Admissions process when moving house help please

[Veglib]

Hello, I'm after some help please - my eldest child is 3 and due to start school in Sept 19. I've never had to worry about admissions before, but l'm really struggling to understand it, as we are likely to be moving next year in between the admissions deadline and start of school.

Bit of background- we've found 2 properties we love, both close to our chosen school, but we are having trouble selling ours, seemingly with Brexit making people more cautious. Our property has been for sale since the end of August. We are about to lower our price and we are going to try to negotiate a deal with one of our chosen houses based on the lower price for ours to see what they would accept.

However, we will be in a chain so even when we do get a seller it will take probably until the spring for us to move in. This puts us in a very tricky position regarding schools. I'm assuming we will just have to apply for her local school here even if we are in the process of buying elsewhere? Then when we've moved we would go on a waiting list for our chosen school?..but what happens in the meantime if she starts while on the waiting list? Do they allocate us another random school? Or do i have to drive her back to her old school in a different county? All the schools locally in the new area are oversubscribed so she will have trouble with all of them.

Anyone know what happens in these cases just so I can get a clear picture of what to expect and what I need to do?

Many thanks in advance

The basic rule is that you must apply for school places from the residence that the child stays in for the majority of the school week. You therefore will have to apply between 1st September 2018 and the cut off date in January 2019.You can apply for any school (including in a different Local Authority) as long as you go through the Local Authority that you live in at the time of application.
I would suggest that the week before the cut-off date for on-time applications you will know better where you are up to in terms of moving and you can decide what to do in terms of preferences. If you are fairly confident of moving then I would be tempted to put down your top two preferences where you are moving to and then for your third preference put down the local school where you are currently living as a safe bet if the move fails to materialise. In all probability because most admission is around distance you will not be offered schools where you are moving to but you are at least ensuring you have a chance. If you look a long way from moving then I would stick with schools that are close to the current address.
Nearly all Local Authorities operate a system where if you have a good reason (and moving house is certainly one) they give a bit of extra time to complete the house move. You need to look at the Local Authority guidance where you are moving too and see what the date is but it is frequently the end of February / early March. That might give you just that extra time to make the move and it certainly gives you a real cut-off date. You will need to talk to both LAs to ensure that you are allowed this extra time and that you can change the address the application is from or it could get very messy.
If the move does not happen before the final cut-off date then when the move does take place you need to inform the two LAs that you have moved and the new address. However if you ask them to do it after the cut-off date then you will be treated as a late application and go right to the end of the queue for places. What you should do is inform the LAs of the change of address for communication purposes only and that you wish to retain the old address for admission purposes. This keeps your two potential applications near to the new home in the on-time category and you at least have a chance.
You do need to accept that it is likely that you will not get the offer of a school in the area you move to. In that case you immediately need to ensure the new LA is now using the new address and get you name down on the waiting list for every school you think is reasonable. By applying for schools in the new location that will force the LA to offer you a school place but that will be the nearest school that has a place, which could be a long distance away.
Dont try to over think this at present, you are not able to solve the issue immediately, your priority is to try and get a house sale and house bought with the cut off date as the last possible time to move. It is quite likely that others in the chain will also have the same issue so people will be trying to get an early move date.

However if you ask them to do it after the cut-off date then you will be treated as a late application and go right to the end of the queue for places. What you should do is inform the LAs of the change of address for communication purposes only and that you wish to retain the old address for admission purposes. This keeps your two potential applications near to the new home in the on-time category and you at least have a chance.

Sorry to sound rude, but I’m not sure that’s good advice- that could mean that you’ll be allocated somewhere close to your old address and then you’ll be stuck lower down the waiting list than everyone who lives closer.

We moved counties after the Feb deadline- first house move fell through otherwise we would have made it. We applied for schools near the new address, though we still had to use the old one on all forms as nothing had gone through at that point.

Once we’d moved house (check with the authority exactly what proof of this they want), we updated our address on all records. This happened in between the late deadline and the allocation.

On allocation day we got a school in the old county. I rung up, re-explained the situation and they confirmed that our new address was being used for waiting list purposes. So we were lucky enough to be near the top of the waiting list and then got a school in the new county. Stayed on the waiting list for our first choice and we happily eventually got that.

Sorry to sound rude, but I’m not sure that’s good advice- that could mean that you’ll be allocated somewhere close to your old address and then you’ll be stuck lower down the waiting list than everyone who lives closer

It is good advice. Admission knows what she is talking about.

If the OP switches to the new address she will be treated as a late applicant so will definitely be at the back of the queue for places. If she sticks to her current address she will be treated as an on time applicant which at least gives her a chance. It is a small chance but it is better than being treated as a late applicant, giving her no chance at all. Yes, it is likely she will end up with a house near her current address but there is a possibility she will get a school she wants.

Importantly, the second half of your sentence is wrong. The OP will not be stuck lower down the waiting list. As soon as offers have been made she can tell the LA to use her new address for admissions purposes. She will therefore be in the correct place in the waiting list.

Yes.

You automatically go on to the waiting lists of all schools higher up your list than the one you were allocated. Even if it is a long way away and in a different LA.

If you haven’t listed your favourite school in the new location you won’t be on the waiting list from the start and would have to apply as a late applicant.

I cannot thank you all enough for this information. I was really feeling terrible for failing to get us moved in time and jeopardizing schools etc., but it looks like there may be some hope to get the school we want at some point and at least fairly locally until then.

I rang the school we hope to get her into a while back as we were interested in a house that was put of catchment on the other side of town. She told me that they rarely refused someone who had applied on time for that reason so if we put them.top.of the list maybe we will get in anyway as it's for a good reason! Fingers crossed.

I really appreciate the effort you've gone to in explaining this admission. I will go through it all with my husband tonight but that makes things much clearer.