School place/moving house rules!

[Redfin17]

My eldest daughter is due to start school in sep 2023. We are lucky that our closest school is great and will probably be our first choice. However, since our second daughter was born last year we are rapidly outgrowing our house and would like to move somewhere bigger (not far away and same LA, but probably outside catchment of 1st choice school). This all depends on the right house coming up though. My question is, if we apply from current address, get a place at our chosen school but then move out of catchment before next school year starts, can we keep our place? And would it affect my younger daughter getting a sibling place when the time comes? I am so confused about how it all works!

I think the answer to the first part is probably not, once a place has been offered and accepted moving would not affect the place. The sibling issue is a different matter, many schools now put “out of catchment siblings” fairly low down on their admission criteria, so a small, or even a mid sized, popular school could possibly have allocated all place before a low down category was reached.

Have you read the official admissions criteria for your specific school? Round here, a couple of schools give siblings almost top priority. But the vast majority will offer places to every single child living within their catchment area before considering siblings who live outside the catchment area.

In my sons class it was undersubscribed that year and five got in out of catchment. When all the siblings joined three years later none of those siblings got a place as the school was then oversubscribed and catchment scored more points.

So its a risk, the question is whether you are prepare to gamble. For some it pays off and for some it doesn't.

In which sense do you mean catchment? The usual area that the school takes pupils from, just on distance... or are there formal defined Priority Admissions Areas which aren't circular and can be very unevenly shaped (DDs school one goes 100m in one direction and over a mile in another, covering a few villages)

And how far will you be moving... a difficult school commute can quickly become tiring and stressful.

You’ve got to look at the specific admissions criteria for this school, and the info from the local council about house moving rules.

Different councils have different rules. Some say you need to be in the address you applied from at the start of term, some say you just need to be in that address when the offers are made. So unless we know which local authority you are in, no-one can really advise you.

I think remaining in catchment needs to be a priority.

It is quite rare for a school to be unable to offer to all in-catchment siblings, even if you are right out by the boundaries.

But it is very common that they fill with other catchment children, before reaching any non-catchment siblings.

Either stay in catchment, or delay your move; or move to the catchment of another school you like just as much before application deadline for older DC for 2023 - though of course you'll also need to be close enough, so that if that school cannot accommodate all catchment children, yours is close enough to receive an offer

And some councils try to remove places from people who move. However, the Admissions Code is clear. An offer can only be withdrawn if it was made in error, or the parents have not responded to the offer in a reasonable period of time, or the application was fraudulent or intentionally misleading. It cannot be withdrawn just because the family moves. Any council insisting the parents must still be at the same address at the start of term is almost certainly in breach of the Admissions Code. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to stop some councils. I have represented a parent at a hearing when the council tried to argue that a move forced on them by their landlord after offers had been made meant that their application was intentionally misleading. The parent won, but they shouldn't have to go through that kind of stress.

So the answer to the OP's first question is yes, you can keep your place if you move but, depending on where you live, the council may try to withdraw the place and force you to go to appeal to get it back. On the second question, as others have said it depends on which school we are talking about. Some prioritise all siblings. Some only prioritise siblings within a priority admission area. Some have taken steps to make it harder for siblings to get a place when parents have moved further from the school.

Yes I have read them - top choice school has 10, and 3 & 6 (below) deal with siblings. Tbh we’d probably
get into our second choice either way as it’s bang in the middle between where we are and the area we would probably want to move to, so we are lucky with that, but the first choice criteria around siblings I can make neither head nor tail of - any idea what these mean?! 3B baffles me completely as it seems to repeat what it says in the main part of 3?!

.

1. Children who have a sibling attending ok [the infant school or junior school ] at the time of

application and either:- a. the child’s permanent home lies within the designated catchment area; or b. the sibling attends or previously attended [the infant school].

1. Children who do not fall within category 3 who have a sibling attending the linked Junior School at the time

of application.

I think 3B is referring to the child you are applying for.. so its they have a sibling at the school, and either live within the catchment area OR attend the feeder infant school.

So the 1st choice school has a specific catchment, which we are just inside. The second choice one uses a broader ‘nearest school’ policy and is big so we’d probably get into that in either area. In the area we want to move to to we would be just over 2 miles from 1st choice and 0.7mo Lea from second choice, so not far at all!

Oh I see. So my eldest would have been through the infants and be in the juniors when my youngest starts infants, which suggests we would still qualify under 3B if we had moved out of catchment in between their admissions? And I guess 6 refers to if they have a sibling who is in juniors but went elsewhere for infants?

i think what they are trying to do there is build in some preference for children who have siblings who now go to the Juniors and have went to the infants; (3b would catch those, even if the applicants no longer lived in catchment). So this confers some preference on families who have been with the schools for some time, even if they don't now live in catchment.

6 is aimed at children who have siblings in the juniors, but those sibings did not attend the infants, nor does the child currently live in catchment. so the familiies have not been part of the linked schools as long.

it varies depending on area say a small town has a 6 primaries and 1 secondary which serve the town and the villages within a 5 -10 mile radius if it was strictly distance all the people in villages would not get first choice so in this case sometimes all schools reserve places for kids from villages or the town might be divided like a pie with long triangular catchments covering a sector of the town and all villages in a certain direction
in other places no schools are over subscribed so you might get in regardless

Thanks all! I called our council (Surrey) admissions team and the lovely lady there said not to worry - they will use our current address and as long as we still live here when applications close in mid January then it doesn’t matter if we move before the start of the year, we would keep the place. And my younger daughter would get priority as sibling even though we’d be out of catchment when she starts. Phew! Hope this thread can help someone else in this situation.

I'm not sure that is quite right. If you move between Mid January and Allocations day in April you will need to update the address on the application. There is usually a slightly later deadline (9th February according to www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/admissions/primary-junior-and-infant/apply/step-2-complete-the-form ) by which an updated address is used for allocations otherwise original one will stand.

Hm not quite sure - looks to me like they are saying they will use your address on the closing date (mid Jan) unless you inform them of a new address by 9 feb. It says that if you move before 9 feb but don’t let them know until after that date, they will use the address you originally applied with for allocation. So I would guess that means that if you really want to be considered for schools at your new address you have a couple of extra weeks to try and make that happen, but if you don’t want to switch then it’s ok to tell them later. The council staff member told me that a move after mid Jan would allow us to keep the place so I think that’s what it means.