New to the uk need advice on school admissions!

[Ozmumof2]

Good morning,
Our family will be moving to the U.K at Christmas, from Australia and I am finding the school 'thing' quite tricky. Firstly, I would love to hear from any other Australian mums in the area, who have experienced the school transition as the school year is different in Oz. Secondly, would love any advice about getting kids into school and nursery, for the term after Christmas (local schools). As far as I can gather, we will be right in the middle of The Vineyard and Russell Schools.....is it even possible?? I've looked on the website, but would love to hear of any past experiences. As far as I can gather, I'll have a daughter going into level 2 at Christmas and 1 finishing off nursery. Any advice on schools and protocol greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

Hello,
I moved from Brazil to London last July with my husband and two kids, 3 and 5 years old. I was also a bit worried because the admission system is completely different of what I was used to in Brazil.
I emailed [email protected] (I live in East Sheen) and filled a form for my older kid who'd start Reception Year. I chose 6 school options and she was put in the waiting list, and after 3 or 4 weeks was given a place in a very nice school near our house.
My younger kid starts Reception in 2015 and I didn't look much for nurseries, as we're unable to afford one right now and apparently there are no public nurseries in the neighbourhood.
I hope this helps, the people responsible for Admissions in Richmond Council have been extremely kind and helpful and the process was not that complicated after all.
xoxo

I'd suggest phoning the admissions people if you can. They are really nice, and in our experience (not moving from as far as Oz mind you) were very happy to give advice verbally that may have been trickier for them to commit to writing! you might find this area of the council website useful

Thank you

I've a friend that moved from melbourne to richmond and got both her dc into the vineyard. One into reception the other into year 4.

Her biggest concern was how far behind her oldest was going to be and she put a lot of effort into trying to rectify this before they went.

Thank you SavoyCabbage. That's where we are coming from too! It's tricky as the school year is completely different. Would be nice to mention to vineyard that there are other kids from Mel there!