Moving locally, can our DDs stay in their school?

[rememberingnothing]

DDs in YR and Y1 in a lovely school that we are very happy in. For various reasons we would like to move but don't want to move the girls from their school.

How far away would we be "allowed" to move? Does it even matter at all as long as we can get them to and from school?

I know this must seem like a totally dim question but I can only find info on people moving and looking for new schools.

Thanks for any help.

You can keep a school place wherever you move, but it'll be your responsibility to get them there. And if there is a priority admissions catchment and you move beyond it, you might find it harder to secure a sibling place.

Thank you. No plans for more siblings and we don't plan to move far. That's just what I hoped.

Thank you.

Will you still be in catchment area for the high schools your primary feeds into? Probably not a deal breaker, but worth a thought.

Thanks for the thought. Will bear that in mind. We haven't found anywhere yet just getting it all straight in my head.

Gee, how lovely. Just to present the other side to this story, our closest primary's catchment area is 105 metres this year because of all the families who get their kids in, and then move away. We have not been offered a school place in the other 15 primaries in our town for the same reason. Is there any chance you might feel some compassion to local parents, and move your children to the nearest school to where you are moving, so that local kids get access to their local schools?

Sorry to sound arsey, but this has caused us a lot of stress and I have very strong feelings over this issue.

Fair dos Natasha, but I still think it would make it easier on all parents if families who move, also moved their kids to the (new) nearest school. Why should the OP be allowed to keep two school places, when local families may be denied them? It is hugely frustrating not to be offered a localplace, especially when you know that most kids in your local school live miles away, and only lived 'in catchment for a few months to get themselves and their siblings in.

That is my personal view anyway; the admissions arrangements for the school/council will give the OP a straightforward answer.

This is the fault of the local authority not providing enough school place, it is NOT the fault of parents who don't want to disrupt their children's education, so how about you channel all that rage and all the snide ness into a shitty letter to the local authority, rather than tearing a strip off a parent who is just trying to do the best thing for her own children?

Colditz - if only you knew! I have done that, and much more. And I a angry at the council too.

You and Natasha are phrasing the OP's choice as "doing the best thing for her children". I like to think some people also consider what is best for their community/society in making choices - ie they do not have only their own children's interest at heart. I personally think it is better for a community to allow local schools to be for local children - less traffic, quick journey to school, less pollution, better for working parents, easier for playdates, strengthens the community bond between school and area.

The problem is that it is not just the OP doing this - loads of other families do the same,to the point that some schools are mostly populated by children who are not local.

Prima, it's pretty unlikely there would be two places at the same school in the new area and it also sounds like OP is not going ridiculously far away.

Given the time that it is in the school year, I suspect it would be yr 1 and yr 2 places coming available in September if the Op did move, which wouldn't help anyone needing a yr R place anyway.

FWIW Primafacie I really agree with your last post. On a personal level of course I sympathise with the OP & individual parental choices on this, but on a societal level it can lead to negative unintented consequences in communities, not to mention logistical chaos.

If I moved 300m down the road, my nearest school would then be the one I put as second choice. Should I put in for a transfer there? What do you think is the "limit" for a move?

I moved two miles out six months ago. School said I could keep my places and seemed surprised when I asked. Was eternally grateful as ds1 has asd and this is the only school that suits him.

What about people who rent? Should they have to move their child overtime they have to move house?

We have lived in 3 totally different areas in the last 3 years(rural renting) if Ds had been school age in this time that would mean 3 different schools!

He has just started school and we are looking to move again, we will not be moving schools too.

Agree with bamboo. For unavoidable reasons connected with renting, we have lived in 3 different houses in our current town. Each one has a different 'nearest school', despite us moving less than a mile each time and remaining within walking distance of my children's actual primary school.

Should I have moved DS - at that time a barely-recoved selective mute school refuser - through 3 schools?

Equally, although our first house was nearer to another school, it was still close enough to my children's primary for us to get places there [late application for reception / in-year transfer for DS]. The second was further away, but this house is right next to their school. Do you really think that we should have started the children in 1 school, moved them to another at the end of a 6 month rental, then moved them BACK to the first school after another 6 month rental when we found this house?

It's one thing to live near a good school purely to get your children in and have no intention of staying in the area once they are on roll. It is quite another to move house (possibly for a completely different reason) and not want to disrupt your children's education.

There is nothing in the OP's posts to say that the school is oversubscribed so we don't know that she would be stopping local children from getting in and as Doctrine says it wouldn't help families who are trying to get their children into reception. Also, we don't know that the school local to where she will be moving will have space for her DDs.

I think that if you live in area where there's huge pressure on school places it might be hard to accept that for vast areas of the country it's not like that.

Where I live I know of only a couple of primaries that are oversubscribed and children often stay at a school if they move house and most people automatically get into their first choice.

It's unfair to assume the OP has any other intention than not wanting her children to have to move schools when it's not necessary.

And don't forgert the upheaval for the OP's DDs. Moving house is stressful enough without having to change schools unnecessarily as well.

primafacie 105 metres!!!!surely that can't be true.My garden is 105m

Changing your child's school every time you move house? Really?

DS1 lived in 4 different houses during the time he was at primary school. If he's gone to four different schools it would have been even more unsettling, and actually, none of the catchment schools had places.

You'll be pleased to know, Primafacie, we didn't take up a place at our then local school with a very tight catchment area when he started reception (he was offered a place) but chose a school which was bizarrely under subscribed that year. We had been living in yet a different house when we applied, miles away Yes, we've moved a lot.

For all sorts of reasons DC move away from their catchment schools and continue to attend. Quite rightly, IMO.

No problem as long as you can get them there and no need to feel in the least guilty (assuming you didn't pull a deliberate rent and move). Loads of people round here don't move there children when they move. Since many of us have to get in the car to get to our nearest schools, a slightly longer drive is no odds at all.

Xylem, yes, absolutely true sadly. This year, 23 places went to siblings, leaving 7 places available under the distance criterion. There were 418 applications for these 7 places, and the furthest distance was 105 metres. It is all published on the council's page - I swear I am not making this up. Utterly bonkers, I know. It is a mad system.

Oh, and look at you with the big garden :o