Moving house - what to do about schools?

[TitaniaP]

DH is currently pursuing a job in the London area. He's a contractor and been out of work for some time where we are and there are loads more jobs for him in the London area. DS is due to start school/reception year in sept. So assuming DH gets the job we will need to find a new school for DS. How does the whole thing work. Will they have to find us a school? I spoke to one of the local authorities who said that we can't really get on a waiting list until we've actually moved but obviously that could take a while.

We have family in south London/Surrey so would be looking to move there ideally.

The experts will be along shortly, but basically you can look on the council's website (eg Sutton, Merton, Surrey) to see which schools have places or short waiting lists. They won't be the most desirable ones...

Once you have a local address, you can apply and see what you get. It might well be a very under subscribed free school or a school with a poor OFSTED, but you could then accept it and go in the waiting list for others that you prefer.

Also, depending when your ds was born, you could delay sending him to school while staying on waiting lists - it would be a way of minimising the number of changes in his life all at the same time.

Thanks that helps. DS is not yet 4 (not until June) so we could defer but my understanding is that he'd then have to start in year 1?

Will have a look at local schools in and around the area. My mum lives in the area and we'll probably end up staying with her for a bit, but I'm not sure we can use a temporary address to apply?

Thanks that's really helpful again. Really appreciate it.