Should we move before school starts?

[DearHusbandHusband]

DD will turn 4 by September and we're looking at schools for her. We currently live in NW London which is very expensive. We can continue to rent our flat for the foreseeable future but chances we upgrade or buy are tiny. We thought of moving outside the m25, for example to Watford. Should we move before September? How would it work with schools as there is no chance of moving by the deadline for school preference?

If you move after the deadline, you will be treated as a late application. This means your application won't be considered until all on-time applications have been looked at. Practically speaking, this means you have no chance at getting into a popular oversubscribed school, but will have to take a place at an undersubscribed school.

You would need to move before mid jan to be able to put an application in on time...

One way of doing it...

If you will at least have identified an area (preferably an actual property - are you going to be buying this time?), then complete your CAF with the school(s) you would most want / be likely to get in the new area, plus your current local school last. That way,

1. you have an on-time application in, which should be taken over as such by the new area when you move
2. you have a school to go to where you are, if you decide not to / can't move (as you won't be offered the new area schools if you haven't moved, so your current one becomes your highest effective preference) and
3. if you have moved / provided the required address evidence by the last date for address changes in your new area, you should get one of the new area preferences in April but
4. by placing the new area schools first, your DD's name will be on the waiting list for those schools and as soon as you do move / your evidence is accepted, she should move further up it (so with any luck, she won't spend too long at the nearest undersubscribed school). Also, once you are actually living there, you can look to apply to other schools, if you really don't like what you get initially.

(One possible twist to 2 would be where you can't be offered your current local preference, but one of your new area preferences is undersubscribed and you get a place anyway, which would, of course, put a bit of pressure on to move by September or risk having to make a late application where you are, of you don't).

@MarchingFrogs i don’t think this is possible in all areas. we needed to provide our council tax reference number to be able to apply

Thank you so much all! We won't be buying yet. Moving out of London means we might be able to afford it in the future whereas in London -no chance.

I'm just wondering if we shouldn't stay where we are and move in a couple of years when we must upsize