Clueless about school ages etc and moving up north potentially

[quizzl]

We could be relocating to Yorkshire. Our son is 2.5 years old. How long do we realistically have before he should be starting school?

We will be most likely sending him to a few paying school.

I've heard of things like pre-prep etc starting at 3.5 years.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Advice on where to start I mean. What do I look for first? School or house or what?

Your son is 2.5, so birth month is - Feb/March? He’ll start school (reception) the year he turns 5, so if he’s 3 in Feb 2021 he’ll turn 5 in 2023 and should start school Sep-22 (When he is 4.5). But yes lots of fee paying schools have nurseries which take from either age 2 or 3, so he could actually start next Sep 21 for a year of nursery - I’d start making enquiries now just to see what local schools offer.

It will depend on the individual school, whether it has a nursery year and whether it does staggered starts.

DS started in September at 3 years 2 months. His cousin started in May at 4 years 10 months. They were both at schools in different areas of Yorkshire with different starting age policies.

Someone might come on and correct me as its been a fair few years since mine started school, but if your ds is 2.5 years old that should mean he starts Reception in Sept 2022? you'll need to apply for a school place with the local school authority between 12th Oct 2021 and 15th Jan 2022, so you need time before hand to view school and make your decisions. I believe you need to have either moved or exchanged contracts to be considered in the catchment area for a school so realistically need to be moved by summer next year?

If you have an area in mind you can look up the schools online, look at OFSTED reports (not always all they are cracked up to be) and find the best schools in the area. you also need to find out what the catchment areas are for those schools, some are very limited around the school by distance, depends on how popular the school is. Outstanding/good schools are very popular. You can probably find out how likely you are to get into a particular school, although the intakes differ (and sometimes catchment areas) each year depending on the size of the cohort for that year. You'll also need to factor in a visit to school before the selection so you can have your order of preference for application.

Once you have a few schools in mind, look for property in those areas. consider how you will do the school run (walk, car, cycle etc) and which school is the best fit all round.

if you look for a property first you might find schools are too far away, not very good etc.

Thats just how i would go about it, but as i said, been over 10 years since i did the school thing and ive never had to move house and consider schools.

I have no idea regarding anything before Reception year. most places round my way have long waiting lists to get into pre-schools and nurseries etc.

sorry, missed the bit about fee paying school. no idea how that works.

@Rhubarbcrumblerules

sorry, missed the bit about fee paying school. no idea how that works.

Helpful anyway, thank you

If you are privately educating, people will be putting names down now to start next September. But unless extremely popular most will have extra spaces for reception start too in September 22 as some parents will withdraw from private ed when nursery vouchers end. This year is then a good idea to possibly move otherwise in a years time

Reception and nursery classes may be the same class in small schools.

DS will be going to a private school and I have no plans to send him until legally required (5)

Depends do you want the to go to a fee paying nursery attached to the school you’ll use? My daughter started at her school nursery at 2 & 9 months (I signed her up at 2). She did nursery there, and then moved to reception at 4 like normal. You just need to put his name down in time (And pay the deposit) so he has a place at reception. But if it’s a popular school, you’ll need to get a move on, some kids at my daughter school we’re signed up as babies.