In year admissions timings

[Redballoon79]

Hi there, we are moving house and the people above and below us in the chain are painfully slow. Those above us have left an offer on the table for a property they like, but if nothing comes of it they are moving in with relatives. I think they are dragging their feet a bit, hoping to secure the place they want. That’s fine except that we have a daughter in Reception and the sooner we move her, the better as it’s creeping up to summer term.

Cambs LEA says it takes up to 30 school days to process an application, then we have 2 weeks to accept. With Easter this means it could take up to 8 weeks to process, so we need to be looking to move our daughter in 8-10 weeks. But what if we don’t complete by then? Or what if they come back really quickly and we’re not ready?

I’m finding it really difficult to decide the best time to apply for her place so she can transition smoothly without being too early or two late. Happy for her to have a week or two off after we move to settle in the new area, but don’t want to have to reapply and don’t want to commute 50mins back to north Herts each day.

Has anyone else been through similar in year moves? Think I’m just keen to get the place secured but need to wait it out.

Thanks

You need to establish at what point the LA will accept your new address - might be at exchange, might be completion. If the school you want has a place and no waiting list anyway you can be allocated it regardless of address. How far apart are the schools, is commuting to current school feasible?

In my experience, it can go very quickly if there are places at the school you want.
If there are no spaces, you may well need longer to secure a school place.
But, as LIZS says, find out what point they will accept your address - and remember there is probably also a time frame in which you need to be in a hool - so say you apply now, and the move gets delayed further, you could lose the place - we had, iirc, 4 weeks from acceptance to bums on seats.

Hi we will use our old address otherwise she would not get in quickly enough after exchange. There are lots of spaces so that’s not a worry. Maybe we should wait until it’s fairly certainly 2 months ish

If there are spaces you can afford to wait

Lots of spaces? Hold off. You can accept the day you are offered a place, so take 2 weeks off your timeline. And our school would have taken us a couple of days after acceptance - they needed to see a birth certificate or passport to prove age (and probably wanted to actually see us, as I openly applied from outside the UK a couple of days before we flew). Dont get in the situation where you are offered a place, and need to commute to new school as you haven't completed yet!

Yes you’re right, I need to wait and apply later rather than sooner as that’s exactly what I want to avoid! I just find the whole moving thing so slow and uncertain with regards to dates. Think I’m too worried about missing the deadline, but if goes both ways. Thanks 😊

Think as soon as you know that you are moving - actual moving in date then you should apply. If there are loads of spaces then actually the 30 days that the LA are talking about is rubbish. All they need to do is phone the school, confirm there is a place in the year group and then confirm in writing. That cannot take 30 days!
The other date that you need to be aware of, is if you end up in needing to go to appeal is that most LAs do not run admission appeals in August, so to get an appeal before August for a September start, you need to have applied and then asked for an appeal by mid June. Appeals do take quite a time to set up and organise hence the timing.

Oh great, thank you admission. There are 9 spaces, so hopefully no need for an appeal. As soon as we get a date I’ll apply then. This has been really helpful, thanks!