubscription wasn't an issue we would definitely do option 1 as our current house is great for young DC and I live close fairly close to my mum.

We moved and got ds into an 'outstanding' school with no problem at all. People move all the time.

Glad to hear it. Where did you move to?

I moved last summer with a 6&8yo.
Nearest school place for 6yo was 2 miles (4th nearest school(. Then had to appeal for 8yo- she was originally offered a place 2.5 miles away. A neighbour drives hers 4 miles- she moved a month before me, and that was the nearest space available then for hers (6&8&10- she had to appeal for her 8yo as well).

In the other hand you could move and get a place straight away at the school down the road... You are at the mercy of luck really. It can't be predicted.

People move all the time!
Places at outstanding schools are obviously harder to come by, but if you move close to the school you'll be higher up the waiting list. (If admittance is by distance)

Some places have more movement than others.

We moved, and had no problems, and I would say in my DC's class they lose and gain at least a couple of children each year - we are in a smallish town.

I would expect more movement in a larger town or city - particularly places where people might move for work on short term contracts, and less in a village, but people do move even from villages.

Also once your child is 7, and in year 3, it is easier to find a space because class size rules can be more discretionary.

Thanks for your replies. Its playing on my mind and I can't see what the best solution is.
What happens to the DC while they are on a waiting list? They go another school and if a place comes up you move them again?

*Also once your child is 7, and in year 3, it is easier to find a space because class size rules can be more discretionary.
Thanks Lego, that's good to know

It can vary, but basically you have to take the offered school, or declare you are home schooling. If you home school, the council has no obligation to find you a school place. Our DD ended up going to a different school for a week while appealing for her sisters school.

Being in Yr3+ means you can win appeal, not that the school can give you a place automatically by the way... In our case, the head teacher thought she should have a place but couldn't just give it to her, at the appeal the council worker 'defending' the school met with us to tell us what to say to win... Then it didn't even come to that as the appeals board had noticed the application hadnt been processed as an Military application but a normal one (military kids moving due to postings have a few more rights than normal moves) so we won on a technicality- nothing to do with siblings, school places in the area etc.

What happens round here is that schools are very oversubscribed to get into reception (you need to live close to get first choice), then after a few months of starting reception there is a mini-shuffle with some kids moving into private / home ed / finding a school that suits them better, and space briefly opens up in most classes. These spaces then get filled by new arrivals to the area and the classes stay pretty full until yr 2-3 when people seem to move house. The most prestigious popular school actually has the most movement, as the children there have parents in high paid international jobs and some of them move over overseas and take family with them.

So round here you can get kid your kid into where you want but may have to accept a less good school for a few months - a year while you wait.

No idea how typical we are. But basically live where is right for your family and don’t over Think the school thing too much. Justmake sure that when you move you are very near the desired school so that you’ll be high up the list when places come up.

I agree with do not over think this - the difference between an outstanding school and a good school can be minimal - even the different between an outstanding school and a needs improvement can be quite small in day to day reality.

I know it differs but in our area it is normally easier to get your child into a village school than one in a town which surprises a lot of people.

I moved with a year 4, year 6 and year 8 and all got places at outstanding schools.

We moved just before last Christmas, I visited the school I wanted my son to go to. We applied via the in-school year transfer with the local council. He got in and moved as soon as his place was confirmed. We moved 30 minutes away so I took him to his old school each day. He moved on the Thursday and had a best friend by Friday afternoon. He had the last place in the year group as it's a popular school, someone else left in July and the place was filled by September.
It's easy to do and I know many others who have moved mid school year too. Don't worry, save and move when you can.

We moved once they'd started school - it was harder as we had three children to find places for.

It did add to the reasons to look further than city DH works in - as there was a huge shortage of places and at time we could very easily have been given three different school which would have been unworkable for us.

We move where we are now and got the school most try to avoid - the premises are fantastic it's more the intake -but on the whole it worked out well for our kids smaller class sizes at least for older two.

When we got here the extra spaces were one place in catchment school ironically for youngest still in 30 limit class size, next school along 2 places or next school out all three could have a place. We looked around and one with spaces for all three made it very clear they wanted out kids if possible - while other two weren't as keen.

We've know other families who've moved the kids around the schools as places have become avalible - doesn't seem to have harmed the children asnd as most go to same secondary has often meant the know more children when they get there.

It really does depend on the local conditions and what spaces there are when you get there.

we couldn't put of moving - work reasons but also eldest was close to secondary school applications - further down primary school you move more you need to consider secondary options as well.

It really depends where you move to - but generally schools are very oversubscribed in the southeast. also, don’t forget the houses close enough to be at the top of tbe waiting list usually go for a premium. around here its around 80k extra for a house very close to an “outstanding” school, and 50k more for one very close to a “good” school. that is on top of the “basic” price of around 420k for a 3bed terrace

There isn’t much movement at my children school. Reception after the first month maybe five move/change. Then in two of my children’s school life so far once about to start secondary there has been two other children leave that primary and one of those was because they moved to Scotland and the other to Australia. Others who move house within the city don’t move the children’s school.

We moved between reception and year 1 and didn't get into the village school (bulge year) however the school DS1 did get into was great just a bit further away.
It's not what I envisioned but turned out fine and he's got into the secondary school the village feeds to.
In my experience there is more movement than you think. Especially in some areas - where we used to live there were a lot of parents who were drs who moved to follow jobs (we did this)

When we moved we had to drive the kids to their old school which took up to 1.5 hours due to traffic. Then we were waiting for two spaces. Got a call to say spaces aviable, they need to start Monday. So left school Thursday before half term. Started new school the Monday, missing half term as they had already had theirs!!!!