Moving into new area after primary school application deadline

[LittlePickleHead]

Hi, I just wondered if any experts could let me know exactly what happens in our likely scenario.

There is a chance we will move into a different London borough next summer - applications for my DD need to be in on 15th Jan, and in new borough you can still apply as if online up to 17th Feb if you have moved into the area. We would probably move after this.

If we moved very close to the school we wanted and went on the waiting list, would it still follow the distance rule at this point (i.e. we would jump to higher up the list) or does a different rule apply? I am aware that it may mean DD starting reception in one school and being moved later on, which I think we would be OK with, but it would be good to know if we could maximise our chances of getting the school we would like by moving very close.

TIA

The answer is yes, once you move and you inform the LA of the new address it is taken into consideration and you would therefore get some level of priority, but not as much as siblings.
The rules are that you can apply for any school that you wish. So if you know where you want to live you could put this school down as first preference even though it is in another LA. Obviously as you live a good distance away you are going to be a long way down the admission criteria order but there is a slight chance that you might get an offer of a place. You could then use your two other preferences for schools near to where you are currently and because of the equal preference scheme will have an equal chance of getting an offer from one of these schools assuming that you do not get a place at the school in the other LA.
You do need also to be careful about how you change your address. After the 17th Feb any change to your stated preferences or a change of address on the preference form will mean the form is treated as a late application and therefore not considered till after all on time applications. When you change your address, stress in writing to the LA that you want the new address noting for all correspondence but the original address used for preference purposes. As soon as the initial allocation are made (late april?), the LA will take your new address into consideration in terms of where you are on the admission criteria order.

Wow that's really helpful - so we need to put the school in the area on the application form (haven't got a hope in hell of getting in btw as schools are all oversubscribed) and then once we tell them of our new address that pushes us up the waiting list? It would be likely that we would move after allocations are made so no worries about creating a late application.

It also helps to know that we should make the decision about whether to move to a new area before the application deadline.

That simplifies it all, thank you so much for your advice.