Moving before reception start date

[Nlonht]

I am up in the middle of the night worried so thought best to post here.
Our child starts reception in one of the oversubscribed primary schools in September. It's not our first preference. We just completed on our one year lease so can move. We found a nice place very close to our preferred school - if we move there she will be at the top of the waitlist and should get in as soon as there is an empty place. I know there is no guarantee, but we want to give it a best shot. The new place is also easy to get to distance from the school where she will be going to before she gets in the preferred school, even if we have to wait months. It's walkable or we can take a direct bus.
We have to confirm about the place tomorrow. We will need to move in August. Now I am confused if we will be denied a place in her current school if we move in August. We aren't moving very far away - 0.6 miles, but the catchment areas are tiny where we live.
We really like the school where we are trying to get her in by moving. I am worried that if we wait for her to start school, we won't get a good place near our preferred school. Also, I want to get her on the waitlist at the earliest to increase her chances of getting in.
Do you think she can be denied admission in her current school if we move? What should we do?

It can be denied in my experience yes...have you already given the school she's got into proof of address etc? Because that won't tally when she takes the place and they send letters out...you'd have to inform them of your move and it might cause issues.

I would hang fire and wait till she is actually attending before moving.

There must be other properties in the area. The other option is to ask...you haven't done anything wrong by thinking about moving...you could phone up and tell them about your dilemma.

Have you only been there one year ? If so yes it looks like you have moved into catchment for the school

You should be ok as you are renting your current property too. People move, especially in rented property, so as long as you are clear with them that you have moved, you still want the offered place and have no remaining links with your current property then it should be ok, but only the LEA can confirm that. I wouldn't say that you are moving just for a school place though.

Double-renting is a known thing though and some LEAS don't take kindly to it.

We have been here only an year because we moved from out of country. So this is our first place in UK. We have already received the letter from the school and they don't do home visits. If we decide to move, we move in August - a month before starting school. Should we still inform them and ask?

As long as you live there today and it's your only property, you are telling the truth (double renting happens) so the council can't remove you from one school unless you get a place at the other usually, people move it's common. But I would suggest you don't move thinking you will get a place in August at the other school because it's highly unlikely, is there any reason you need to move?

We want to move because it will put her on the top of the waitlist. We don't expect her to get the place in August. And are ready to travel to her current school for as long as it takes.
Also, the place is a better one. It has a garden which our current place doesn't. It's a house compared to a flat. It's 3 bedroom compared to our current 2 bedroom. It's also in a quieter area. And is in our budget. I don't think we will get such a place in our budget again.

Should we call the local authority or the current school to ask?
We are also thinking whether we should just move without informing since it's only one month before starting school.
We would have ideally moved earlier but we were under contract.

You need to:

1. Accept the place offered to her in your non-preferred school.

1. Add her to the waiting list for your preferred school.

1. Let your LA know your change of address WHEN you move. Not before.

Then you’re fine, unless I’m misreading you.

Thanks @Tingface. Makes sense.
We have accepted her current school place. She is already on waitlist on our preferred school but we will tell them about our move so that they can adjust the waitlist.
Will let the LA know about change of address, when we move.
So we should not tell her current school and hope that they don't find out?

You can only use one address for admissions purposes.

So the new school can’t take the new address into account for the waiting list until the day you move in.

Similarly, you do not need to tell the existing school about your change of address until your address has actually changed.

What you cannot do is use both at the same time, fudge your dates and hope no one finds out.

You need to understand that until the 31st December that all admissions for reception year are controlled by the LA. So if you tell the preferred school you have or will have a new address that information will get fed back by the school to the LA. Whilst you are not doing anything wrong, it might just in the eyes of the LA increase their view that you are just renting to get a place at the school you have an offer on.
You need to confirm the offer to the current offered school, so you retain the place no matter what happens with regard to the preferred school. You cannot loose that place unless the LA believe that you are trying to "cheat" the system. However the fact that you have asked to be on the waiting list for the preferred school should be suitable evidence that your long-term preference is not the current accepted school place but is the other school.
The LA will not accept the new address until you have moved in and can show a longer term (12 months +) rental agreement, so if you are not moving until August it is almost certain that you will not get a place before schools start in September.
As soon as you can move and provide the evidence of new address then you will be placed on the waiting list for the preferred school based on the new address. What you do need to consider is that there will be other people like yourself, so you will not necessarily be at the top of the waiting list.

Thanks @admission and @tingface.
We have accepted the school place in her current school. We also received the forms from the school and have submitted it. We have a coffee meet scheduled at her current school for prospective parents which we will attend. So we are going to proceed as normal with her current school. Since we understand that that's where she will start school in September.
We will have a lease agreement of two years on our new place and we intend to provide it to the preferred school once we move in August. We will also be updating our address with the local authority once we move in August as we would in case of any move. I understand that there is no guarantee of her being on top of the waitlist, but I am pretty certain because it's close to the door of the school. But I know that it might take few months of more for her to get in. She is already on waitlist there so the local authority knows that it's our preferred school.
My doubt is do we need to inform the current school when we move? We will be informing the local authority and the school will be closed - so I don't see it as a necessary thing to do unless there is some rule which I am unaware of. Also is there a chance the current school will take back their offer since we moved in August? We have been renting our current place for over an year so we didn't just rent for few months to game the system.
Thanks.