How to time flat sale, house purchase and primary school deadline

[Pred02]

Hi,

We are currently in SE London but are looking to move house. Our daughter is currently at nursery that we are very happy with and she is turning 3 in August meaning she would start school in Sept 2025. We were due to sell our flat / buy a house back in Q4 2022, however this fell through and due to complex circumstances we decided to stay in our flat for the time being.

We are looking for a decent state primary school for our daughter, have not yet decided the area to move to but will this summer. It will either be local like ED or Harpenden. Understand that we need to be at the right address by Jan 15 what is a good strategy for our move.

Option 1: We sell our flat move to the new area and rent for a year before buying. The benefit is we will be in the new area and can trial it and will also lock a state primary for our daughter. Also might make the house purchase easier if we remove the chain. The drawback is we will need to move her into interim nursery which will be hard and move twice, spend a year on renting (which will be very expensive).

Option 2: We sell our flat and wait until we find the house but time the move with starting school in Sept 2025 (or close to that). We might miss the Jan 15 deadline (we would put our existing address to select her school) but will give us enough time to sort things and potentially not need to find interim childcare. The drawback is we would be on the waiting list and may not get a primary school nearby in the area

If we were to go with Option 1, how long in advance of the Jan 15 would we need to be living in rented accommodations?

We are both new to the UK so not sure which of the two options is less painful/stressful.

Thanks

The issue with option 2 would be all the on time applications will receive their Reception offers on National Offer Day in April 2025 and you will be classed as a late applicant and be considered after the other families have accepted / rejected their places, so places in the popular Outstanding and Good schools may be unavailable. You may be lucky and obtain a place if someone moves house or there is a demographic dip, or you may be unlucky if there is a lot of new housing or others moving into the area.

If you move before the on time primary application deadline you will have the best chance of receiving one of your preferences in the new area. I would aim to have moved in by December to allow for getting your paperwork completed, Council Tax, GP registration and all the address changes, utility bills, Child Benefit etc. done.

Is ED, East Dulwich?