Moving school mid-year 6 (county change)

[honestlymumma]

Hi all

I am so lost about the process and can only find contradictory information online.

We are moving from Hertfordshire to Derbyshire. We have just had an offer accepted on our dream home (so early stages). DS1 is 10 and in year 6 and is very excited to move.

However I am so lost as to the process I need to go through to get him moved schools. I know it is slightly different for every county. I have read that you can't apply until new address is your main residence, but then is he not going to miss out on school? I have also read you should apply 6 weeks before your intended start date, but 6 weeks before we won't have the house in our names and therefore it won't be our address yet - so no evidence of proof of address?

Has anyone been through anything similar and can advise - my anxiety is currently through the roof?

Also to make the situation more complicated, being in year 6 we are meant to be making his secondary school choices now. I will do these for here in Hertfordshire just in case anything falls through with the house. However, does anyone also have experience in how I then apply for a secondary school place? We are likely going to be looking at a move January time (although I will try for the period before the new term starts), so we will miss the October application deadline and also likely (don't know if it is just Hertfordshire that does this) the December cut-off of making a late application with good reason meaning that it will still be considered early. Do I just put in a late application and accept that we are likely to get screwed on schools?

I am going to ring Derbyshire Council tomorrow/weds but thought someone whose been through a similar experience may be on here and have some wisdom that will mean I don't lose another night's sleep worrying.

Thank you for reading my rambling!!

You can apply for a school place before you move, but they will work with your current address. If the school you are applying for has spaces, then all will be well and good. If it doesn't, you'd be at the bottom of the waiting list because of the distance, but would jump to the top when you do move, but you would still be on a waiting list rather than having a place. Given that your child will only be there a few months, you're probably better finding out which primaries have spaces and applying to one of those. If you ring the admissions people at the council they may well be able to tell you where the spaces are.

As for secondary, they'll also be able to tell you what the procedure is for a late application. There's a list of schools at apps.derbyshire.gov.uk/dotnet-applications/Admissions/asp/secondaryschoolstable.asp. It doesn't show directly whether they're oversubscribed. The "number of applications" can be a bit misleading as it will include 1st/2nd/3rd preferences. Comparing the number on roll and the planned admission number may give an idea of whether the school is full or not, but harder to tell if there's a sixth form, and some may have changed their PAN. Again, the admissions team may be able to tell you which ones tend to be over/under-subscribed. In rural areas, being undersubscribed may be more to do with demographics than the quality of the school.

As PP said, if a school has space, you can apply from anywhere and be given a place. However you would usually be expected to start in 2-3 weeks so I wouldn't apply for a while. Probably worth scoping out if there are places around.

With secondary you will probably be a late applicant unfortunately. However there is usually some movement at secondary, so if you are fairly near a school, you have a reasonable chance of getting a place from the waiting list later on. You will just need to find out at what point they will accept your new address and inform them straight away.