Moving house after the application deadline - advice

[Caty85]

Hi, can anyone assist? We are planning on moving house to a new area, within the same Local Authority area. However, we will not have a new address by the cut off in January 2020 to apply for a primary school reception place. Are there any ways that we might get a school place after this date but before September 2020? And what happens if we have moved by the start of the term but no places left? Any ideas on the process. Tia x

Find out when your LA cut off date is for changing the address on your application. It may be that you will have your new address by then. In our LA it's early February.

If your address changes, let the LA know immediately, though you may have to submit a late application which is processed after allocation of places.

The best advice I can give you is to move before the application window closes. If you move afterwards you are at a significant disadvantage if your preferred schools are popular and intakes are subject to ICS limits.

In most cases, you would need to apply with your current address and then notify of change of address when you’ve moved. . This would then be counted as a late application. It does vary slightly though from LA to LA. Better to move before deadline if you possibly can as a late application reduces the chances of getting into your preferred school.

Is there any way you can be living in the area where your new address is before January, e.g. move out of your old house earlier and get a short term let for a few months so you are within the catchment you need to be?

Be very wary of short term let’s especially if you still own your current house. It’s very likely to be flagged up at the council and they would still treat the house you owned as your address for admissions. Worst case scenario they could take away a place if they considered it had been obtained fraudulently (and short term let while owning a property nearby would generally be seen as fraudulent)

If you’re a late applicant you’ll get the closest school with spaces which may be quite a distance away and/or may not be a very good school or one you’d have chosen.

The best advice is to move before.
However speak to your local authority... Some will take your new address if you are at a certain stage.
My friend moved house at a similar time. She only listed schools near her new location thinking she would get one. She didn't. Not did she get her old addresses local school. She got the worst school in the area... As it had space. She lost her appeal and went on the waiting list... V close to preferred 60 entry school... 10 in front of them! They got in when new term started as 2children didn't turn up and by then others on list had found other schools.
She found it incredibly stressful.

If you are in a profession where required to move area military, governmentsone hospital positions you have more options.

Moving for other reasons even within LA is not easy

Easiest option is definitely to have moved before cutoff date in January. As others have said you will have a short period of time in most LAs if you are in the process of moving to register new preferences but you do need to have applied before the January cutoff date and put down preferences that you want either around where you currently live or where you intend to live. If you are likely to move before March then I would be tempted to put down preferences where you are moving to, as there is always the possibility (but unlikely) that you will be offered a place.
You really need to be pushing to get the house move done because as soon as you can prove your new address to the LA they will use your new address for admission purposes and therefore move you up the waiting lists for schools. The sooner you can do that the more likely it is that you will get a place offer before September.
The other thing to do is to ensure that when the LA start to use your new address that they have to offer you a school place. That does not have to be straight away but it would make good sense to ask the LA where the nearest school is with places and consider that school. Do not turn down any school place offered because that means that the LA have done what is legally required and it will leave you with the problem of finding a school place if nothing comes up at your preference schools. A poor school is better than no school.

Thanks everyone, it's just one of those very awkward situations and it's highly unlikely we will be there in time. Annoyingly this year our two favourite schools had places left after the whole admissions procedure but I'm sure it's highly unlikely to happen again. I'm not sure I agree a poor school is better than no school - I could home school until a place comes up perhaps? There are five schools in the wider area, all good or outstanding. 3 would be amazing and I will have to hope a place opens up at some point? Thank you so much for all taking the time to reply X PS we are not going to do anything fraudulently and deprive a deserving child of a place and have the worry that we had not behaved correctly and could lose a place. It's just a stressful situation!