Moving to Brighton From Australia

[Shirl0]

Hi mums

my partner and I and 3 children are moving to Brighton/Hove next year. We are not too sure what area we will move to but like Preston Park area. Can anybody tell me how we go about applying for schools. Is there anything we can do before we get there or do we need to have an address in Brighton to apply.

Thanks so much

I don't know the answer but have you looked at the councils school admissions website? www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/children-and-education/school-admissions

thank you, I have looked at the website and I have sent the admissions office an email, haven't heard back yet. I will call them next week if I don't hear back

Hi - I live in an area called Patcham just outside of Preston Park and have lived in Brighton all my life. It is a wonderful city and I'm sure you will love it.
Schools in that particular area are very oversubscribed - you need to live very close to the school you are interested in.
You cannot apply before you have an address - you need a council tax number for the form.
The main deadline for applications for September 2017 is in January so you can make a late application (assuming it's after Jan) once you've moved - you'll get a school place but not in a Preston Park school.

Other areas of Brighton that also have very oversubscribed schools are Queens Park and West Hove.

Are your kids primary or secondary age? The situation for secondary applications is different I think.

Hi. Good luck with the move :) re school places you do indeed need an address before the council are obliged to find you school places. The January deadline only applies for reception aged children, the deadline for a year 7 (1st year of secondary schools) was 31st October so has already passed.
The council will most likely treat it as an in year application which means you are at the mercy of which schools have places rather than perhaps which you would choose. It depends which year groups you need as below yr3 class sizes are strictly limited to 30, over that there is a little more flexibility but even then it's still not easy.
The council are also allowed to offer your children places at different schools if that's all they have but you can join waiting lists for any you would like and once one is on roll somewhere the others would be positioned higher on that list due to sibling priority.
I hope that helps.