Temporary move with work - required to deregister from school roll

[superj]

I've been offered a secondment from work to move to the U.S for 3 months, problem is my DD would be required to deregister from school roll and then reapply for an in year place, and I think the risk of the place not being there for her when we return is too high.
I can see why school want to take her off roll because of the absence statistics, but was hoping the place could be held for her. Has anyone managed that before?
Schools around us are at capacity but not necessarily oversubscribed. And I know I shouldn't expect the school to hold the place, but I would like them to! She's in infants and head teacher is supportive.

Is there a possibility you could go alone - leave DD with your parents, or her father?

No they won't hold the place for 3 months they aren't allowed to. You reapply when you get back. Is it worth it for such a short trip?

Nb it's not just absence statistics, they need the school places for other kids!

Hmm this is a bit dodgy but technically this could work:

You could just go. Once your DD starts to fail to turn up, they can't immediately release her place and allocate it to someone else. I believe they have to wait 6 weeks before removing a child from roll who hasn't been turning up.

After six weeks, so right after she has been removed from roll, you apply for a place for her. You can probably still use your old address, as it is your main address and your move is only temporary. So chances are you get the place (though there may be children ahead of her on the waiting list - it would be a gamble). In practice, I think most schools will expect your child to take up the place after the next half term break or so, rather than immediately. Which could well stretch you to the end of those three months.

It would leave your child with 6 weeks unexplained absence, which might trigger all sorts of involvement; and might leave a bad taste with the school... And I'm not sure if someone who has been removed from roll due to being unexplained absence for 6 weeks can simply re-apply for a place.

But working from the same principles, maybe you could tweak things in that you plan your 3 months so that the first 2-3 weeks fall into school holidays, then your DD stays with GPs for a week or two and attends school while you get settled over there, then she's absent for a week as unauthorised absence (you may have to pay a fine), then you withdraw her from roll - and after a few days (banking on the fact that most schools will take a while to process things) you re-apply for a place. Once it is (hopefully) allocated to your DD, which could take a little while - say a couple of weeks - especially if it happens to be a faith school whose governors are not very efficient, you take the maximum time allowed to accept the place, which could be 10 days or two weeks, then you agree a starting date approx 3 weeks away/ just after the next half-term/holiday break. Maybe your DD would need to go home a week or two sooner than you do and stay with GPs again.

(I'm no expert on this stuff. I have just observed from our school that it has taken a whole half-term, plus half term holidays and Christmas holidays, from when a family left our school, until a new child arrived. That was about 11 weeks. It took about 6 weeks until an offer was made (despite the family having given written notice of their intent to leave), and then the new child wasn't expected to start in the last three weeks of term, so effectively started 5 weeks after the offer was made.)

(And nb yes this is morally dodgy. I have given it some thought because we were faced with a similar situation but decided against 'playing the system' (also would have been a risk due to unsure DS would be first on waiting list after de-reg). However I do think the 'system' is wrong itself in not allowing things like this.)

At ur school new kids Starr the next week. It doesn't always take a long time
Going awol for six weeks is really bad advice and
Social services and possibly police would be involved as they tried to track down your child's whereabouts.
Please don't do thus.

3 months is a whole term pretty much, so I'm not surprised they can't keep the place for you.
Seems to me you have the following options:

• don't go
• go alone and leave DD with a relative
• go and risk it but be prepared she may have to go to a different / less good school on your return

Hi, we took our kids to Oz for a term. The school they were in (U.K.) was oversubscribed so I was worried that they wouldn't get back in- but as it happened, because they were then registered in a school in Australia - they were allowed to remain on the register but under a code of Educated off site/ Dual Registered/ something like that. No issues either end, and no issues returning to the original school.
If you are planning on your child attending school while you are away, this may be an option for you?
Hope that helps?!

Going awol for six weeks is really bad advice

I agree! Didn't mean to suggest that but realise I didn't make it clear. So, just to be clear: Whilst I think it would be a technical possibility, I would not suggest doing it. All sorts of problems!

I do think you COULD, if you were prepared to take the risk, tweak things by
a) your child not being away for the whole three months - use GPs etc so that your child joins you later/goes back home earlier
b) some of the time away falls into school holidays
c) some of the time away can be unauthorised absence
d) deregistering at some point but then re-applying immediately and hoping you get the place back but don't have to start right away.

So e.g. you leave 3 weeks before Easter holidays. DD stays with GPs for two weeks, then comes and joins you - takes 5 days unauthorised absence. By the time Easter holidays are over, you've been away for 5 1/2 weeks. You de-register DD after Easter, then re-apply for a place after a week or so (you have changed your mind). You hope that it takes them a couple of weeks to offer the place back to you. That's another three weeks. You may have a week to accept the offer. By then it will be two weeks to May half-term. So you ask for her to start after half term. That's another three weeks. DD comes back and stays with GPs for two weeks and goes to school after half term. Then you come home. That's 13 1/2 weeks (good three months) that you were away. DD has had 5 days unauthorised absence, and was de-registered for half a term.

It's been allowed at our school as long as the child is registered at school in the other country- has been done with children going to America and Australia. A very oversubscribed school too.

Thanks everyone. I saw that you can apply for in year admission 2 months ahead of place being required so perhaps there's something I can do to bridge the gap between being away for 3 months and applying 2 months ahead of needing the place. Might be tricky to arrange but will give it a shot.
Will also investigate the dual site education thing.

All this applying for a place thing won't help one jot if there is a waiting list, unless you would actually be top of the waiting list.

So you could start by ringing up LA and enquire for a 'friend' whether there is a waiting list for your DDs class and if so what category they are in, and distance if relevant. So if e.g. there are 3 on the waiting list with no siblings but #1 lives 0.1 miles from school and #3 lives 2 miles, and you live 2.4 miles you know you would end up 4th.

Of course, not everyone on a waiting list would take up the place if offered.

In our LA when you apply they will only hold your place for a month before you have to have your child physically in school.

I would try and find out about the education off site aspect. We have used this when I worked in schools as had lots of Pakistani and Polish pupils who would go 'home' for a couple of months.

The thing that is likely to be a major issue is the infant class size regs. That in effect, as your child is in the infants, will limit the class size to 30. If you go to USA and de-register then your place will be taken by another child and then when you return, you will not get a place even by going to appeal because the regs simply do not allow it.

Whilst other posters have said about being dual registered, this is only for two schools in the UK, so whilst it might have happened, it is not an official way of doing this. Education offsite is again meant for school trips etc, so whilst a 2 week school trip to the USA would be covered appropriately by this, 3 months is not really correct but then it all comes down to the attitude of the head teacher.

Also if it's a popular school parents will have ears to the ground and they talk! Even if there isn't a waiting list at the moment as soon as there is news that your child is leaving, or has left they'll let their friend, who has a child with a perfectly good place at a good school know. That family will apply, voila, your place has gone. This happens where I live.

Schools round here have been known to have both the leaving child and the child taking their place in the class together for a short while. That was in infants too.

I think you going knowing that when you come back your child may not have any school place for a while. Or don't go. Or go and leave your child. Not great options OP

Thank you all again, I'm going to think about all the points you made. It's a tricky one

Absence is a safeguarding issue ultimately so you and the school could both end up in trouble for keeping your child on roll.
I had to take advice for a school in our MAT and the advice was not to allow it for the reason 'admission' said.
The admission code states that you should provide a place on request when you have one. You are asking for a place to be saved whole you are not in the country. This could result in an admissions appeal if a prospective parent got to know about it.
If you are classes as educated off-site/elsewhere, ultimate responsibility for attendance still remains with the school and parent. I'm unsure of how the school could prove attendance elewhere if challenged.

*while not whole!!