Late admissions in SE England?

[BobbyCoa]

I work in Spain and have a colleague who has decided to go to England for a year or two, with wife and 4 and 7 year olds, to quickly improve their English. They have only just arranged their gap years at work and at school here and are now desperately looking to rent a flat somewhere in East or SE England and then get the kids into a school ( in fact the parents are flying to Stansted next week to try and sort something out )

One of the many issues is this : they have been told that there are bound to be places at undersubscribed schools. Is this likely to be true? Would they have a chance for September 2017? Or in January? Would this situation be different in Greater London as against, say, Cambridge or Ipswich?

Thanks for any info you can provide

Bobby C

We just moved and did a late reception application for this September. Applied in late June and were awarded a place a week later (in Hampshire). We didn't get the nearest school, but the second nearest. There are places, but you basically have to take whatever is available. They could then go on a waiting list for another school and hope a place became available during the year if they weren't happy with what is available now. The problem now is that the schools have shut for the summer so they may not be able to speak to the schools directly to find out if there are places. Their best bet is to speak to the admissions teams at the local authority for the areas they are considering and find out what the procedure there is, as I think it varies from council to council.

When they move the local council will have to find school places for them somewhere. However, popular schools are likely to be full so the places will probably be at unpopular schools which may be some distance from home. The two children may end up at different schools. The situation will vary from area to area. In some areas there will be plenty of schools with places, in other areas most schools will be full. Their best bet is to contact the local councils in areas where they want to live to find out what the situation is. The council should be able to tell them which schools have places.

In some areas they will need to apply to individual schools for places, in others they will apply to the council. The council will be able to tell them the correct process.

There is a Spanish school in London that I believe is free for Spanish nationals but that might reduce opportunities for learning english www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/canadablanch/es/home/index.shtml

Better site spanishschoolvcb.co.uk/spanish-education-abroad/