Getting very stressed about moving back to London next year and finding a school for the DDs

[Tanzie]

School finishes here at the end of June. Would it be better to turn up on the LEA's doorstep then, and get a place for them somewhere for the last few weeks of term (so that they can get to know people) or wait until the September. Are schools more likely to have places available then (they will be going into year 1 and year 3) or better to wait?

Hard to know whether the LEA will be interested if you hit it too close to the end of term. I would suggest trying for it in June just because you are more likely to get a space in your preferred schools - LEAs will collect up all the children who move in July/August and allocate in one batch.

Get it sorted in June if possible. It will be chaos if you wait until September (although keep in mind LEA has to figure out something for you, new people move into areas all the time). Make up a list of schools that might suit based on geographic location and Ofsted reports. Get in touch now asking them to send you a prospectus if possible (or they may even have a webpage).

Are you in the USA? Are you somewhere closer (?Europe) and could you make a visit before then to decide which school you like? Then it depends on places, you won't have much of a claim without being in the area, but ask the schools what they think is possible. They will probably drag out a catchment map and admit that if you move in at any time and you are well within catchment, your children should be able to attend their school (although you might even have to take it to appeal).

We moved end of July to a new town where my son was due to start, all sorts of mix-ups about paperwork and that because we were changing address when we were. Very stressful, I feel for you!! I hope it goes more smoothly for you.

Think it is going to be a complete nightmare. We are on the border of 3 boroughs. School nearest to us has 200 Somali children and 7 "other" (whatever that might be) and has scored E* in everything (not surprising if they have only recently come to UK). Will have to grovel to the other schools (which are not much better) or move. I don't want to move (which isn't helping matters) and is causing my ostrich reflex - if I don't think about it/do anything about it, it won't happen...

Am really sorry to hear that. Friend (Punjabi/Indian herself) has had a job teaching on the worst estate in Leicester, mostly Somali kids, primary. They are a complete nightmare by all accounts, no respect for women for a start.

Could you consider Home-educating, or just reserve that as an option?

I was thinking, how are the others going to progress if the common language in the school is Somali? DD1 has been assessed as G & T. She is very sensitive and quirky and would just sink in this sort of school.

Hi, I'm new to Mumsnet and this thread caught my eye. We're supposed to be moving back to London too next year and I'm also stressing about DSs (9,7,5) school. Has anyone had a good experience of moving more than one chid into their choice of London school (private or state)? Or will we basically have to take whatever's on offer at the time? Also any ideas on good places to live - SW Londonish - any help in narrowing down the search would be great!

oops, sorry! just reread my message and it sounds terribly brisk . Put it down to early morningitis. Tanzie, I don't mean to hijack the thread with all my questions. I hoped it was better than starting a competing thread with the same title! Hope things work out for you

I've just seen this Tanzie. Do you have a house in London you are returning to? In which case I think you can apply (i.e. go on a waiting list as soon as you have a definite date). So you could contact them in, say, March and find out from the LEA what the waiting lists are for your desirable schools, and see if any spaces come up.

Many spaces do come up in the first couple of weeks of term, as people leave but forget to tell the schools! But when schools know about forthcoming spaces they have to tell the LEA, so even with over-subscribed schools spaces for September may come up and be allocated at Easter.

Good luck! And try not to get too stressed about it.

Thanks Roisin. I have to say, it is stressing me out. Most of the schools with reasonable ofsted reports near us are church schools and will only take practising Catholics, which we're not. Lots of the others say that they "fail the brighter children" so I am beginning to think that we really will have to move. LEA have told me that they will not even look at an application from me until we are back in the country. Might grovel to a couple of the schools in the next borough, which you have to apply to directly, so see if they are more helpful.

that's bad news about the LEA.

In that case I would definitely turn up on the LEA's doorstep the moment you get back. Often the 'spare places' are sorted out right at the end of term, or at the beginning of the next.

Just to give you some hope we stressed about getting places at schools for about 6 months, and at one point had accepted places for them at different schools. (County here allowed us to be on the list when we had confirmed moving date and confirmed address.) Then we got a phonecall on the last day of the summer term to say there was a place at our first choice, and that LEA said ds1 was to get it