WWYD.. house move & no space at new school

[PopcornFiend]

Hi, looking for some advice!

We are in the process of buying a new house, not exchanged contracts yet but aiming for move in beginning Sept. The new house is in a village, I spoke to the village school a month ago and they had space for my DD (currently in Y1).. however I rang today to check again and they now have no space!! Nightmare!!

I obviously can’t officially apply until we’ve moved in to the new house, but it doesn’t seem like they will have a space for her come Sept.

There are spaces in a different school 3 miles away from new house, but it’s not our preferred school as we want DD to walk to local village school plus village school is feeder for excellent secondary.

I feel there are only 2 options for us come September and looking for advice over which one is best!

1. Move house and keep DD at her current school. 10 miles away so a considerable commute in time, fuel costs and mileage. Put on waiting list for village school and hope place comes up soon.. but no guarantee of when this might happen!
2. Move house and move DD into the school 3 miles away with space, but also put on waiting list for village school. Short term easier on commute, but then if space came up at village school she’d have to move school again - potentially a lot of upheaval for her?

Any advice appreciated!

I'd go for 2.
That way, you still keep the option to move to a more local school and you have less of a commute.
Friendships are fairly fluid and I wouldn't stress too much about settling in another school. Or you may decide to keep her in the 3 mile away one if she's happy.

Agree with pp. There's almost always some movement in primary schools. Hang in there and good luck.

What's the traffic like for the 10 mile journey? 10 miles in some locations is a 20 minute trip, and in others it's an hour... Fingers crossed something comes up soon from the waiting list.

The 3 mile school. We moved across town and stayed at the same preschool and the driving made my life hell. My daughter would have coped with two changes but the stress of the morning commute was horrendous.

Current s hook until a place comes up. 2 school moves in a short space of time will be hard for your daughter. Friendships not always "fluid"

Thanks all for your advice.. consensus seems to be option 2.. will probably go with this.

I’d put her on the waiting list for the village school now. If anyone leaves then, so long as there’s no one else higher up the waiting list the space should be yours. If a space does come available and you’re confident the move is going to happen you could start her there ahead of your move.

I'd minimise the number of moves because I know that my DC would find them very difficult.

How old is she? We moved a few years ago and our 5yo made friends easily and eventually got into the preferred school and made new friends again easily. Older one was in y5 and really struggled because older friendship groups were harder to break into so we didn't do the second move and just put up with the crap school until secondary.

Just to update on this.. I put my official application in via the council yesterday and the village school responded today to offer DD a place! Was not expecting that as they’d said they had no spaces - so either they were wrong when I spoke to them, or someone has dropped out over the last few days.

She starts in September.. am so happy and relieved. Now just need to make sure we move house in time!

Great news @PopcornFiend! Good luck with the move.