School application / moving house - help!

[Hellothere89]

We’re currently in the process of moving house - it’s been very stressful and the day before we were due to exchange a last minute issue was raised by our buyer. That issue is sortable but it’s going to delay the process by 6-8 weeks. The chain is short and everyone is happy to wait.

The main reason for the move is to be near the school we wanted our DS to go to - it’s on the next road, but it is oversubscribed. It’s the other end of town from where we live currently (so we are not in catchment). The LA have said that if we submit an address change before end of Feb they will consider the new address for the purposes of our application. That is now looking unachievable but we should be in by mid to end of March latest which is before the offers are made.

Does anyone know what the LA will do in those circumstances? Treat us as being out of catchment and offer us our second (or subsequent) place choice? Is there anything we can do to get him in?

It is so incredibly frustrating / stressful! Any help or guidance would be massively appreciated please.

If you apply as soon as you are in, you are very likely to be first on the waiting list, and it will depend on movement and how many places the school has. In a two-form entry in London, you're very likely to get a place by September. In a one-form entry in a small town where people are quite settled, you may take a while for a place to come up, and by that stage, be settled in the school you end up with.

Allocate based on your current address. You may get lucky or may have to go on the waiting list with an updated address

Thanks so much for your helpful reply! Ah it’s so annoying because we will miss that date by a matter of weeks and it’s all outside of my control! It’s a small town and very unlikely anyone will move, or at least they haven’t done in previous years according to the school…

@Hellothere89 other dc can be placed on a waiting list higher up than yours though. Eg adopted dc, send dc with the school named and looked after dc. You might be top but you are not a timely application. You need to talk to the la, not the school - assuming it doesn’t admit itself.

They may not move often but some will, others may have higher preferences which in turn release spaces when vacancies arise, some will decide to go private. If the town is small is it still feasible to travel to others you have listed?

This happened to me. All you can do is change your address after you have moved. There isn’t anything you can change on that end so there is no point in worrying about it. My LEA were very transparent about which address would be used on which date. Which helped really as we knew that there was nothing we could do about it.

The only thing that you can push is the hold up with the move.

Not sure about timescales, but make sure when applying for schools that you use all your choices and you put down schools you'd be okay with . Also consider your position if the chain does collapse and you don't move - you don't want to be stuck with a long commute to a school.

The application deadline was last week!

If a school is over subscribed from timely applicants, the LA will have a procedure for late applicants. The op will never be top of a waiting list if she’s applied from home address - others will be nearer. Late application might be behind everyone else on the waiting list. There might not be a waiting list if other parents accept other schools but they can accept another school and stay on the waiting list. Hopefully the op has put more than 1 school on the form.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate your help.

I’ve put other schools down too, our second choice is our current catchment school which is less than a 10 min drive from the new house but in the opposite direction to work. It would just mean driving everyday instead of a 2 min walk and obviously we prefer the new school! Doing everything I can to speed it up but I guess I just have to accept it’s outside of my control now. The LA have been helpful and said to keep them updated which I will.