Moving away for a year - what happens to DS school place

[flipflopson5thavenue]

We're thinking about going to live in Canada for a year (DP is Canadian).

DS1 is in Reception and we'd put him into elementary school over there for an academic year. We're 99.9% certain we'd return to the UK after one year (I can get a 12mo sabbatical from work but no more)

Generally would DS1's primary school here keep his spot or would we lose it and we'd need to apply again and join any waiting list when we were due to return?

Is this something that depends on the school/head or are there some general guidelines/practices?

We'd be keeping our house here probably renting it out.

I will talk to his school I just wanted to do some research first too.
Thanks

No they won't be able to keep it if someone else needs it.

Imagine if you came back from abroad, as I did, and the school said 'well we only have 29 children in the class but when Jane comes back next year the class will be full'. And your child had no place. There would be empty spaces all over the place and nowhere for new dc to go.

You will have to take a chance. When we came back my oldest dd got a place but my youngest didn't and there was no place anywhere in the whole county. It all worked out in the end though and I wouldn't let it stop me travelling.

State schools cannot hold places. When we left the UK a year ago, our children finished on a Friday and their places were taken by new pupils on Monday.

If you are happy with the school and live in am area where schools are oversubscribed, personally I would think very hard about taking my DC out for the sake of one year.

I'm not sure it's really worth moving the caravan for a year. You'll hardly have got there when it'll be time to come back. I've been overseas for a decade and I wouldn't do less than a 2 year posting and even then I wouldn't be that delighted - prefer minimum 3 yrs.