Moving and school selection

[Anotherpointofview1]

We have sold our house in one local authority and we are going to be moving into short termlet for a while until we find the house for us. As its likely to be our last move we don't just want to pick a house just to get moving so it might be a few months before we know the exact area and nearest schools. Our eldest would normally be due to start school in sept 21, so I guess application process would normally be in January. Problem is that as we are looking within approx a ten mile radius of postcode we don't know which school will be the closest/to apply to. How does it work when this happens? Do you just have to apply late when you can?

You will need to apply by mid January, and you will need to use the address you are living at at that point which will be the rental, presumably?

Many authorities will have a slightly later date up to which you can change your address with good reason, but that will probably only be end feb, so probably not long enough.

So realistically you will get a place based on your rental address, and then once you have bought a house you will need to decide whether to look for a school place nearer that if it is some miles away. You will almost certainly have to go on a waiting list, unless you live in an area where schools are undersubscribed.

I can second what PatriciaHolm said.

Just rent in the catchement you’re interested in as that will be the address you apply from. Once your child has started, it won’t matter if the right house comes up in the catchment or further away as they’ll be able to stay at he school regardless. It just might be more difficult with drop offs and pick ups if you buy further away.

Thanks for both of your replies. We thought that we would just apply singly to the nearest school once we'd actually moved to permanent house but now realise that's not the case...

In terms of school choice (here again forgive the ignorance!) - I know that schools are no longer allowed to include preference number in terms of deciding entry. In that case if there are a couple of schools you'd be happy for them to go to in the area, does it not really matter the preference numbers you put down - as in it makes you no more or less likely to get in?

If you were to qualify for more than one of the schools on the list, you would get whichever you gave highest priority too.
So if there are several you would be happy with, put them in genuine preferred order (and make sure there is one school, however unpleasant, you are pretty certain you will get).

And no, the preference number makes no difference to your chance of a place if you don't qualify for more than one school. So if you put a school third and don't get your first or second choice, then the fact that you put the third school third won't make any difference to your chance of a place there.

We had a similar situation a few years back. We rented in our preferred secondary catchment area, planning to buy within that area. The primary is ok.

They wouldn't confirm a space until we had an address. It's a difficult process when moving but is meant to prevent fraudulent applications. Otherwise everyone would claim to be moving into catchment of the 'best' school.

It’s best to put the schools down in your genuine preference order. You’ll be allocated the highest number you’re eligible for.

If you choose 6 options that are desirable but further afield, you might end up not getting any of them and instead be offered whatever primary happens to be undersubscribed.

That’s why you need to thing about where you’re going to rent if you’re likely to apply for a place from that address.

Rent closest to the school(s) you would like your DC to go to. If schools are a high priority in the move.

But if schools are lower down on priority for the move than the perfect house (if you’d be happy with most of the schools on the area) then it doesn’t really matter.

When you move to the permanent house you can apply for an in-year move ... but this is usually difficult in EYFS and KS1 if the schools are popular and therefore over subscribed.