Moving before starting reception….

[Maureen24]

Hello all, a hand hold needed… my little one is due to start reception in 2024 but we have decided to try and move house by September. Are we bonkers, is this doable?! I’ve applied for schools in my current area but obviously will have to do late applications for the new area when we have an address (when we exchange?!) New area is popular but with lots of good schools and good secondary’s so hopefully we won’t be in this pickle again! I’m just nervous…. What if we don’t get a place. We figured it’s better to move now before it’s too late but I can’t help but feel anxious we will be left with somewhere totally undesirable.

thanks for reading!

We did this - ended up actually moving the second half of august. I think it might differ by local authority (or whoever makes the rules) slightly in terms of process, so you will need to familiarise yourself with the rules and processes in your new area. It all worked out for us and we got our first choice school even with twins, but some things to keep in mind:

• our area required a signed contract to allocate a place (2 weeks before we moved), so it will all be last minute. Some might require you to have actually moved.
• house sales never go to schedule - be prepared that you won’t actually be in your new house in Sept even if you get an offer accepted ice and early. Think about how you will handle it (start at current location? Home educate?)
• school offices close for summer holidays, meaning if you don’t exchange by mid July there might not be anyone around to process your application until they return, and some only reopen a couple of days before students arrive. Even if you get the house purchase through n time, your child might not get a place for a couple weeks into the school year if the people handling your application aren’t on top of things.

some things I found useful in he process:

• locrating subscription was helpful to show all the data for schools and help me identify a rank list of schools. It also helped me gauge which schools were consistently oversubscribed vs not
• once you have an offer accepted and have a sense of your exchange date start calling schools directly. They were much more helpful than calling the LA - they helped me figure out exactly what paperwork went where, and were really quick to let me know if there were spaces available.

This is so so helpful, thank you for taking the time to reply.

Can I just ask…was the school full after the round of first offers and then things moved and you got a space or did you know there was going to be a space. I’m a little nervous as I’ve already phoned some of the schools and they mentioned it can be tricky to get a space last minute. We can but try, sort of feel like I’m letting my little one down 😞

Ours wasn’t full after the initial allocation, so it was first come first in. Things do move slightly, as in your own situation you will leave last minute opening a space for someone. How much things move is probably pretty variable by location - I imagine more movement in some London neighbourhoods, for example. If a school is consistently oversubscribed (something you can look at on locrating), I wouldn’t count on getting a place for September. That said, people get places from the waitlist all the time, so you never know.

not sure if this will make you feel better or worse, but we ended up hating the ‘outstanding’ school we managed to snag the last two places in and switched schools part way through reception. Kids are pretty resilient, and much more adaptable to change than you would think. Mine managed the in-year transition brilliantly and settled quickly into their new school. One dd will occasionally comment that she misses her old school, but upon further discussion she just misses being able to have a ham sandwich every day for lunch (new school has proper catering which means way too many veggies). Two years on and they are settled and happy - don’t agonise about getting it right from reception, as there is always scope to change if it isn’t working out.

And to add, you will be given a spot - it just might not be your preference, and it might not be very convenient. It might be useful to understand which schools are typically undersubscribed, as those are the ones you would be more likely to get a place in. Undersubscribed doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem - when we were in London there was one school that everyone coveted, and another that was very close by but less popular. Both were good schools and fairly similar offering, but one was consistently oversubscribed and the other always had places.