Can anyone advise on primary admissions - applying using father's address where parents separated?

[BeattieBow]

dh and I are living apart (separated and hate each other really!). Dh is living in the catchment area of a school we would like to apply to for ds.

I wonder what evidence I need to use his address? has anyone done this?

The LA website states:
" Applications can only be based upon the one address at which the child usually lives and from which
they travel to and from school. If parents live separately but the child lives equally with both at different
addresses, it is the parent?s responsibility to make this clear at the time of the application and to provide
supporting evidence in respect of both addresses, e.g. a residency order from a court.
The final decision on which address will be used for admission purposes rests with admissions"

We don't have anything legal because we're not divorced yet.

Thanks!

Pretty straightforward.

Where does your son actually live?

Exactly, it depends on where your child actually lives. Most LEAs will look (for example) at who the child benefit is paid to and where that parent lives.

but what if you share access/residence?

If you don't have a Court order, be very very careful about saying Dad's address is main residence or you have equal residence just to get into a school. If you have / want equal residence e.g. half the week at each parent's place, or alternate weeks, then get something drawn up by a solicitor. It's worth getting contact / residence details on paper anyway in case one party goes loopy later. Where are you in the divorce process?

Then you have to do what the LEA advice says, and provide evidence of that shared access/residence. They mention a residency order as an example, so you would need to submit whatever other evidence you could, to show how you divide up your child's time between both homes. If it is the case (say) that your child spends Sunday to Thursday nights with you and Friday and Saturday nights at his dad's, I'd be surprised if the LEA was willing to accept his dad's address as the basis of your application. Have you spoken to the LEA? They're supposed to have a choice adviser to help parents with this kind of question.

At my LEA they asked for the letter from Child Benefit to prove residence (for everyone, not just parents at different addresses) so if Child benefit is paid to your DCs father at his address then that should be enough evidence but it is worth checking with the LEA.

I don't think they ask for child benefit statements here. (haven't for my other children, just council tax and utility bills).

We're only at the start of the divorce process - but have already agreed shared residence (and maintenance as well).

I will try to ask the admissions people what the situation is. I did meet a girl in y6 recently who got into a very oversubsribed secondary school by using her dad's address. but not sure how she did it.

What you haven't told us, OP, is whether your child really does have his main (or equal) residence at his dad's or whether you are just looking for some means of getting him to the front of a queue for a desirable school where he wouldn't otherwise get a place?

no I'm not - we've agreed shared access already regardless of where dh ends up living and in any case I'm very honest I'm afraid and would ensure that ds spent at least half of the time with his dad if this is what I was telling anyone. There is a boy at dd1s school (they're in y6) who lied to get into the school and the pther parents haven't forgotten it 7 years later. I couldn't live with that!

In fact dh would insist anyway regardless of where he goes to school so that's not the problem. we have no disagreements on either residence or maintenance, just on what has caused the relationship to break down.

Anyway, looks as though it isn't a goer if we haven't got to the divorced stage yet.

Not necessarily - see CombineArvester's post above, and see what can be done about child benefit (as long as that by changing it to the father, you are not losing NI credits on which you might otherwise rely).

The LEA might not ask for those items, but you can offer them up to support your case.

By far the best thing to do is to email the admission office of the local authority and tell them exactly what the situation is and ask for confirmation as to which address will be used for admission purposes. That way you will have written confirmation of the right address to use and you will have no concerns over it. It will also stop any potential argument later on with the LA if by chance somebody does complain.

Our LEA asks to see the Child Benefit paperwork on accepting the place.

Actually I don't know that for sure - have been told it, and the LEA told us that they view the address / parent to which the CB goes as the address from which the application is valid.

I am going to disagree with CustardCake.

Most LAs want to know where the child lives most of the time during the week. However, I know of at least one LA that simply looks at the Child Benefit address and the address where the child is registered with a doctor, completely ignoring whether or not that is where the child lives most of the time.

I agree with Admission that you definitely need to talk to the LA about this situation and get written confirmation of your discussions.