primary school admissions: where to apply from...

[coalfire]

Hello,
I'm posting this on behalf of a friend, who is a full time carer for an elderly lady.
In the week she lives with her four year old son at her employer's home. On the weekend she returns with her son to her marital home ten miles away (her husband is there in the week, they own the house).

She wants to apply to the primary school local to her work.
Can she apply to schools from her employers home or does it have to be the house she owns?

The local education authority are asking for bills and council tax as proof of residence but she doesn’t have those. Her employer is happy to write a letter saying that she is ‘live-in’

Will this be do?

No-one on here can answer that question. It is up to the LA. She will need to explain the situation to them and see what they say. I would strongly recommend getting their answer in writing (email will do) so that she has evidence if they do something different to what they said. If she has a telephone conversation with them she should immediately send them an email setting out what was discussed in order to create a written record.

Thanks. I think she was concerned that they might not listen to her because she has her own home elsewhere (in a different borough) which she owns, and where she pays council tax.

This is an awkward one because in many respects (where is child benefit paid etc) it is the house they own. But the rules are supposed to be around where does the child spend the majority of the school week, which is obviously at the elderly ladies house.
As PRH says the only people who can answer this are the local authority and please make sure that anything is in writing because the person you speak to will probably not be the person who actually puts the "official" address on the computer system. When you get an answer I would on the application form, make reference to the situation and that X has confirmed this is the address to use.

Also and to put it bluntly, what happens if the elderly lady passes away. She surely doesn't want to be at a school 10 miles away from her home address.

Generally, wherever the child benefit is paid, is the child's address