To move house for this reason?

[glastoforever]

We have a two year old DS.
We have a house that we have lived in for 8years that we renovated and we absolutely love it.
We want to try for another baby and will need a bit more room.

Options are - move house or do a loft conversion.

Issues are - the main issue is the schools. DH and I both from this town and we both went to same secondary school in the north of the town where schools are much better (but more expensive area).
We live in the south of the town and the schools here really aren't great. Much bigger and it has some real rough estates around.

We love our home and our preference would be to stay put and go in to the loft.

How easy is it to get in to a primary school outside of your catchment?

Re - secondary schools out of catchment, would we have a case to say my DH and I went to our favoured school and were both prefects there - does it work like this? I'd love our DS to go there too. It's only a 15 minute drive but is the other side of town.

We are really torn. Our house is perfect for us in every way except school catchment.

Surely you are joking? You think you can ignore the admissions criteria because you were a prefect

Lol, nope, I can't imagine any secondary school would include 'previous prefects' in it's selection criteria! I would start looking at schools now, and make sure you understand local catchments and policies: it will vary by school and area and I would make sure you really understand the implications before you make your decision.

You need to check the websites or call the schools for their admissions criteria. You are interested in whether they are oversubscribed or not. If you love your home and would prefer a loft conversion, check out your catchment schools too.

No, you having been to that school makes no difference.

@Redlorryyellowduck

Of course I'm not joking. I'm asking because I am a first time mum and have no idea how all of this works. Did you mean to be so rude?

Thanks for responses.

I imagine it'll be difficult for schools to say if they'll be oversubscribed by the time our son is going to school. I really have no idea where to start with this. I assume the council can tell me the exact schools in our catchment?

Check your county council website. And see if any of the schools are academies. If schools are oversubscribed now it will give you an indication for the future.
Church schools also have different criteria.

Catchments for each school are published, you need to check intake too which is also published. The LEA will also publish the admissions criteria for the area, although some schools may be slightly different eg religious element. @Redlorryyellowduck wasn't rude, your post comes across as ridiculously naive.

Your council website will have a list of schools and how far away the kids admitted live.

Probably easiest to ask some neighbours where their kids go.

The prefect thing won't get you a place 😂

You also want to think about your kids friends. It's important in many ways that their friends are local enough to play in the same parks etc. some places have big catchment areas so kids might be spread out others are really small catchment areas and it's odd for the few kids who live out if catchment

@bitchinofhitchen good point, thanks.

I love our house but the local kids make me nervous. DH and I were lucky enough to both be raised in the countryside and we are virtually town centre where we are. It's not somewhere I can ever imagine letting our kids go and play out (though of course I'm sure they will if we were to stay here).... so much to think about. Wish I could pick our house up and move it!

would we have a case to say my DH and I went to our favoured school and were both prefects there - does it work like this?

Oh dear... cannot believe you even asked this?!

No, it doesn't work like that at all.

I got my children into the best school in our area because the school remembered that I got an A* in History there 15 years earlier so it's definitely worth a go seeing if they accept your children on the basis of being a prefect.

@Shadappayourface

I got my children into the best school in our area because the school remembered that I got an A* in History there 15 years earlier so it's definitely worth a go seeing if they accept your children on the basis of being a prefect.

Thanks @Shadappayourface - I'm still in contact with several teachers there and also involved in some sports there so I do have strong links.

Everyone has made feel really stupid though for asking 🤣

The school will publish its admissions criteria on its website. As others have said, the council will have a website which shows the distance of the last admitted child last year. True this might change over time but it’s unlikely to get bigger unless you’re in an area of massive population change (like parts of London during the pandemic), another school gets built and is sought after, or the school gets much worse.

@GeneLovesJezebel

No, you having been to that school makes no difference.

See, it sometimes does, depending on where you live. I think everyone here is assuming the OP is in the UK (as am I tbh ), but she actually didn't say. I'm in Ireland and a parent being a past pupil would push the child way up the list for many schools.

Oh OP I think @Shadappayourface was being sarcastic…

@glastoforever I wasn't being rude, I was asking if you genuinely believed you had a chance. The reason I asked is because your question was so absurd, I assumed you were joking.
Surely better someone on an anonymous forum asks, than let you call the admissions officer and you listen to them piss themselves laughing down the phone to you?

Unfortunately, being a prefect won’t help with schools outside of your catchment.

But definitely put it on your CV. It really helps when job hunting, especially if you mention that you’re a double-prefect household.

Re - secondary schools out of catchment, would we have a case to say my DH and I went to our favoured school and were both prefects there - does it work like this?

Yes - in 9 years time, when your ds goes to high school, please be sure to write on your from that you and your husband were prefects a couple of decades previous.

You will go to the top of the list.

Going out of catchment can be tricky with siblings. Depending on the criteria you might be able to get one child in out of catchment, but not necessarily both or all of them. Round here all in-catchment children get a place over out of catchment siblings. Having a 4 and 6 year old at schools at the opposite ends of town would be a PITA. But the admissions criteria should be clearly laid out and we found LA admissions team quite helpful.

Check your council criteria. You'll also be responsible for getting the children transport outwith your area. No connections or prefect, house captain status is going to be remotely considered.

It's not a crime to be unfamiliar with admissions criteria for schools when your child is only 2...

Sorry you're getting such a hard time OP.

@BessieFinknottle thank you. I have literally no idea. I don't have nieces or nephews of school age yet or friends with kids that age either so it's all completely new.

You know sometimes you wish you had never asked