Moving house before DS due to start reception in September

[SarahOxford]

Hi,

I know this has been discussed before and apologies if my board etiquette is wrong, i'm new here!
I have searched topics and read various threads and just wanted to double check my understanding of how the admission will work for my son, due to start reception in September. He turns 4 in May.

We have to move, to Warwickshire from County Durham, this year for my DH's job. I don't want DS to start at one school and then move so we we are prioritising moving before september and are pretty sure we will be moved by then.

Am i right in thinking that i will need to approach LA when we've moved/have proof of new address and see what places are available?
If this is not the school we want, i.e. the good school 5 mins walk away (0.5 miles), and is instead the much worse school 20+ mins walk (1.2 miles), do we have to take the place or can we be put on the waiting list for the nearest one?
Am i right in what i've gleamed from mumsnet that DS doesn't actually have to start school until after he's 5 (May 2013)?
Does this mean that if offered the bad school we could accept, but defer it, and then hope (fingers crossed) that a place will come up in the nearer school?

DS had trouble settling into nursery so i really don't want to move him around, i'd rather wait until he can start in the school i know he'll stay in.

Thanks for any replies and sorry for the length of the post! This board looks great, I can tell i'll be spending a lot of time here over these several coming primary years!

Yes, you approach the LA when you have proof of your new address.

You do not have to take the place offered but that will simply mean you don't have a school place anywhere. The LA will not have to come up with another place for you. You can accept the place offered and go on the waiting list for the nearest school. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

You are correct that your son doesn't actually have to start school until May 2013 so you could accept a place and defer entry. However, you should also think about what you will do if no place becomes available at your preferred school.

you should be able to find out from the LA how full the school is - eg is over subscribed etc - when you say bad school - what do you mean - have you visited both school - if you are just going on ofsted ratings and sats results they are not everything by any means . You could look into renting intially - which would be quicker

oh and if you havn't been on it the ladies on the co durham board are pretty friendly

You don't have to start school til the term after you are 5 - he could miss out on reception altogether if you wanted.

If you do choose to start at 5 he will still qualify for 15 hrs funded nursery until then.

We moved in June, with DD due to start reception in the September. To add to the complication, DS was in year 1 at the time, so I wanted to find a school with places for DS and DD from the September. Luckily we were going to be (and still are) renting and so I was able to be more flexible about where we lived to a degree.

This was a couple of years ago when I think there was more school involvement in administering in year transfers so I got in touch with a lot of schools to find out their likely spaces, visited quite a few, found out where viable places to rent were and put everything together and found a house and a school with places that I liked. Was hard work but worth it :)

Thanks for all the replies and sorry i haven't replied (I tend to go online at work!)
I do wish we could rent, that would definitely make things easier, but at the moment it looks like we'll have to part exchange on a new build as our house isn't selling, so the location is pretty set in stone.
An0therName - i have to admit i'm just going on the statistics to be honest. I know nothing about the schools other than hints i've picked up on forums like this. Will schools just let you come to visit? I thought you could only go on open days?
Socially though, i'd like him to go to the same school as his neighbours and be able to walk there and back each day.
It's all so tricky but thank you for confirming things for me and sharing experiences.

Just one more question - can you be on the waiting list of more than one school?
There are about 4/5 schools within 2 miles, and only one i've heard bad things about and has poor statistics.

Definitely visit all the schools you are interested in - a school may look good on paper but when you visit you get a proper idea of whether that school would be right for your child. I think I visited 13 schools altogether and none of them were at official open days as I was visiting in March and April.

You can also be on the waiting list for as many schools as you want I think - sometimes LEAs only "let" you be on three but I think they are wrong to do this. Admission experts will know more than I do though.

When are places allocated in County Durham? Once they are you should be able to have a clearer idea of whether schools will have any places, although you may be able to get some idea now (when I looked around schools they did generally know whether they always were over subscribed or generally had a lot of spare places etc).

Hope it all works for you :)

I would not want to send my kids to a school which didn't let me visit on a normal working day. Its one of my first criteria. Also do be open to schools just a bit further away if you can get your child there.
At least you are not moving to London/SE with the issues here. Even the most popular schools do have children moving away, for a wide variety of reasons.
I have also known children thrive in "less good on paper" schools, in fact I know at least one friend whose son was struggling at an Ofsted Outstanding but then flourished at a "rougher" school. Even locally a couple of schools were in special measures in the last 10 years, and they are both flourishing and Outstanding now; another school which was always Outstanding has now dropped to just Good (a change of head).
Good luck!

Thanks again.
We're actually moving to Warwick from County Durham. It's difficult to view houses living so far away let alone schools, but i think you're all right and i should definitely visit them before making any decisions.
Would you visit with your child so they can see the schools too or on your own so you can concentrate on asking all the relevant questions?

at that age I would visit without a child -once you know what school then if at all possible do a visit with him . my experience in co durham is that not many people do visit and therefore they are normally fine with it

I wouldn't take your child. They might fall in love with something pretty in an otherwise horrendous school.....!

Definitely visit without child I think - I needed to be able to concentrate on the school without needing to concentrate on DC (plus one of them was in school at the time anyway). We moved from Bedfordshire to Yorkshire so not as far as from Warwick to Durham but I would say if you can visit then do. I did two lightning visits over two two-day periods and it was tiring but worthwhile. And I had an excellent spreadsheet to keep track of it all