Moving 1/2 way through term... what if all the schools in the area have no spaces???

[MrsBojangles]

We're looking on moving in February. DD is in reception and obviously needs to continue going to school. Have contacted the local Council/Learning Authority and was told because it's part through the year need to apply to schools directly.

Ok no idea where we are going to live exactly so contacted all the local non-church affiliated schools. Had some replies already along the lines 'sorry can't accommodate as we have waiting list for kids in the catchment area'.

ooookaaaayyy... so what's the option? Send dd to the next town/city/country????

Any tips/hint/tricks and or people to talk to would be highly appreciated I so do not want to do home schooling

LEA is obliged to find you a school place somewhere.

If you apply to a school and they refuse you you can always appeal as well. Check how many they have on roll in total as if the whole school is not full they may be able to offer you a place even if the year is full (our school is in this position).

You really need to know which school will be your catchment area one. I'm a bit that there are primaries where catchment area children don't get a place TBH. (Or am I naive? certainly not the case in my city, as my recent school application booklet showss).

Every LEA is different. we moved to Devon last March and they have a special policy of prioritising children who move mid-year so that one of the two schools you move nearest to HAVE to take your children, even if they are officially fun. Which was very convenient really.

It sounds as if your area is different, has the council got a website with their policy written on it (Devon has, a kind mumsnetter found it for me before we moved)?

Can you go back to the council and say the schools say they are full and see if there is an admissions officer who can take up your case and help you? Our council has been desperately helpful (we moved them again 6 months later when we bought a house after renting) and they really did put themselves out to help. but you'll need to find the right person in the council I think.

Hello, i moved from Plymouth to Portsmouth over the summer hols, schooling was a nightmare to find. I had some great recommendations but when i phoned the schools they only had limited places available. I had 2 year 3 places, a year 2 place and a reception place to find. Some only had places for 1 or 2 of them, I was faced with doing 3 school runs at one point. In desperation i phoned a headmistress of one of the schools and (sobbing) asked her what she suggested i do. She recommended a school i had not heard of, she said it would be drive but if i moved quickly i would get them all in. I did not know anything about the area so drove up the following monday and looked at the school, i signed them all up that day and took the only 2 remaining places for year 3 for my Dts.

It was so stressful, i would start looking on the internet at local schools and get phoning them all now. At one point we were moving Plymouth to Dartmouth (very rural) and the local school had no places at all and no space to accomodate any more kids, i phoned the LEA and they managed to allow the school to take all the children by upping the class numbers that they had been set by the LEA. So there is hope sometimes, i really thought that time we were not going to get anywhere.

Sending you heaps of good luck with it, you may need it

As ive found myself, its not an easy situation Your best bet is looking at small village schools where class sizes are generally set by the governors at say 10, 15 or 20. Despite the fact that they claim to be full it will be far easier getting a child in there (especially if its your local school) than an infant class that has 30 in it & impossible (due to class size law) to get into.
Good luck with it, & get your dds name down as soon as you have exchanged contracts on the house (LEA probably wont consider your application before then anyway)

thanks for all your replies.

LargeG&T I'm 'lucky' I only need 1 reception space then!

SparklePrincess... we'll be renting so probably won't know till about 1 month before the move where we are going to be living...

is it time to go 'aaaaaaaaaaaargh' yet?

Thankfully dh's new boss has said she will 'assist'... I have a suspicion that she's got 'connections'. Note to self... email dh's new boss NOW!

Don't panic until you actually hit a problem. I was really worried about it and it was far easier than I
'd expected. Had visions of my infant children being bussed miles across the city to some awful sink school which noone else wanted to go to.

people clearly do sometimes have problems but you might be ok, keep cool.

haven't got the energy to get too wound up about it but naturally one worries

Bad enough I'll have to start house & job hunting and find a nursery for ds on top of all that...

yes we've been there. finding two jobs, rented house, school, nursery, and then buying a house and moving area and school and nursery again.

I found it helpful to keep thinking "one step at a time". And it did all work out in the end for us, hope it does for you too.

at least dh has a job that's why we're moving and we won't be buying as we're planning to move to Australia in a few years. so looking at this as a dress rehearsal