Leaving the uk for a year, would school keep DC's places?

[tryingtobemarypoppins2]

Anyone know?

Not AFAIK. A friend of mine was going away for 4 months and the school said she would have to apply for her children's places again when she came back.

If this is a state school they have to fill the places if there is a waiting list or another child appears in the meantime. A private one might hold the place but possibly ask for a retainer fee.

unlikely.

Not usually, 6 weeks round here in a state school. After that you have to reapply with no special treatment, so if the school is popular, you may be on the waiting list.
You can't really expect anything else, can you? Wouldn't be fair.

A friend went away for 5.5 terms, was back in UK for last half term of the academic year, then away for 5.5 more terms and back again and her dcs school took them back both for the half a term in the middle and when they returned properly. CofE school which I think controlled its own admissions and friend being a missionary probably helped, but they were very lucky imo.

we wouldn't we use the 6 week rule. It depends on the school and how popular it is, in reality in my school unless you where in one of two years which are full, you could always guarantee to be welcomed back.

I agree that it depends on the school, I used to work in an area where children took extended holidays to the Indian subcontinent for 6 months at a time. Being as the school was in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, somehow we always had spaces when they returned, even for families with numerous children of school age.
My current school has a waiting list for almost every year group.

They definitely wouldn't in our borough, but is your year group full? If it is, there will probably be a waiting list... wouldn't be fair to keep you a place while others are waiting for a place, especially if your plans changed etc.

No - they wouldn't be able to. Main funding stream comes in via a census of number of pupils on a certain date; they couldn't afford to hold empty places.

How over-subscribed is the school? That's your only hope really - that there will be a place in a year.

Booooo! Ok many thanks

With so much of a focus being on attendance, many schools are taking children off the register for extended breaks overseas since these holidays will be unauthorised anyway. The places are given to children on the waiting list if there is one.