Just how easy (or otherwise) is it to move DCs once they have started school?

[chillipickle]

We are thinking of relocating, a bit of a long story, but basically we have two preschool DCs and would like to buy a house in a good primary and secondary catchment so that (assuming the schools remain good, and barring any unforeseen life changes), we don't have to worry about this again.

However it's proving a stretch for us to find a suitable house in good school catchments.

Friends keep saying not to worry, it doesn't really matter what they do at school for the first few years, and you can move later.

Is this true? In the area where we are looking, the better schools tend to be heavily oversubscribed, and some are unable to take all the children from within catchment. Therefore I can't imagine turning up in a few years time and expecting to find places there. Confident friends say people come and go, so places will open up.

I'm also not sure about going through primary and then moving to an area with a better secondary, as I imagine it would be much easier to move up with friends from primary school.

Am I being overly negative? Is it easier than I think?

I think personally good secondary is more important - it also depends what you mean by good - good exam results, good ofsted, - "nice" intake, reputation - which can be very out of date, valued added is another thought
for primary personally I wouldn't want to send my kids to a really bad school - eg poor ofsted but otherwise wouldn't stress too much -home imfluence is so big as well; are you sure your nearest primary schools are not good; maybe look into it bit more before stressing unduly.

However moving I think it is possible - especially as they get older as class size are less retsted after I think 7 - and there is always some turnover; you might have slightly akward times - with possible kids at different schools/on waiting list

Our local (catchment) primary is actually pretty good, but the secondary less so. So if we stayed put, there wouldn't be any immediate problem, just that I'm not sure how easy it would be to relocate later on.

The other point is that schools can change alot over time - and of course you don't know how life may have in store - we were all settled and now are relocating due to redundancy etc - so all my plans about schools are by the by!

Oh dear, the best laid plans and all that. It's difficult to know what to do, as you're right, schools can change a lot (our youngest is 11 months, so anything could happen before he starts secondary!)

But I don't think we can choose an area believing the schools are not very good, but cross our fingers that they will improve. Unless we had reason to believe that they would - a change of head, for example.

The area we are looking at is Oxford, where there is a lot of pressure on school places, and I've just spoken to the county council who confirmed my suspicion that trying to find a place as a late applicant is very difficult. There may be a waiting list of children from within catchment, who would get priority.

So perhaps it's true that relocating is possible unless you happen to live in an area with particular pressure on school places.