Help with applying and where to start?!

[Hael84]

Currently in the process of buying a new build property in Surrey.
Can exchange in the next couple of months but can't complete & move in until till Aug when it's finished.
Need to get my DS1 a place for year 2 this coming sept (he's Yr 1 currently at our local school near our current address in Kent).
When should I start the in year application process for him?
Should I apply now for sept & use my current address or wait till we exchange? Can I use my new address once we have exchanged?
My ds2 will be starting reception in sept. I have applied for a place for him at ds1 current school but obviously I will want a space for him at the new school in sept.
Should I resubmit a new late application for him for the new school? Or wait until ds2 gets a place (hopefully) at the new school so that ds2 gets in on sibling criteria?!

Well done if you understood that!
My brain is frazzled I don't know where to start!!!!

[PatriciaHolm]

You can apply now, but the problem will be that they won't hold a place for him; if you get something now, you will be expected to take it up within a couple of weeks.

Also, not all Surrey schools have their in-year admissions handled by surrey. Check on the schools directory

www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/directory-of-surrey-schools

whether the ones you are interest in do. If they don't, you need to apply direct to the school itself.

So for your eldest, you can't really do much until the latter half of the summer term, when you could make a case for starting in Sept as the start of the next half term. Proof of exchange should be enough.

For your reception child, there are a couple of options. You could make a late application to your preferred school once you have exchanged, or you could wait to see which school your eldest gets (which won't necessarily be your nearest, it could be some distance away) and then hope to get your youngest in to that one then. Which way round you choose is up to you, and will probably depend on your ability to transport the two of them and possibly defer the youngest for a term or two whilst you wait on waiting lists for an acceptable space.

However, the chances of them ending up at the same school, at least to start with, are slim; surrey schools are oversubscribed generally, so you will be put where there are spaces - your reception application will miss the normal allocations round so places will have already have been given out, so both boys will be given spaces wherever Surrey can find them, which could be a couple of miles away at different schools I'm afraid. Having a sibling will bump you up on waiting lists, but it won't get you a space if there isn't one.

[Hael84]

The school (schools) we are looking at are handled by Surrey not by the schools themselves.
If DS2 was offered a place to start in the summer term this year I could just about do the commute as long as it's only for a month or so as I'd have to ask favours from work to go in late etc.

Should I just accept my DS2 current school place in April (assuming he gets it) or decline with the reason that we want to apply late to a school in a diff county?!

[Hael84]

Obviously I'd prefer ds1 start his new school in sept but what I mean is if a space came up in a school I wanted id be happy to move him late in the summer term to secure it and to better the chances of ds2 getting a place based on sibling admission

[titchy]

Accept the reception place, unless you've exchanged. Once you exchange contact Surrey about your youngest and apply for his September reception place. They have to find you somewhere, although it'll be after all the ontime allocations were made so may not be your preferred school.

Once he has a place you'd then be best applying for a place at the same school for your oldest, but maybe time it for mid June if you don't mind commuting for a couple of weeks in order to settle him in. Or apply early July for a September place.