Moving house after school application

[vanimal]

I have applied to our closest school for DD1 to attend from September 2012. We'll find out in at the end of April if she'll get a place there. As we live very close to it I am not too worried about DD1 getting in, she is in with a very good chance.

The school is excellent, I really liked it when I looked around, and I know a lot of parents who have picked the school, so it's likely to have a long waiting list.

However, I am now pregnant with DC3, and am desperate to move out of our house over the summer, before baby is born. The house is just about big enough for me, DH and 2 DDs, but just way too small to accomodate 3 DCs (it only has 2 bedrooms). We are not likely to move until after our current tenancy ends in June.

We are looking to stay in the area, but will obviously be 5-10 mins either closer or further from the school.

The other schools around here are of a much lower standard, and, having visited them, I really don't want DD attending these. DH thinks we should stay put and cope until DD starts school in Sept, but, TBH, I am desperate to move and be settled in a new house before DD starts school - I think a new baby and new house in her first term at school will be very unsettling, plus we really don't have the space for 3 DC in this house.

If we move slightly further away, after DD has her school place, but before she starts school, will her place be taken away?

The 2 MN school admissions experts will be along in a sec to tell you the letter of the law!

Hang on...

Thank you! I hope it's good news, I really, really do not want to have to manage 3 DCs in this teeny house!

Here it wouldn't make a difference, the important thing is where you live now, and making sure that you keep the evidence (child benefit letter, bills, tenancy agreement, bank statement etc).

Having said that you need to look carefully at the school admissions criteria, although many schools prioritise siblings, not all do, or only do if they are in catchment area. You don't want to find yourself in a few years unable to secure a place for your other children. It does depend on how oversubscribed the school is, and how many siblings etc. Also where we live if you move and are still within 2 miles then siblings will get the priority, but if you move more than 2 miles from school as crow flies you lose that.

Yes, I would have said that it depends on where you can prove you were living on the date of your application, however I now know that isn't universal! It seems that in the most keenly fought over London catchments, questions are asked if you've moved into the area in the past 6 months prior to application, for instance, judging by what I've read on here.

If 'admissions' or 'prh47bridge' (I think!) don't appear soon, the simplest way is to phone the admissions people. They will tell you exactly what you need to know. I found ours in Winchester really helpful when I was doing the great Secondary Hunt. She was able to tell me exactly how far out the furthest applicant for a given school lived over the past few years, what the rules were exactly and didn't do any audible tutting about my potentially sharp elbows!

The answer is that there is a cut off date for applications to be received and it is where you are living on that date that counts. There are a few Local Authorities that have admission rules around being in houses for a period of time, in an attempt to stop people renting short term just to get a school place. If you have a tenancy agreement that has been in force for 6 months plus and the tenancy agreement does not finish till June then I can see no reason why there should be any issue over you then moving, when you want to.
Check in the admission booklets from the LA what it says about moving houses. The one thing you should not do is make any attempt to move in the period from the cut off date till the end of April when the school places will be allocated. You have to tell the LA about any change of address and you will almost certainly then be counted as a late application and go to the bottom of the list for being allocated a place. As soon as you have received an offer of a place and accepted it then the only way that a place can be removed is if your application was in some way fraudulent or a complete mistake by the Local Authority.

Agree with Admission. Once the place has been offered to you it is yours unless the application was fraudulent (e.g. giving a false address). It can be taken away if there was a mistake but they have very limited time to do that - only a few days after the offer is made. They cannot withdraw the offer simply because you move once you have received it.

Thank you for your advice - this is definitely reassuring me, I can't wait to get into a bigger place!

Our current address is definitely valid - I know they do random home checks in this area (West Mids) to double-check that applications are not fraudulent, and I am really hoping they do come and check us out.

But I will make sure I keep copies of all letters that we have coming in here between now and April, so we can prove we lived here at the time of application. I'll take lots of pics of DDs in the house too, if that helps?

In terms of siblings, the booklet from schools admissions says that siblings get a priority place, no mention of any other criteria being factored into this, so we should be ok for DD2 and DC3.

The LA website states:
What happens if I change my address after the closing date?
We may be unable to take your new address into consideration when offering your child's school place. However, you will still need to inform the School Admissions and Pupil Placements Service and send acceptable proof of your new address to ensure that you receive your offer letter.

I am being irrational aren't I? I'll blame the pregnancy hormones.