Will school hold place for a year?

[Laurahenry]

DS is just about to start school but due to DHs work we will need to kove temporarily to another country at the end of next year so DS will have to leave school for a year and enroll in another in another country. My question is will the original school hold his place so when he returns in year 2 he can be with his friends? The school is quite popular and may have a waiting list but surely since he'll definitely be back it make sense to hold it?

No, they won’t do that.

No because they will not get funding if he's not there & so would lose out financially.

I very much doubt they will, especially if it’s a popular school.

you will have to just try your luck re enrolling when you move back.

They aren’t allowed to do that.

No they won't unless your husbands job is military then there's different rules (I think....).

No. If there's demand for the space, it will be filled. You need to work out when you can apply for his year two space and get onto that list.

Thanks, its all planned out so we'll get on as soon as we need to

True, there are dispensations for Crown Service, e.g. prioritisation of place allocation or off timing, but sometimes if there isn't a space, there isn't a space.

No, I'm afraid you'll just have to take you chance. We had to move overseas for a couple of years with 2 primary age DC. When we returned their previous school only had space for one of them, so they both moved to a different school (which ended up being a great choice, although we were disappointed at the time). We knew when we left that having to move schools was always going to be a possible outcome.

Also - I don't think there is any way of "getting on a list" in UK state schools. When we were close to repatriating we stated speaking with the schools back in the UK to get an idea of which ones had spaces in the classes we needed, but no school would or could formally accept them until we were resident in the UK. We were told very clearly that availability could change on a daily basis and there were no guarantees.

@AbbeFausseMaigre I didn't type it all out but depending on timing, apply in the correct window when resident etc. and then go on waiting list for the current preferred school if there is no place.

We are planning to keep our house here and go between to visit family etc but will speak to the school about when we need to reapply for her place, probably last term before summer break?

In my class at primary school we had two students who left and came back after 1-2 years and neither went back to the friendship group they left. Friendships moved on and children changed. They found new groups and seemed to settle back ok from recollection. One got mocked a little bit as she returned with an American accent having been taught at an English overseas school mostly staffed by American teachers.
Even in the same school there's no guarantee that they will slot back in. They will have changed and the children their will have changed and not necessarily in a complementary fashion.

We did in year admissions when we moved and we were advised to apply 2 weeks before the school place was needed. So I'd apply early July for a place needed for September. That's probably a good time anyway as children will leave at the end of the school year so not unusual to have a bit of shuffling around happen.

Presume this is state - I doubt you can go on the list before you are physically back in the country. You will slot into the list in priority order. There is a lot of movement right at the end of the summer term so I’d suggest being back by early July to get the end of term churn. Schools have some leeway when they report vacancies to the LEA so being on good terms with the head (particularly if you have a bright child that will do well in SATS) is no bad thing. They will two weeks to report a vacancy but sometimes hold off reporting around Sats time.

State: not a chance.
Private: talk to them