Reception applications and holidays/living abroad

[schooladmin]

Hello. Wondering if someone here can help advise me.

My husband has been offered a job starting in the New Year abroad, it's a one year fixed term contract (2015- 2016). It's financially advantageous for him to take it, and as the children are not yet in school it's quite easy for us to pack up and go. BUT the reception application deadline for our eldest child will be at the end of the contracted year (2016 entry).

We will be letting out our house while we are gone. Where do we stand if we
a) give notice on the tenant so we can return to our house shortly before the application deadline and apply from there as our home address? (which it would be, we intend to return to our house).
b) if we gave notice, returned for a fortnight to give in application, see family etc, then went back out to visit my husband in the last month or so of his contract? We would be paying bills etc on our house and I would consider us to be living there while my husband wound things up overseas.

I hope the situation is understandable. I am really excited about this opportunity for my husband but Iam worried about missing out on a school place for our eldest, but I also don't want to spend months apart!

Sounds like a good plan. Go for it.

So long as it's the house you own and is your only address in this country, and no one else is living there, I think it will be fine!

Oh that sounds positive. We live in a London borough so there is a lot of pressure on school places so I don't want to inadvertently do the wrong thing and be disqualified!

Check what supporting evidence you'll need to submit with your application (and make sure you can get hold of it all in time).

There isn't any supporting evidence listed on their guidance notes for Reception application this year. I know parents who have children in Reception now who had to send off their child's birth certificates and some sort of bill or council tax or something before they could take up their place. I will ask them what that was.

I think there might be more to it than that - if you've not been resident in the house in the past however many months, you need to provide evidence of your move. Call the schools admissions team and ask.

The key point is that you need with your child to be in residence in the house on the last day that is for on-time applications - that will be 15th January 2016 and you need to own the house. From your post you appear to meet both of those criteria. The other key date is the date that the places are actually available and you should make sure that you will be in residence then - that will be mid April 2016.
The fact that you had a months holiday somewhere else between 15th Jan and the middle of April is of no concern to the LA or to you meeting the criteria for admissions.
You do need to double check the dates nearer the time (i would not start a hare running by asking the LA now or in the future, just check on the LA website). I also think you need to be absolutely water tight on being in residence on the 15th Jan 2016 and that means getting the tenants out in plenty of time for you to move in.

You will probably need to supply a council tax bill in your name with your application so just give some thought to how you can make that happen.

I'm a London borough and I was requested on email by the council to submit a council tax bill in April and again when starting school (and child benefit letter which doesn't exist anymore).

So as long as the tenants are OUT in Jan, your council tax bill will have started up again at the same time and in theory you would produce that as evidence upon their request later on.

Yes, I am going to call the council to confirm, but I am feeling like it will be fine, the tenants will be out so I will be paying council tax, receiving child benefit and living at the address. I can't find anything that says you have to have lived at the address for a specific length of time?