Another in-year application question

[Freezingmyarseoff]

We're moving house to a different part of the country and I'm trying to work out all my options for an in-year application for eldest DC who is in year 2.

New house is close to the county boundary and there are about 5 different primary schools we are considering, 3 schools are in the same county council (council A) as the new house and these are community schools. The other 2 schools we're looking at are academy schools in a different county (council B). I know there are children from the neighbouring houses at all 5 schools.

Council A told me I can only apply for a maximum of 3 schools on the in-year application and that I need to send the application direct to council A schools admission team. When I asked council A about applying for schools in council B, I was told that because they are in a different county I cannot apply for them. However, council B told me that because it's an in-year application and the schools we're interested in are academies, we should send any application directly to each academy and we can apply to as many schools as we want. The lady told me I can do this in addition to a council A in-year application. But council A said I couldn't apply to schools in another council

I'm a bit confused as to what schools we can rightfully apply for. Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation and can they shed any light on what is correct here? I don't want to find I've done the wrong thing and not get any place at all.

FWIW, we would like DC1 to go the local primary in council A, it's currently full but with no waiting list. We're not sure if a space will come up in time. There are 2 other council A schools we would also apply for but I think our preferred back-up option would be one of the two academies in council B, which we would also apply for at the same time (if allowed) and then wait and see what happens.

Wow, that was longer than I planned. Sorry.

Ask the respective councils for details of which schools currently have places in Y2 and how many children are on the waiting list if not and what the admission criteria is and where the children on the waiting list appear on that list. eg how children have a sibling priorty/in catchment vs out.

That's what we did before moving. It turned out that only two schools in the whole town had places (there's about 9 primary schools) in the year we wanted. This then became three and it was the right house and the school was good enough so we bought that house over the "dream house" that had the wrong schools and a catchment issue.

They can only offer you a place if there's a space so find the spaces first.

Sorry just realised the ones over the border and do their own admissions so you'll need to see if they have spaces too. One advantage of dealing with school direct is that you often get to know if there are children due to leave.

The academy schools have places, I already asked that. So I know that we do have a back up option (lucky I know) but we would really prefer to get into the local primary. My concern is that by applying to the academies we might jeopardise our application to local primary in some way.

You are entitled to apply for a place at any school in the country. It sounds like council B want you to apply direct to schools for in-year applications in which case naming those schools on council A's form won't get you very far. That may be why council A say you can't apply to schools in another county. You can but not on their application form.

No you won't jeopardise your application to the local primary by applying to the academies. If there is a place available at the local primary they must offer it to you. Indeed, as you will be applying direct to the academies your local council won't even know you have done so.

I don't see how? The council wont know you've applied to the academies too.

Do you have info about the preferred school's waiting list?

That's probably true. Perhaps I'm just being a bit paranoid. Thanks for your replies, I'll go ahead and apply to all the schools once we have exchanged.

Moving At the moment there is no waiting list so we might well be lucky but I'm going with the assumption there is little movement for in-year places. I tend to err on the side of caution on these matters. The area is really great for young families (which is why we are moving there) so I think people won't be moving unless they really have to.