address in UK in time for admissions deadline

[ScandinavianMummy]

I am moving to Bristol with my family.. but we've only realised that we ideally need to apply for schools for DD by 15th January, to stand any chance of getting a place at one of the good/outstanding schools.

We wont be able to be in Bristol by January.. but would it be possible - in your opinion (and not too dodgy) for us to find a house/flat to rent from January, and state this address on the application form. We wont actually be living there at the time, but we will be moving in there during spring time.. so it will be our actual address long before school starts, and probably before places have been allocated too..

You may have to reconcile yourselves to accepting a less brilliant school for the short term, or Home Educating, and move your dc as an when places at a preferred school come up. Do you know the city or even better have you visited specific schools ? With respect how do you intend to fund your move without jobs lined up, normally you would do that first then plan around those timescales and locations.

Tbh Bristol secondaries are rumoured to be a bit rubbish, something to bear in mind for future.

YonicSleighdriver, no not primarily - but it would be ideal to live somewhere within easy access to both them and the holiday home..

LIZS, With respect, you dont have to worry about how we will fund the move!

If you're moving back to the uk for the sake of the children's education then Bristol isn't really the right choice. I love the place to bits but the schools are crap mostly.

There are a few brilliant primary schools that are part of a strong and vibrant community but you are very unlikely to get a place at those unless you are already part of said strong and vibrant community by the application deadline. They will have massive oversubscription waiting lists.

However, the senior school situation is really dire, and even the best options have pretty grim academic results. You can choose to live anywhere, choose somewhere with better schools.

Fair enough . You seem very confident on the work front so assume you have researched that part of the jigsaw. I you gave notice now could you be situ by say mid Feb (ie if you had holiday owing) which might just get your application in the "on time" category.

Tbh Bristol secondaries are rumoured to be a bit rubbish Actually Bristol secondaries are improving rapidly - amongst the most improved in the country. But perhaps the OP is considering independent schooling for secondary.......
House prices and rents have also increased dramatically in recent years and Bristol is becoming less affordable for many people. So LIZS may have a point has the OP really researched the costs of moving and living in Bristol?

the Op has indeed researched the costs of moving and living in Bristol! I appreciate your concern guys, but we have the finances sorted out! :)

Are selling house before we move with good profit + savings ++ so we'll manage even if it takes us time finding jobs etc. And the plan is for at least one of us to have job lined up before we move anyway..

Just for a bit of reassurance, we moved to Bristol after the application deadline. We put in a late application for a very popular infant school as soon as we exchanged contracts on a house and got a place on the second round of applications. Apparently quite a lot of people apply for places and then end up going private or moving away so spaces do open up at this stage. We found it more difficult finding a place for the year 1 child. The in year waiting lists are quite large and don't seem to have much movement until year 3.

that's reassuring Sleepytea!
and it confirms what I've been thinking, that it is even harder finding place for a years 1 child!

so we would be aiming to move in time for DD to start reception.

we've talked to the LA and they told us to put in an application using our current address, and then letting them know as soon as we've got a bristol address sorted

I would say try, if at all possible, to be in the UK in time for your application to be considered in the first round of late applications (which is mid-April I think). Places are allocated on the normal admission criteria, but there is a lot of movement immediately after the first allocations, and you want to ensure you are in the queue.

Try to move close to a number of good schools (not one outstanding and a bunch of poor ones) to spread your bets. Move as close as humanly possible to your preferred school. Try and pick big-ish schools (at least 60 intake) and ones where only siblings and looked after children come ahead of distance (double check, but even if you are religious you are unlikely to fulfil the criteria for faith schools if you have just arrived in the area). Find out how far away admissions stretched to last year (this won't directly help as you are a late applicant, but will give you an idea how over subscribed the school is).

Do you know the difference between effective catchment and actual catchment areas on a map? If not, you need to if you may move in the future. It may affect whether your younger child will get sibling priority when it's time to apply for them.

Have you considered Bath? Many people move here from Bristol specifically for the schools.

But don't just go for a school because it is outstanding on paper. That just means OFSTED liked it when they looked round on one particular day. You have to look round & make your own mind up.

We don't necessarily have the opportunity to look around schools a great deal.. So at least ofsteds give an idea about (fairly)current state of affairs

Sm, have you posted on the boards here or on Netmums about the schools of interest? It could help.

Just bear in mind it is a very inaccurate snapshot. A good school may be at least as good - in terms of teaching, pastoral care, etc as an outstanding one. Also bear in mind that some current reports are now quite old.

Personally there are a number of outstanding schools locally I wouldn't want my child to attend.

Outstanding schools going through the inspection cycle now are often becoming "good" I believe, as more criteria have to be fully satisfied to stay as outstanding.

(Lay person comment)

I am surprised you would pick Bristol as offering better standard of education than (almost) anywhere in scandinavia!

The reason the schools are 'most improved' is because the starting point was so low...

You can tell almost nothing about a school's ethos from their OFSTED report I'm afraid.

The 'outstanding' school near us was last inspected in 2007! I wouldn't send my child there.

An outstanding school near me was last inspected in 2006! A quick look on Ofsted's Parent View page suggests the school is in deep trouble (anywhere between 40 and 65% strongly negative comments for each question).

It is being re inspected today and parents fully expect the school to be plunged into sm. They have so little faith in the school.

Moonrocket, how did you Get to think Schools in scandinavia are so great??

By teaching in Denmark.
And my judgement on English schools is made from having worked in school improvement in England for 20 years.

but bear in mind that the schools in the different countries in Scandinavia are as different as the schools in England and Denmark..

(I'm not Danish..)

Of course. really

People are just trying to warn you that you really, really cannot tell about a school unless you visit it, preferably during a working day.
If education is so important to you that you would emigrate, it seems a little unorthodox to select a school without having seen it in action.