International Family Moving to London and No School Placement!?!

[EuroMom]

My family is moving to London for partner's work assignment in early 2022. We don't know a single person in London and have no connection to schools. Do you need a connection to get in to a private school?

We have inquired with over 15 private schools in London area and not a single one has placement for ANY of my kids for early 2022 (mid school year). Any recommendations on how I should go about getting all my kids in a school? We are years 2, 5, 7 and moving from Europe with American roots. We have not found a home in London as I thought it would be easier to find the schools first then find the home second so we don't limit ourselves too much.

I have read that placing your kid in a public/state school has it's own headache as many are waitlisted and they will not even entertain the idea of your kid in a school till you are physically in the new location then the wait could be 9+ months...?

How to people who move to London from abroad get their children settled in a school? Thank you.

For state schools you need to
a) move into an address
b) find out what schools locally/not so locally have spaces
c) apply to them
You have to recognise that you may well not get all children to the same school (though obviously the y7 will be secondary school)
If there are literally no spaces then after a certain amount of time you can use Fair access protocols to get a place somewhere. The wait should be nothing like 9 months.

No idea re private.

Can your partners work assist at all with sourcing schools?

Also he doesn't need to live in London, many people commute. So you could be further afield and commute in?

Not surprising that, mid year, private schools are full? The requirement to have an address before applying to local schools applies if moving within the UK between local authority areas. Best advice is to get cracking with finding a home and then everything else will follow.

An alternative approach is to see if any private schools outside of London but commutable have places

Central London prestigious private schools are likely to be full as it's mid year, but in the suburbs there are likely to be schools with places. With state school you cannot apply until you have exchanged contracts/got a rental agreement. At that point you can get a list of who has spaces - it's unlikely to be the same school for the younger 2, the eldest is secondary age but it won't be months, weeks perhaps (took me 4 weeks)

@EuroMom , have a you tried outside central London for private schools? If not contact Hampton Court House and Ewell Castle. Also ASL in Cobham.
Please note the private schools start breaking up for end of term on 15 Dec so you need to make progress next week while the school offices are open.

Sorry should read ACS Cobham, there is also a site in Hillingdon which is easy reach of central London via the school's extensive transport system.

No, I have not tried outside London. How do I find a list of private schools in the suburbs of London?

Partner will be working near Paddington Station, wanted to limit commute to 45-55 min. On initial glance I thought living in the Putney, Chiswick, Fulham area would give many options for schools...

www.whichschooladvisor.com/uk is designed to helped expats looking for schools in the UK...it will be hard mid year but maybe email the team for some help?

The council has an obligation to find you a school place within a reasonable length of time. However not necessarily a school you chose. So if they offer you a place 30mins away with a failing inspection report that you turn down, thats their obligation met.

State Waiting lists are organised by the admissions criteria, not length of time, so moving as close as you can to a school that you like with high turnover and has multiple classes per year is your best bet.

For your youngest, classes can't go over 30 unless there is extreme circumstances.

@cricketjoys85

Sorry should read ACS Cobham, there is also a site in Hillingdon which is easy reach of central London via the school's extensive transport system.

Can you please elaborate on "schools extensive transport system"... do most private schools provide transport from all over? I only saw it one one school website that I recall.

@aroundtheworldin80moves love your screen name! Do the children need to be physically in London to apply for the state school? Can it be that partner moves for the job, sets up house, applies for the children and then the kids move when we have a placement for all of them? That limits them being out of school between countries for any length of time...?

This is really tough, I totally sympathise. Do you have to live in London? If you don't check the list of private schools in the other areas (say less than an hour's commute for your partner into London for work) and see if any of those schools have placements for your 3 children together if they have junior and senior sites. There are some excellent private schools outside of London and some will go out of their way to help you.

@theairbender Thank you!

I've just done a mid year admissions application process for my two and it took 3 weeks. I did call around to find out which schools had places first but still put my two preferred schools in the top spaces on my list - even though both said they had no places available in my 2 year groups. I then out two schools I knew we're relatively nearby and did have places next on list. In the end I got our 2nd choice - spaces had come up since.i contacted them.

So a) it doesn't take 9+ months and b) put your preferred schools at top of list even if they say they have no places but do find safety net schools too.

@EuroMom you may need to ask the local Council for their rules.

After one move our eldest was out of school for two months. We eventually won an appeal for her to go to the same school as her sister, but we are an Army family and special rules apply.

Call some education consultants like www.gabbitas.com

Ask the company the employer to pay the process as part of the relocation

If you talking private there is clearly $$$ available

Local authority will find them a place once you relocated but it might not be what you want

@cricketjoys85 wow, those schools look great on first glance and such a big campus. Thank you for the tips, had never heard of them!

Have you tried Hill House?

I'm pretty sure the child needs to be living in the area to apply for a state school. The Local Authority (LA) are only legally responsible for children who live in their area.

Re private schools. Have you thought about contacting a school finding service? I think the Good schools guide offer that.

It's not hugely surprising that schools are full in a major city with millions of people. But you will find spaces somewhere. Many private schools provide transport and bus kids all over the place.

We live on the borders of London and one of the Home counties. We are zone 4 so less than 30 min train journey to central London, but more school options as we can access those in London and out in the neighbouring county (private ). State schools tend to be more about living in a specific area. There is an American school somewhere in Surrey I believe.

This website is very helpful as it lists every school in a location and you can filter on Independent schools etc. www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/

If you tell us where your partner or you will be working we may be able to make some suggestions?

@BurnedToast My partner will be working near Paddington Station. We had hoped to limit their commute on public transport to 45-50 minutes each way.

I expect you know this already, but London is huge and therefore divided into areas. So if you put London into location on that website it will provide a massive list. But if you narrow down an area it will help ie, Greenwich in location and then you can set the search parameter. I'd keep that under 5 miles if you're looking in central London, maybe up to 15 mike's if you're closer to the outskirts just because it takes forever to drive around London due to traffic. But then again we have a very good Tube network which may mean you have more options if you're close to a station. Same applies to trains which are generally good.

Kent has a fast train service to St Pancras which is near Paddington. There are lots of excellent private schools in cities like Canterbury and a reasonable train journey time. Kent also has the grammar school system.

You have lots of choice. I used to commute there from Wimbledon on the District line which may work. Wimbledon is nice (also Wimbledon Park which is an area close to Wimbledon with a station on the tube line). Tube is subway.

Wimbledon also has a train line into Waterloo.

The advantage is it also close to Surrey and has lots of kids being bussed to private schools. You could try Claremont school (bus goes from Wimbledon, school is about 30 mins out of London towards Cobham), The Hall school in Wimbledon . I don't know much about Claremont, but The Hall has a junior school and senior school but not sure if they are both in Wimbledon or the junior is close by. There are also loads of very good state schools in Wimbledon - particularly for primary.

I know more about secondary school options , but there are buses going from that area to Sutton Girls, Surbiton High (girls) and Reeds (boys).

If you use that website I sent and add Wimbledon to location and then extend the search distance to around 20 miles, anything in Surrey should be accessible as the A3 (main road) heads out from that area of London to Surrey.

You could also consider Putney as that too would have good road links to Surrey schools as well as London schools due to proximity to A3 for Surrey and the Tube line.

Also have a look at Fulham school - independent. I believe they go all through from age 4 to 18 so may be able to accommodate all 3.

To save your sanity I would suggest you take a look at the train and tube maps for Paddington and work out where would be no more than 30 mins or whatever your limit would be. Find out about the areeas for each station and where you have the budget to live. Putney , Fulham and Wimbledon are all lovely but very ££. Once you have worked out an area then look for the schools. I just think London is too big to decide on an area just based on schools. Commuting time has to be taken into account too.

Decide where you want to live first. You mentioned Putney, Fulham earlier which is zone 2 underground on a direct line to Paddington.

Alternately you could look down the mainline rail to the west from Paddington for a more suburban life in the home counties. Make that choice first then think about school options.