Applying for UK secondary school place while living overseas - anyone done this?

[hummingbirdsinmygarden]

Hoping someone has some experience of this.

We are planning on moving back to the UK next summer as DS is due to start secondary school.

I've been in touch with the local education department regarding our application - secondary school places where we live are in high demand so if we are not able to apply by 31 October, we will have to apply late and he will likely end up in a failing school several miles from where we live.

We do not have the option of returning to the UK any earlier due to my husband's job.

The department of education initially said we could apply using an end-of-tenancy agreement letter and a letter from our mortgage company to confirm ownership of the property we'll be moving back into. They are now saying we should also include a letter from the doctor's surgery in the UK where my son is registered. We deregistered when we left, as we thought it was the right thing to do, so we can't provide that.

Has anyone had any success applying for a place by the October deadline while living in another country? And how did you go about this?

Or any positive stories about late applications? I'm beginning to panic a little!

Honestly no and our friends ended up using private education while they waited for a space to
open up.
We couldn't use our address before we were paying council tax on the property.
Thankfully our local school wasn't over subscribed at the time.

No advice on the school bit I'm afraid but you might find that the GP surgery still has your records if you ask Mine said there wasn't really a process for actually de registering, only moving to another surgery, so they may still have the records.

The only people who have as a right the ability to apply from overseas are military and qualifying government services families. Similar for using a future address for a move across the UK

You've been quite lucky in moving to an area where they'll consider an application - so keep going on finding the right levels of proof.

And yes, if you can't meet the deadline, then you will get nearest school with a vacancy. It might not be so bad, and options of waiting list and appeal will also be available

I work in secondary admissions. Late applications are successful, depending on how high up the waiting your application is placed. For example, let's say the desired school simple takes all the nearest students until it is full. Everyone else goes on the waiting list. The child at the top of the waiting list on National Offer Day (1st March 2023) lives 1.5km from the school. You made a late application but your address is 1.2km from the school. Late applications in my country are added to the waiting list around 10th March. At that point therefore, you stand a very good chance of going to the top of the waiting list.

So have a careful look at your desired school's admission policy for 2023/24 and look up last year's data on allocated places (which should be available in your County Council's website) and guage your chances from there.

We couldn't apply until we had proof we lived at the address, they wouldn't accept completion documentation on the house because that doesn't mean you live there. I applied to vote the day we completed on the house and used that as proof of address

Can you move back earlier? I know you said your dh has to remain for work. But that doesn't mean you and dc have to stay.

England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

We did this using an end of tenancy agreement letter, mortgage statements and a letter from DH’s employer confirming start date in the UK. Place was allocated on the understanding we would provide a council tax bill in our name before the start of term. Our LA was great and made it very easy, friends had very varied experiences depending on individual LAs.

if you need a letter from the doctors’ surgery just call and re- register, then call back the following week to request the letter. As PP said you might find you are still registered.