Moving to England just before start reception?

[5minutestobed]

We are looking to move to England in the summer, probably May/June. Ds will be 4 in April. Am I right in thinking he would be starting school that September? What are the odds of him getting a place that close to the start of the year?

He will get a place somewhere. Possibly not a school you would ideally have chosen. Very much depends where in the country

Yes, he should start reception the September after he turns 4.

The local LEA have to find him a place; but by then, reception places will have been allocated, so once you have an address they will find him somewhere, but depending on where you are in the country this may be a less desirable school some distance from where you live. Over 2 miles away and he'll be eligible for free transport but this could be a local bus and you won't get your travel free.

Some areas of the UK are far more oversubscribed than others, but the dates are the same; places are allocated in march, so you will be moving after the main allocations have been done.

Don't worry too much. All offers go out 16/4 but in our area there is loads of change from then until Sept and lots of people on wait lists get places etc
Contact the LA for where you are moving to and ask their advice

If he's got an April birthday you can put off starting reception until Easter. I don't think schools are required to hold places until the next academic year even if the child has a summer birthday.

You'll need to weigh up the pros and cons of this but a pro is allowing time for waiting list movement.

Once the LA have offered you a school place they have fulfilled their obligation to you so don't turn it down unless you are prepared to go private or home educate. You will be able to keep DS at home until Easter though and the school must keep the place open.

Thanks for the replies. Aargh this is going to be really stressful isn't it! It all depends where DH gets a job so I have no idea where we will be moving to. Could I apply to a different school the year after if he gets in a one that is really far away or is that not possible? I am totally clueless about the school system! We will be renting so we could move again later if it would help him get in a different school.

You could go on waiting lists and if a school happened to have a place available in the right year group, or someone left when your dc was at top of list, move there. However there is no reapplying each year, once you have a place the assumption is that your dc will remain there. Until year 3 class sizes are legally limited to 30 max and very few exceptions allow schools to go over this.

Right ok thanks. So much to think about!

There's reapplying at year 3 if your area has infants/junior instead of primary. Otherwise, it's waiting list application.

If you can afford private school fees, that could be something you want to consider. If all the schools in the area is oversubscribe, you might face a very long drive to school until a place is freed up.

No chance of that Head sadly. Shame we can't apply for a school before we rent somewhere that would avoid the potential long drive thing!