Finding school in a new area after reception

[Samc3]

Hi all!

We're starting reception next year where we currently live. Ealing area. Not surprisingly, all schools seem to be oversubscribed (not to mention the ones we actually want).

We should however move to a new area in a couple of years. How hard would it be for our new council to find a spot for us in the local schools? I'm already worried we might move and if the new council doesn't have any place for us, we will have to drive miles away to drop our little one in the old school. Specially given that after reception there are fewer vacancies.

Is this a real risk? Anyone with experiences on this matter?

Thank you!

Don't know about Ealing, but we came back to the UK, asked the council which schools had a pair of places in the years we required, and got told which one could take both kids, and where could take one of them.

We then applied to the school that could take both, and started 2 weeks later (they would have taken us earlier, but i was living out of 4 suitcases, without a car, and needed time to get uniform.

Any transfer would be classed as 'in year' so you would need to Contact the local council cil to.find.out where has spaces. Basocally- yu choose from what is available.

Howver, this year's intake onwards is a massive decline in peak numbers (particularly in London) so there may be surprising options open

it really depends and also depends on the area. I have a friend who moved to uk from overseas and their daughter got into one of the best state schools in London (top 5 school) as there was a chance vacancy for year 3. They were super lucky as for reception entry it’s inside catchment + ballot. (they were also just outside the catchment).

I have had a friend who once moved from Ealing to Kingston for admission to a boys grammar in year 5.

They were traveling miles for about half a year. Then in year 6, probably because it's the last year of the school, the school created one place for her son (so the class was 30+1) - but I think it's quite rare and exceptional. And they lived literally at the door step of the school.

Ealing is now a growing family area due to lizzy line, in addition to independent school parents moving children to state schools - schools are more oversubscribed than before. The few sort-after states primaries in Ealing have been oversubscribed before the lizzy line with a distance from school as short as 0.4 miles, I can imagine it's even harder now. The upside is that most states primary in Ealing are good so it's okay to get into the less popular ones.

Have done inyear admissions twice and both times we had a good choice of schools xx

We moved in year at the start of year 2 to a very over subscribed school. after reception kids move around all the time and new kids get in from the waiting list. I didn't realise just how many spaces opened up we got into two very over subscribed schools. It's area dependent of course but if in London then lots of movement is very common.