Primary school admissions (moving back to UK)

[User24689]

Hi all. Hope you can help as my husband and I are going round in circles googling etc and still none the wiser.

We are returning from Australia to UK next month and we have a 3 yr old- she has just turned 3 this week so will turn 4 end of August 2018 meaning she will be eligible to start school next September.

We are concerned about her being so close to the cut off for the school year tbh. She is a very shy child and quite immature socially. We would both prefer she start school the following year, however it is our understanding that we still need to apply for 2018 and then apply to defer - is this correct? We have also read that the school could then decide to place her directly into Y1 the following year... This sounds like she would be at a disadvantage to me as she would be straight into formal education with a cohort that have established friendship groups. Do you think this would make a difference?

Further to this, we are moving into Cambridgeshire where the deadline is apparently January. We will be in temporary accommodation on arrival until we find a house but we do not know the area at all and have absolutely no idea where we will be living long term. If we decide on an area and buy a house, there is no way it will be finalised before January or even before places are allocated in April.

Do we just have to apply based on our temporary address? Because this is in the middle of Cambridge and we will never be able to afford to buy a house in the middle of Cambridge, we will likely be living in one of the villages outside of it. I'm just concerned that we will be stuck commuting into Cambridge for the whole of DDs primary school career just because we happened to move so close to the application deadline and couldn't sort ourselves out in time!

I'm stressed about the move as it is but reading all this has tipped me over the edge this week! Can anyone offer any advice?

I would contact Cambridge LEA directly and ask what their policy in general is - some authorities defer regularly and others very rarely. Havjngt said that, there are now a number of academies that set their own admission criteria, so once you arrive, you could contact any local academies you were interested in directly.

Closing date for applications nationally is January. There is often an extension if you are moving house ( eg, where I live it is March), so if you will be in a permanent address by then ( and know where it is) you can apply for a school near there in January and then update your address if you move by the extension deadline. You must get your application in by the January deadline though, using your current address.

Otherwise, places do sometimes come up on waiting lists later on, especially if you move very close to the school you want.

Thanks that's really helpful. I will contact the LA for some more advice about deferring. I didn't realise I could contact academies directly, I will look into that!

Definitely speak with the LEA, mine was very helpful when we had to move countries mid year.
One of mine is late August, at the beginning we could see the difference quite a bit, especially as many of the kids had already have been learning phonics etc at nursery - however they catch up quickly, and even in a couple of years the difference had gone and he does really well. The problem we had with deferring is that at least in our area they then have to go straight into year 1, which seemed worse. He did a lot better than I'd expected, especially when you come from a place where they start later it's easy to think they will never cope, but reception is mostly play anyway, and quite relaxed for them Vs year 1 and onwards where they sit at tables and learn more formally.

Even if you don't get your perfect school immediately, places come up mid year or at the end of years especially in places like Cambridge where people do move around.

And absolute worst case, there is no legal requirement for children in the UK to attend a school - if home ed for a year might be preferable to you.

Just to clarify, you must apply for admission to academies via the LEA, but I don't think they are necessarily obliged to follow LEA policy on deferral. That's something you will also have to check with the LEA.

If you are thinking 'villages out of Cambridge and commuting into Cambridge' it might be useful to know that north Hertfordshire is also very commutable to Cambridge and has a blanket acceptance policy for schools where the LA controls admissions on deferring summer borns, ie if that is what you want to do the school will let you (regardless of the individual opinion of the headteacher etc.). Might be worth considering. Pm me if you want more info!