Relocation - how does this work?

[Twentypastfour]

DH and I are seriously thinking about putting our house on the market at some point in the the next year and re-locating a few counties away for various reasons (closer to aging family, potential change of job and worries about secondary school). We have DC who will be in year 1 and year 3 in September.

There seems to be no good time to do this given their different school years but we are mainly thinking we’d like to be settled before secondary school. Obviously ideally we’d be somewhere for them to start new in September (2023… 2024.. or whichever year it ends up being) but my experience of buying property before is that is drags on and is difficult to rush… so we may be looking at re-locating mid year.

Even just thinking about it makes me feel
huge guilt but at the same time, I’m sure this can’t be an unusual situation. It seems that many families move house at some point between their children turning 3 and 18 years old; however, applying outside of the standard reception application round seems pretty difficult. Most schools will be full.

Anyone who has been through it, how did it work out?

Would I be “allowed” to not take up the council’s offer of a school if I don’t like it and stay on a preferred school’s waiting list? Or if I say no to a school offered do I get kicked off any waiting lists we ask to be on?

I can’t see how I would manage the logistics of two different schools in opposite directions for instance. I wouldn’t be against homeschooling for a period. We’d be fine to fill in any gaps with a tutor and lots of extra curriculars. Is this incredibly naive?

The DC are happy where they are but secondary is a major concern for us (in London). We’d have to look at private schools and I’m worried about Labour’s plans for that. In additional to that, we just think long term we’d prefer to be somewhere else - more space for the DC, easier to get to grandparents etc etc. In so many ways, moving out seems like a no brainier but have we messed up massively by not doing this before we had children?

In year applications aren’t unusual, and there’s no reason to aim for a September start, so don’t worry about that.

You might need to get one in to your preferred school then wait for a space to come up for the other one. The alternative is put them in to whichever school has space as a temporary solution, but that would probably be quite unsettling, and they are very young.

Worth contacting the admissions team of any area you are considering to find out about availability of places.

If you are not successful in getting places at a school that you want/the same school then you can appeal. An appeal for Y1 or Y2 is an infant class size appeal and very difficult to win, so benefit in DC in Y3 at least.

When applying for secondary you will need to be living at your new address by 31 October of Y6.

The alternative is put them in to whichever school has space as a temporary solution, but that would probably be quite unsettling, and they are very young.

Yes I think I’d feel terrible doing this and I’d rather just homeschool (probably with a regular tutor) for a period than move school twice in quick succession.

What you’ve said about in year applications is encouraging. I’ve recently been involved in selling a deceased relative’s house and the process was horrendous and I am not sure how I’d manage to time anything reliably.

Almost everyone I know talks about moving out of London for bigger homes, better secondary schools, quality of life etc but no one seems to ever actually do it!

I thought London had the best secondary schools, though, if that’s your worry.

We did this and aimed for a August move to be settled for new term, but obviously (though not to us at the time) no schools were open to update us on possible places. We just rang round on the day term started back and tried to find places, council were useless. My youngest got a place at a school I was happy with but then my eldest didn't. In the end he just missed a few days until we found a local school that had places for both, it was stressful so I think maybe doing it in term might actually have been easier as they can tell you where they have places and I wouldn't stress about them missing a few days.

Yes and more opitions in London

*in term time. Mine where yr1 and year 3 at the time, both settled in just fine

I sold up and moved 150 miles. I rented a house initially to make the process smoother. Finding schools with 2 infant aged children was tricky but in the end I found a Catholic school which could take both. They were also used to dealing with new starters so they settled in well.

It took no time for them to settle and make new friends. In same ways it was harder for the friends they left behind. I only really appreciated this when some good friends of theirs left their class and my sons were bereft!

In Year Admissions rely a lot on luck.

Both times we've moved within the UK, our younger DD has been allocated a place immediately, whereas her elder sister has been problematic (friends had similar problems with her year group, high birth year!) The first time it took half a term to get any school place, we needed to appeal, the second time it took a week- again luck as a place came available at our preferred school just after we moved.

Its easier in Yr3 onwards as there's no class size limits.

If you are prepared to home educate it makes it easier but it could be very long term... if you are home educating the council don't need to help you.

Some primary schools are have lots of vacancies and plenty of schools have some vacancies. This is particularly the case in London as families moved out during Covid and now the boom in home working. Birth rates went up and up for a long time, and there is a 'bulge' of children entering high school now. But numbers dropped each year after that. So primary schools were set up to deal with that 'bulge' of extra students still have those spaces, only a few have been closed.

I bet if you called every school in the borough you're thinking of moving to (and in border areas with other boroughs if you're not smack bang in the middle of the borough), quite a few will have multiple vacancies. I'm in London, kids going to a school which is typically oversubscribed, they have vacancies across a number of school years (not all though).

I find this out by looking at the minutes of the governors meetings. You can find a lot out online.

Don't bother trying to time it for a September start.
My 2 started in June, and that was fine. We got assigned the least popular school in town - because that's where had 2 spaces. It was a great school. Don't know why it has the reputation it does.

We moved mid-year and it was painless, but we did move to somewhere with no issues re school places. (This was coincidental, we were lucky!) Other areas could have been a bit more challenging.

For us, the way it worked was that we contacted the admissions team in the local area to check the process - our eldest was going into year 6 and we needed advice on secondary applications. They were incredibly helpful, and this is well worth doing as I think they usually are - and the process can vary slightly in different LAs.

You can apply for a school place six 'school' weeks before you need it, so for us, mid-November for a January start. Once we had an address, they were happy to give us the names of schools that would have places, and encouraged us to visit them, but we couldn't have formally applied without a rental agreement signed. I'm not sure how this would translate in a purchase - whether exchange might be the point at which you could press 'go'?

We then expressed a preference for the school we liked best, and they were able to confirm places. Had we had no choice and just been allocated a place, I guess we could have gone on waiting lists for other schools and something might have come up in the six weeks before the kids started.

We were also lucky (and this is probably not relevant to you!) that the area allowed us to make an on-time secondary application as we were moving imminently into the area. I know other authorities are less flexible and we would have had to have been late applicants.

You don’t have to accept an offered place but you do need to ensure your DCs receive a suitable education. If you turn down a place the LA doesn’t have to offer you another one. You can stay on waiting lists but you could remain there for years. Be aware there are huge surpluses in some areas of London so parents often have a good choice. Depending on the area to which you are moving, things could look quite different. I suggest you do some research.