How to juggle moving and chosing a new school somewhere you have never lived before

[99redballoons]

Hi, my ds is 3.5 and is due to start school in Sept 2007. We currently live in NW London and are very lucky to be in a catchment area for a very good state/community school. However, we were hoping to move down to Bournemouth/Southbourne/Christchurch in 2007/08, but we've hit several issues. The best schools in the area we'd like to move to are Church(CoE) schools, which isn't an issue as such as we would fit in their attendance criterion, but the closing date for applications has gone by and the one particular school we like has informed me that all 60 reception places are usually assigned first time and they hold none open for children moving into the area. I understand that, but what confuses me, which is why I'm posting, is how do we get into that school from now on? We haven't purchased a property there yet, but were hoping to buy something in their catchment area. But as we'll be moving during ds' reception year or next summer we won't have an address to put on a late application for 2007-08 or a new application for 2008-09 year.

What I'm expecting is we'll move down there and be allocated the first available space nearest to us, which could be at any school, and most likely not a CoE school. The state schools near to where we are looking are not anywhere near as good as the one we're currently living near in London. Then I guess there are no guarantees that a place will be available at our preferred school as they only take in 60 in their reception year and I would have thought all 60 children would still be there the following year when my ds would be looking to start there. So how do we get in? They don't split as a Infants/Junior so I don't think the intake would be any different at 7 (which was our Plan B time for moving). I still think we'd be waiting ages for a place.

I feel like I don't want to leave London when we're in such a good catchment area, yet we can't wait to start a new life down south, but feel it will just be too difficult for our ds to get into a 'good' school. I feel like we've 'missed the boat' and should have been down there before the Autumn 2006 admission session but we just weren't ready to move then (and definitely didn't realise how important the decision would have been then).

So when is the best time to move and how do you do it?!

Sorry for the VERY long post. I hope I've made myself clear. Just getting it out has helped. but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

People do move for all sorts of reasons, mid year or between years, just as you are , so don't assume a place wouldn't come up in time. Class sizes may expand between Infants and Juniors so additional children may be accommodated at 7 - worth asking about . Also some parents may have accepted a place now but have an application elsewhere too (such as being on the waiting list for a private school), the outcome of which they are awaiting and may change their position.

C of E schools are still in the state system. Once places have been intially allocated they usually operate a first come , first served system unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as siblings or SEN which take priority). If they are oversubscribed and have had to turn down some children who did put it as their first choice then they may well be offered ahead of your ds when a place does come up, but if they have settled in elsewhere by then their parents may decline.

Personally I'd have thought your best bet would be to aim to be there by September and hope there is some movement over the summer but failing that mvoe anyway and chance a place coming up in the interim. You would need a local address to go on their waiting list at all though so you have to have at least exchanged or signed a lease to even start the process.

hth

Don't know if this is of any help, but friends of mine moved out of london last year, they rented first to check they liked the place.
They managed to get 2 of their children into a church school, so rented near the school, their other child did not have a school place, so they home educated for a while.
Luck was on their side and a place came up at the start of the next school year, so they now all go to the same school.

It can be really tricky though, when you move as most good schools are full and you then have to go on a waiting list. You could go on the waiting list for your first choice school and attend another one until a place comes up at the school you really want to go to.

Don't forget that if you are not a sibling, you will be jumped over in the waiting list, if someone else moves in and gets one their children in and SN children will have priority above your child as well.

You will need to check the admission criteria for the school, as church school admission can be different. It would also be worth talking to the LEA or school, to see how much movement there is in places in the area.

I live in London, so people come and go quite a lot so places do come up, but I know of someone who had to wait 2 years to get here eldest child into our school, as no place came up in the year she needed and she lived very close to the school and had siblings, so sometimes it is just luck.

I would say if you really want to start a new life, don't let the fact that you live near a good school now stop you, especially as your child hasn't even started school yet.
Sometimes schools can look good, but your child may not like it etc etc...

You will also only find out the real truth about what schools are like by talking to people who go there, so if you move down to Bournemouth, you may find out about schools from people that you may not have thought about.

Hope this is of some help, I went to college in Bournemouth, many moons ago, so I am very fond of the area, Good luck

We moved to Devon last year, and here the local authority has a special admissions policy for children who move into the area mid-year, which guarantee a child a place at one of the two closest schools to where you live. I don't think that applies everywhere but it's worth checking (and don't always believe what the schools say as it's the local authority which sets the rules).

we moved again 6 months later into a village where the school was officially full, but we appealed for places for my 5 and 6 year old and they were admitted straight away there too. sIt wasn't ideal moving twice but here the local authority was actually very helpful and aware of the need for children moving into an area to go to a local school.

sorry havent read all posts but they seem have to have different rules for recepction children to the rest of their time in schools. We moved during DD's reception year and found it was organised more centrally. Although if she had been in Year 1 we could have gone straight to the school...

As it was there was only one school withion 2 miles that had one palce, so we took it!

We actually live in the area you are moving to and we did something v similar in that we moved right at the start of ds' reception year (in fact we were less organised than you and moved in the September so he missed the first couple of weeks of Reception, which I felt awful about).

I think I know which CofE school you mean, it is in fact our nearest one (and the only one in walking distance). It's very good but very popular as you've found - we didn't even bother applying as it was full with a waiting list. They do their own admissions there, ie you don't go through the LEA as you do for the other schools, so keep talking to the school, I would say.

The LEA are very helpful, I found - they have a dedicated children's team which deals with all this.

What I would say as well is that there are some very good schools in the area, particularly for infants, which aren't factored in to the league tables. You won't just be allocated a space - you get to apply for your preferred school. We visited a few and the one we have ds in is not actually our catchment school.

If you want a bit more info, feel free to CAT me.

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Thanks all for the replies and great advice. Dh and I talked through alot last night as it's been getting us both down. We feel terrible that we didn't sort ourselves out before all admissions closed, but doing it for the first time you really don't realise how important it all is until something like this comes up. And we've accepted that we really couldn't have done anything about this. We still aren't quite ready to move so all we can do is put together a plan so that we don't mess things up for ds when we do! We're now thinking that we'll aim to be ready to move when ds is 6/7 and see what places are available then.

My sis has also given me good advice saying that even though Primary is important, being in a good Secondary catchment is probably more important. There is a very good secondary school very near to where we want to be so maybe we'll focus more on that than worrying about being in a catchment for both.

Thanks mrsflowerpot, I will CAT you if that's ok.

Thanks essbee, I think we're taking a similar approach as far as the research, but I haven't lined up visiting any of the schools yet. Did they happily let you do that mid-year rather than at their opendays(which ofcourse we've missed)?

Thx again everyone. Feeling much better today about it all

I'm in a similar situation at the moment. We will be moving in the summer and I have found out that the secondary that is closest to where we'll be living (or think we'll be) is massively oversubscribed and the closing date was obviously last October. DS will be starting Reception so that closing date has obviously passed and notification goes out at the end of April. DD2 is due to go in to Yr 4 but we can't even apply for her place until mid-June. I think I may have some juggling to do with reagrds to the school run! It is rather depressing especially the thought of attempting to sort it all out from a distance.

We have just done, and survived, this dilemma. Are children were going into years 4 and 5.

I would recommend talking to the heads of the schools you are interested in as that is what swung us being 'found' places in a very over subscribed school. Also, go and look at all schools. Also, the LEA when I spoke to them did seem to treat our children seperately to admissions at set times.

I would echo the point re secondary schools as the primary school we havve gone to has limited where we buy a house (are renting at the mo) as all the children at this primary go to a certain secondary which is good but has a small catchment.

We visited the area and I actually asked everyone I met practically for advice - estate agents, people in the park etc! As they gave me more direct and honest advice than th LEA.

Best of luck! I would say don't give up, as we nearly did as the whole task can seem somewhat impossible and overwhelming but it does sort it self out.

Thanks for the posts.

Yoyo, and here's me worried about one ds! Hope it works out for you.

Granarybeck that does give us hope!

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Thx essbee