Moving house and school catchments: When should I move?

[bluebear]

I'm a total dunce about school enrolment. Ds was 2 this July.. I'm not even sure when he should start school (4 or 5?).
Problem is that, at the moment, we live in London, local school is okay etc. but we intend to move to be closer to dh's parents at some point in the next few years. We don't want to move after ds has started school (whenever that is), and we would like to be able to have a choice of schools in the area we are moving to.

I got the impression from somewhere that you had to live in a school catchment area for a couple of years for it to 'count'... is this rubbish?

I want to stay in London as long as possible. I have a short commute to work and can see more of the children in the evening.. but if moving to a new area just before ds starts school means that we have no choice which school it will be, then I'd rather move sooner.

Advice please!

Bluebear. My ds was 2 on 27th June this year. He will start school when he is 5 as the cutoff point is March.

I mean, if ds's birthday had been before March he'd have started when he was 4.

So my ds will start school in August 2006. However, I am in Scotland and I think it's different in England. Oops, that wasn't really much help for you! Sorry.

But I have the same problem. I want to stay where I am for another year to pay off a bit more of our mortgage and try to make a decent amount on our house, but don't want to leave it too late to get ds into the school we want!

sigh<

It's all so confusing and frustrating!

We lived in "our" catchment area 18 months before DS1 was due ot start. There was nothing on the form asking how long we'd lived at the address.

In England, they start in the September of the school year they'll turn 5 in (so DS1 started at 4.5 but a child born on Sept 1st would aready be 5)

In our area, applications have to be in by January of the calendar year in which they start school and you are notified of a place at Easter. You'd probably have to have moved in before the application deadline to have a good chance at your chosen school.

I work as an assistant in a reception class in a large first school. With regards to our school it doesn't matter how long you have lived at the address in the catchment area - parents are not even asked that, just asked for their present address. Also schools do vary slightly with regards to starting dates of children. In Norfolk if the child is 4 before August 31st as in your sons case with his birthday being in July, he would then start school mornings only in September when he would be 4yrs 2 months. He would then go full time in January. Those children born on or after September 1st, such as my nephew who was 4 on September 9th then don't start school until the following September as they miss the cut off date of August 31st so he will be nearly 5 when he starts school. Your son will be one of the youngest children in his year group. Some schools in different areas don't start these children until January or even Easter so you would have to check this out.

Bluebear - you need to check with the specific LEA as dates to vary. For many areas your ds will start school in the September when he is 4 - i.e. 2005. You need to have an actual address when the applications are due in - probably around Jan-Apr 2005. One of the key factors in determining school places is the address, so you need to move by then - as near as possible to your preferred school.

As far as I know as long as you are living there at that date, it doesn't matter whether you'd been there 10 years or 10 days.

Think it depends on the LEA and individual schools if they are not in direct LEA control (often religious schools etc)which can set their own criteria by catchment, church attendance etc. I don't think that long term residency necessarily makes that much odds so long as you are in the area at the time the applications are due. You would need to contact the LEA to establish their timetable as they vary immensely.

As a general rule children enter school in Reception during the academic year after they turn 4 - some schools insist on September entry for all others take them at rising 5, with some in September, some January or even post Easter - although you are not obliged to send your child until the term after they turn 5.

Based upon this your ds could start Reception as early as 2005/6 and some areas would be asking for applications by this time next year.

hth

Thanks for replying.
I can't believe my 'baby' might start school so soon...
I have realised why I've been so confused about start dates etc. since it all seems to vary depending on where you live. I better do some research into the LEA.

Message withdrawn

I guess moving at the end of next summer would seem sensible.. in place for applications Jan 05.

sb34 - We're wanting to move to Buckinghamshire

Message withdrawn

Fantastic sb34.. thanks

Reading through these messages, I was worried but now I'm panicking ... we were looking to have moved out of London to the south coast by now, having had our house on the market since July, but there's been quite a few hiccups along the line and we may not go til, say, next Spring.
Is it just going to be pot luck whether or not I get ds into a good reception class when we move? The applications in my current area have to be in by Jan 04 so I am proceeding as if I was staying put,looking at infant schools here, and submitting the form; I am guessing the schools in the LEA in the area we are moving to are the same (I did check, but have forgotten).
Have we left it too late to move now - helppp.

In our area, the applications have to be in by the end of March for that year, ie DD2 will start in September 2004 and her name must be down by 31 March 2004 - and this post has reminded me that I still haven't done it yet

Also, I don't apply through the LEA - I just contact the school I want direct and they send me the forms.

When we moved from Beds to surrey last year, it was all fairly quick and unexpected. We found out in May, and moved at the beginnning of September. I just called the schools , told them we were moving to the area, and they sent us forms to fill in, and they started with the other kids at the beginning of the autumn term. That was it. They have to allow for people moving about, so although you may not have had your applications in on time, you will still be considered, and if there is room, given a place.

Thanks Slinky and Lou - Lou, I'm just worried about having to settle for second (or third) best. Were you happy with the schools and did you have to wait until exchange of contracts on your house before the schools would take your application into consideration?

I love the schools they attend Jodee, but I feel doubly lucky because they are our local ones too.

We had only had the offer accepted when we applied, and that one fell through when the sellers decided not to move. So we had to find another place. The schools were cool about it, saying to give them the final details when we had them. We ended up finding another place, and moved in 5 days before they started the autumn term.

It might be different if you are moving to a big city or town , we are in a village, though not that small in size, but the infant school still has less than 100 children in it, for ages 4 -7. The junior school is the usual 300 ish kids though. And the secondary school here is a beacon school, which is really good for us, as we are also in the local catchment for it (dd1 started there this september)

The school we got into is one of the best in this town which is why we moved into the catchment area - to guarantee a place.

As many people try to get their children into our school who live out of catchment, our school has a policy whereby you have provide proof that the CHILD lives at the address in the catchment area. Lots of people were putting addresses of friends/family members when they themselves didn't live in the catchment.

Lou, that's made me feel a little better about it all, thanks. We're trying to move to Bournemouth and I know there are a couple of excellent church schools nearby to where we would like to be -I might contact them directly to find out their policies, but I suspect they will be heavily oversubscribed to start with.

Slinky, the thought had crossed my mind about using my aunt's address in Bournemouth, but I guess that wouldn't work and I would feel dishonest doing it!

That happens a lot, also have a friend who's rented a flat that she hopes to sublet - which is not legal - just to get her dd on the list.

We are in the process of moving to an area with 2 really good but over subscribed schools. My daughter starts reception in September (04) We had to get the application form in by the end of November, but the school told me to get a letter from my solicitor saying that we would be moving to the address (within the next 4 - 6 weeks) I guess once we are in, I will contact the local authority and school again just to confirm that we have moved there. To complicate matters more, I also have a son who's due to start Yr 1 in September. Have applied directly to the school for him a place, and, if my daughter gets in, he will become priority as a sibling for if a place becomes available in his year. In the meantime we'll have to ship them both back and forth to their present school/nursery about 3miles away (but that's in London traffic). Most local authorities have information about late entries/changing schools in the education sections of their websites.

I'm glad you feel a bit better Jodee. You should definitely approach the schools themselves. I found the ones I had to deal with really helpful. Good luck.