How 'resident' do I have to be in a school catchment?

[YakkaSkink]

I live in a a rough inner-city area and am studying a couse which finishes summer 2010. DS is 2, goes to the wonderful uni nursery and loves it. An still sharing a house with (horrid) ex as it's the way to afford housing and get the course completed.

I had intended to move when my course finished so that DS could go to a good school (local ones here are the kind of places you wouldn't inflict on your worst enemy). But I've now realised that to get the magical combination of a place I can afford and a good school for DS, I need to be living in the right catchment by the applications deadline at the end of this year.

My course is designed for distance-learning and so there's only four weeks of intensive teaching each term interspersed with work from home (most of the other students live miles away). So I could move and then travel - but there's a dire shortage of nursery places in the area I'm moving to, so DS is unlikely to end up anywhere as great as he is now - plus I'd have to bring him with me for the weeks I'd be up at uni and then pay someone to look after him who would be unregistered (and I'd have to pay to keep his nursery place open for that week, as well as full-whack for the week) as a registered childminder or nursery will not keep a place for him for 1 week in 6.

What I'd prefer to do is buy the new house and move there before the cut-off, but stay here mostly during term-time to minimise disruption for DS. Will they decide that I'm not actually living there if I do that though?

The school I want DS to go to is the subject of half of all appeals for the whole LEA and I know competition is fierce.

Bumping for you.

For my school we have to show a utility bill to prove that you live where you say you do.

my LEA had a bit on their website about catchment areas and the proof that you may or may not need to get a place.

I'm in London and for our Local authority we need to provide all of the following:

1. Evidence that we (or the parent responsible for the child) currently pay council tax at our address.

1. Evidence from within the last 12 months that we receive either child benefit or child tax credits at our current address (ie to prove that the child lives at that address and that the applying parent has responsibility for that child)

1. A recent utility bill or bank statement , no more than 3 months old.

We moved house 6 months prior to applying and still struggled to get all the relevent docs together esp the child benefit letter becasue I think you only get one of those per year.

It does vary though- we don't have to rpovide any, yet the boyys attend a good saught after CofE school very close to a city- and we do have students from the city itself.

It's not legal to pay an unregistered CM; you might however find one who can do a week here and there- it might fit in you never know! Alternatively our Uni nursery were wuite happy to take children on an irregular basis, eh if I had no childcare and a field trip at half term.

I'd be tempted to play it straight; apply for the school you want and put the one you think you'll get second; take up the local place when offered but ask fiorst choice to lace you on their waiting list- that way when you do moce into an area you can just supply your new addy and hopefully be bumped right up.

Reception year is increasingly an add on to nursery anyway, so i wouldn't worry too much about placement if its just that year- as longa s they're safe, cared for etc.

Ahh, well the paperwork should be easy enough, so long as I don't cut it too fine before the deadline to actually buy the house.

I was just wondering if they actually send people round to check? Plus, basically, whether DS would really be living there even if he's staying in another city most of the time and registered at, and attending, a nursery there because I'm working away from home. I wouldn't like to feel that I was cheating as I just don't need the extra stress.

I think my borough (London borough) only sends people around to check for secondary school admissions. I had to provide a copy of dd's birth certificate and proof of my address. As I was living at my parent's house then, they accepted my mobile phone bill as proof.

I dont know if they would send people round to check (though I have seen news reports of schools doing that), but if it is an oversubscribed school, and you werent actually living there when school started then another parents might tell the school.
If you have moved before the cut off though, that wouldnt be an issue.

Clarissimo - I don't think that DS's nursery can be that flexible - the only options are full-time or at least two half days per week part time. I can't imagine they'd agree to 1 week full time then five weeks off. And another nursery would have to agree 5 weeks on 1 week off (without pay in the gaps as the childcare grant just won't stretch that far).

I'm not happy about leaving DS with someone unregistered and I know he'll be bored and I'd have to pay cash in hand. Might be the better option if I'm not confident I can prove that he's resident without actually living there most of the time.

How do waiting lists work though - there will be dozens of chilren on the waiting list for this school, so why would my DS be anywhere near the top if I play it straight?

I do remember one child in pre-school nursery was rejected for a place in my dd's school proper as they were too far out of catchment and the school is very popular, probably with a waiting list but if you move before the deadline, you would be bumped up the list as someone else said.

Oh yes, there's no question we'd be living there when school started - that's the whole point.

Just read the OP again. If I were you I would move now, get everything re-addressed to your new place and register your current address as 'term-time' address (plenty of students do this with parental/term-time addresses). You could have yours post re-directed to your current addres but it will have your new address iyswim. You could even write a covering letter to the LEA with the application explaining that you are only living at x address whilst you finish your course but your main address is y where you will be when your course ends.

YakkaSkink

Waiting lists dont work by how long you have been on them, but by how much you match the school entry criteria - so when a place comes up, if for example, they are going on distance from the school the place will go to the person on the list who lives nearest, not the one who has been on the list the longest.
I think if I was in your situation (owning a house in the catchment and moving thier before start of school), I think I would do what you are planning.

Probably worth checking how close you need to be living to the school though, if it is so oversubscribed that they cant take all the children who live within the catchment then it will be the children who live closest who get in.

Simplysally - That's kinda what I was hoping - that it would be OK to be away from home for 'term time' and it's just that DS has to come with me while I'm away as he's too young to leave with anyone and that then commits me to being away for more of the time because it means his nursery place has to be here. It's easy enough to set up all the bills and paperwork as that's what I was going to do anyway.

Well as soon as I've sold my house (possibly a little easier said than done just now) I'll buy the new house.

27 Yes, I'd caught on to that one and I'm only considering houses that are well inside the catchment. And one of the reasons for moving was to go somewhere nice where DS can walk to school, so that's another motive for being close.

Ahh. I didn't realise that about the waiting lists being on the selection criteria, OK, well that's not too bad as a second option then.

The thing about aiting lists is that they're often massive just before entry to year R, but once children have settled in to schools, you often find that if you're living in catchement then a palce comes up quuickly as once approached many parents will refuse on the basis that moving their child is now too much hassle or if they really hate the schools on offer will ahve elected private (happens more than you think)- quite often IME even if you're, say, 10th on a list at the start of intake, after a year you'll be the first to actually take up an offer of a place iyswim?

That's encouraging - OK well I think I'll tell the truth but make it clear where 'home' is and if they're OK with it than there won't be any problems. If they're not OK with it, I'll put him on the waiting list and in the summer after I've finished my course, before he starts school we don't have to come back here he should be at the top of the waiting list as he'll be living very close.

If he doesn't get a place straight off, I'll come up with a stopgap until one comes up.

If its your house, and you have utility bills and he has a room there with toys, even if you only stay there at weekends, that seems completely reasonable, can't see why anyone should object to that.