Seeking advice on Applications for a transfer between schools in-year

[nesebe7331]

Dear all,
Could you pls help me with my situation?
Our offer for the new house was accepted last week and we are beginning the purchase process, including mortgage and legal issues. We hope everything will be completed before schools open in September, but of course, things may not go well and we may still have to stay in our current house for a little while.
This uncertainty makes it confusing for me when it comes to the Applications for a transfer between schools in-year.
As you know, the in-year admissions application form requires you to contact the current school so that they will fill in some information before you can send the form to the new council.
So if we fill in the application form now, we are concerned it means my child (Year 3) will lose their current school place. And if we still have to stay in our current house in September, where will the child go?
Another issue: The vacancy checker in the new council shows that all the outstanding schools near our potential house are full anyway.
Given these two reasons, should I delay sending the application form until our new house contract is completed? It means we may have to wait until after September.
Your advice is appreciated. Thank you.

You need to speak to the admission office of the LA to establish what information they need when comes to accepting a new address. This is quite often at the point where contracts are exchanged but all admission guidance refers to where the pupils spends the majority of night times during the school week, so that is a significant difference and the LA may only accept the new address when you have moved into the house.
You are also making an assumption that any change will be handled quickly and that is not always the case. The way that your post reads it seems as though you might be moving to a new LA. In that situation the LA has to offer you a new school place but that can be at any school and not necessarily at one of the schools you prefer. Only after being rejected from your preferred schools can you appeal and that is likely to be 6 to 8 weeks before the appeal can be heard.
You also refer to having to get a form completed by the current school before you can contact the new LA. That might be what the LAs would like you to do but legally you have a right to request a school place at any preferred school, so again you need to speak to the admission office of the LA where you are moving to.
I suspect that you are not going to be in your new house by September with an agreed school, so I think you need to be thinking in terms of still needing to send to school at current school. You are registered at that school and will continue to be registered at that school until you tell them that you have moved schools.

You won't lose your current place by making an application, but as admission says, they probably won't count your new address until you have at least exchanged. In theory if a school has a place they offer it to anyone who applies, even if you don't live nearby, but you usually have to start in a given time frame. As it is close to September they might agree to giving you the place and you starting then. I would however think the timescale is too tight for you to have moved in by start of Sept. I think you'll probably have to wait and be ready to apply for a place in Sept, when hopefully you will have exchanged or be about to, and have a better idea of timescales. Your child may unfortunately be out of school for a few weeks if it's too far to commute, although you might be lucky and things might progress quicker. Good luck, it's stressful.