Moving House/Schools

[pixipie151]

I am a mum of an 18month old DD. We live central london but considering moving at some point for school reasons. how easy is it to move house/schools once your child is at primary school?

It is just as easy to move house whatever the age of your children. Some things never change.

You can move schools too.

Thanks for your reply. Anyone else have any specific advice or experience?

If you're going to move somewhere where the schools are oversubscribed, you'd be far better off moving before you have to apply for reception. From experience, it's very difficult to get into a good school (where we live in London - don't know about other areas) later on as the good schools are full by then and it's just a matter of luck if someone happens to leave.

Thank you Petelly, I thought that might be the case. Unfortunately, we aren't in a position to be able to move before our DD starts primary, and we will most probably be moving to an area with over subscribed schools - isn't anywhere on the outskirts of London?!

There was a good post on this subject from either admissions or prh47bridge a while back.

You'll basically have to move and then accept a place in a school with vacancies. There may be a couple to choose from. You choose one that you can realistically get your child to and from, and is acceptable. Then you can put your child on the waiting list for schools you might prefer.

Obviously, all may be fine, and your child might find a place at a school you're completely happy with, if that's not the case, it's a question of waiting.

Waiting lists have been handed over to the LEA this year. That was the case in some areas, but I think it's now universal. So how that's all going to work out, and how that will change things, I don't know. I know that when we moved I visited a lot of the schools in the area we were moving to before we moved, so that I had some idea about them, and then applied (through the LEA) for the ones that were OK.

Thanks Animula, I will check out that post.