Moving to hertfordshire, any tips re schooling & family friendly areas?

[Cussar85]

Hi
My family and I are thinking about moving to Hertfordshire due to work related issues in Stevenage. I am searching the internet to find out more about this area and I've come by quite a few encouraging comments about Hitchin. However I have also read that school admissions are quite limited, does this also include the state schools? My daughter will be 4 in January so she should start a reception class in September 2015. I would also appreciate some of your thoughts regarding the best areas to rent a house in Hitchin (or any other village closeby). Thanks

I don't know anything about Hitchin, but state school applications for Reception will close in January, so if you can move before then, you might want to do your research about schools you like your DD to attend and try to find a house suitably near by (have a look at last year's admissions to understand how far away from the school children would typically have to live, and check if there are catchment areas).

Yes I read about that and I'm awaiting a reply from the Hertfordshire council regarding online applications and our possibilities since we don't live there yet. Thanks for the advice

For "phase transfer" admissions, which is what starting reception is, you need to apply to the LA that you live in. I am not clear from your OP whether you already live in a different part of Herts or not.

Most LA operate a "co-ordinated admissions scheme", which means that if you don't live in Herts, you need to apply to the LA where you live, and your home LA will then liaise with Herts about any Herts schools you specify a preference for.

The important bit to find out is when the address deadline is - there is a certain deadline, and wherever you are living on that date is the address that the LAs will use for school allocation purposes. If you move after that date, your new address will not be taken into account until any later admissions rounds - and the school you want may fill up in the first round.

You can apply for any school you want from any address - but as all the schools have distance from the school at some point in their admission rules, obviously the further away you live from your preferences on that "address deadline" date, the less likely you are to get offered them.

HTH.

With Hitchin schools, you're going to need to live within about 350m-400m of the primary schools I'm afraid, as last admitted distances really are that short, and in some cases are less than 200m in really congested sibling years! It's a fantastic town and there aren't really any truly bad schools, especially at primary level. There are a couple with poorer reputations but if you look beyond the snobbery, those reputations are unjustified. A couple of schools however are particularly academic and pushy, and if your child doesn't fit their specified mould, they are likely to be unhappy.

In short, move, move quickly, and move very close to a school!

Thanks for all your replies. I don't think it's going to work out then because we do not even live in the UK yet. We are thinking of moving there next year so it will be a bit too late.