Moving house - changing primary schools - experiences please?

[Summerdaydreams]

Hello, we are planning on moving away from the area we currently live in and I am just looking for some advice, experiences of those, who have moved with school-aged children.
DD is 5 and starts year 1 in September. I understand that we cannot apply for new schools until we have exchanged, but we are wondering how easy it is to get your child into a school in the new area. How does it work?
We are mindful that dd will be leaving her friends but hope that in doing it sooner rather than later, it will make the transition easier?
What if we move to the area and the are no places?

Can I jump aboard, even to offer support. I'm moving cities. Ds will be starting Juniors/ Y3 next week. I'd love to be moved and settled by Christmas. My house isn't on the market yet.

Interesting to note about class sizes. Ds has been in a class of 32 in Years 1 and 2.

The two extra children will be what are known as " excepted children" who for various reasons don't count in the total

It's a faith school and only about 50% of children are baptised. It is a popular school and I preferred the smaller class size in YR. I would think a maximum of 30 should include looked after children and those with exceptions. His year group is 40ish. They have mixed year groups to manage the larger than a class year group.

The school I'm thinking of changing him to has a class and year size of 30. We will live in the catchment area. Until I am able to contact them, I won't know how an application will be viewed.

How far are you moving? We moved in November last year and kept our DS in his school. It was a 40min drive but for him he needed the continuity and his teacher was fab. He started at our catchment school this week and so far is loving it.

Moving 100 miles from West Midlands to North West. He is 7 and will start year 3. He doesn't want to leave his current school.