Can we apply for school near Dad?

[Soerdu]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with our issue. I'm going round in circles trying to work it out online!

My ex and I are separated but coparent our little girl. She is registered as living with me for child benefit.
Recently my health has taken a nose dive and I am often left immobile, so we have agreed that she should go to a school closer to him. We live about half an hour apart. Different catchment and different council. I drive, he doesn't. So the school being nearer him makes much more sense.

I understand that you'll only usually be offered a place in a school within your catchment. If you apply for one outside of your catchment you can be refused and the child placed in any school they choose. This would make life hard on everyone! We definitely don't want to risk this.

I've checked the child benefit website that say it is totally acceptable to claim as a parent even if the child spends time with another parent. But the council says they use the child benefit address to determine the child's address. So we've ended up going in circles.

We only have just over a month to get in our application before the deadline and it doesn't seem as if we can change who claims child benefit in that time frame. (And to be honest I'd rather be the one receiving that income).

Is there any way we can show the council that our daughter lives with both parents? And that a school in her dad's catchment area is better for all 3 of us? Do they even accept that when applying?

I'm so confused by it all, any help is greatly appreciated!

Of course you can apply. But unless the school is under subscribed, you are unlikely to get a place.
If your second choice is near you, and you are likely to get a place, there is no detrimental effect of putting a school near Dad first.

Yes, you can apply but the issue here is what counts as the child’s home address.

Schools and local education authorities are very used to children living between two addresses, but for admissions purposes they need an objective way of determining which is the child’s main address (not least, to prevent parents gaming the system). Most LEAs look at things like where the child spends most nights, where it is registered with the GP and where child benefit is paid.

Which home is regarded as the child’s home address will, obviously, affect the distance between home and school or whether the child lives in or out of catchment (depending on which method the school or LEA uses to award places).

I suggest you email the admissions department in the LEA where you want your child to go to school. Ask them whether (in all the circumstances) they will accept that your ex-partner’s address should be used as the home address. I suspect they will say no, in which case you’ll have to apply via your own LEA using your address.

Does your preferred school have an admissions category for social and medical need? If so, you could apply on that basis. You would need to present evidence from (say) your GP to confirm that your health problems make you unable to take your child to school and your ex-partner is best placed to do this. I can’t predict how it will go - some LEAs only take account of the child’s social/medical needs, some will also consider the parent’s. Good luck.

Check the admissions criteria and past years' data. You can apply for any school but if distance from home is used if oversubscribed your chances of getting a place are low. If it is typically undersubscribed you should get a place. Fixed Catchment area is not used in all areas.

Panelchair is giving good advice.

If your health is preventing you from working, you need to keep the child benefit so that you get the National Insurance credits.

Thank you everyone for your responses.

I emailed the local authority and this is what they said ....

"Yes you can apply for any school in the local authority.
If you wish to use the farthers (sic) address for the application please ask him to complete the form and provide his proof of address."

It wasn't a very informative reply considering I gave her the same information as above with a little more detail. I'm hoping this means she will be accepted into the school near her Dad.

Which LA is it? Some lay out very explicitly how they deal with this sort of situation. For example surrey say
"In other cases where the parents do not live together, the address is where the child spends most of their time. In cases, where the child spends an equal time between their parents/carers, it will be up to the parent/carers to agree which address to use"

Only in cases of dispute between you would surrey need to look at child benefit address.

That sounds quite promising; their attitude towards which address to use sounds more relaxed than many others.

Your OP suggests that father is in a different LA. If that is the case, it is their rules that matter. The rules on which address can be used vary massively from LA to LA.

Yes, I'm sorry that was my error. We live in different council districts but apparently come under the same local authority. I thought they were one and the same but have since been educated 🙂

It's Oxfordshire.
I've heard si many horror stories. A friend of mine got her 3rd child placed in a school miles away from the school her other 2 were already in and lost the appeal 😞 It seems like the choice is purely an illusion!

I'm hoping this means she will be accepted into the school near her Dad.

It helps I know people who have done it in London due to similar reasons, or because their child has SEN and provision is better in one council compared to another.

Her father needs to complete the form and be on the form as the first parent. So his address is the one they use as where she lives. You go on as the second parent.

Then when they allocate school places they will use the distance from his address (or however they allocate it in the LA where he lives) as council records will confirm that he pays council tax for his address and has done for some time.

If the school is oversubscribed you may get other parents kicking up a fuss because your daughter lives between two households, but if her dad is taking her to and from school most days and staying with him some nights then she lives with him as well as you.

It’s impossible to say why your friend couldn’t get her child into the same school as their siblings - there are several possible scenarios here.

Remember, though, that the system doesn’t allow you (or anyone) to choose a school. You’re expressing a preference, which the LEA is not obliged to meet if the school is oversubscribed and you don’t fulfil the admissions criteria.

Sometimes the criteria is which home the child spends the majority of school nights at Sun-Thursday.

So for example, child could stay Sun, Mon & Wed with father which meets the school criteria but child benefit is still paid to Mum as the majority of nights (4 out of 7) are spent at Mums.

That is quite legit and would give you the support over school nights that you would need.

Where will she be staying on school nights?

That is the criteria in Oxfordshire. The only use child benefit if the child spends an equal number of school nights in term time with each parent.

@prh47bridge Great!

@Soerdu There is your answer then!