Moving house during primary application process

[LaserShark]

Our house is on the market and we are looking to move city. I have a three year old and I need to apply for his school place. However, we will hopefully have moved house before next September, but probably we won't have it all completed by January, unless we're very lucky and it all goes smoothly! What should I do?

I do have an older child so will need to apply for an in-year transfer as well. Obviously I want them to go to the same school as each other so am guessing that may complicate things further.

Should I apply now for our current local schools?

Should I wait until nearer the deadline - does it make a difference if my application goes in at the start of January for instance?

The area we are moving to has a lot of good schools but I don't expect any will be under-subscribed. If we move after the deadline when places have been allocated, would we get anywhere with an appeal if all the local schools were full?

There are a lot of variables and I'm worried the timing of this will jeopardise his school place altogether and be a massive nightmare but we don't have much choice about it. Advice very much appreciated!

You must apply from the address you are living in at the time, so in your shoes I would wait as late as I can and apply from the relevant address then. There is no disadvantage to applying on the last date possible, all on-time applications are treated the same.

Check the regulations for the area you are moving to - some LEAs will allow late applications for a month or so to be treated as on-time if you have a provable reason why (such as moving into the area in that month, for example, and you can provide evidence of the move). Not all do though.

If you move after applications have closed, you will need to make a late application, and will be offered something when the other applications have been dealt with. If the school is more than 3 miles from home, your child will be offered free transport (could be a bus pass, or a taxi) but that is unlikely to cover you too.

An appeal is unlikely to succeed if ICS (Infant class size - where class in KS1 have 30 per teacher), as this is the legal maximum and there are few grounds on which to win such an appeal; you have slightly more chance if it's not ICS. But moving into an area and not being able to apply for schools on time would not be grounds for appeal.