Do we move school sooner or later?

[CrayonOnTheWall]

👋 Hi, We have 2 children in primary school; Year 2 and Year 5. The local secondary schools are not great at all, and we are going to do the classic; move house > move to a feeder school > kids can go to a brilliant secondary school.

They are both happy and settled in their current school, so do we move them now to give the eldest time to settle, make new friendships to make her transition to the high school smoother?

Or do we wait until our eldest is midway of Year 6?

Ideally we would let them have the full primary school experience, but we risk them not getting into the secondary school as it is feeder school heavy.

What would you do?

Thanks
CrayonOnTheWall

When do you have to apply for a secondary place isn’t it early in year 6? So you’d have to moved by then.

You can't guarantee that whatever "brilliant" secondary school you choose now will still be brilliant when your DCs are old enough to attend it. All it takes is for a change in head teacher or a few key staff for a schools ratings to change a lot - upwards or downwards.
So I'd wait.

Secondary school applications close at the end of October in year 6 so you would need to be moved by then to apply.

Move sooner rather than later so they have good pals to move up to secondary with.

You’ll have to move fairly soon as you’ll need t be in your new place by this time next year for secondary applications. How far away are you going - too long a journey to keep the oldest in their current school?

Some feeder schools have a minimum attendance time to count for the Feeder Criteria. If you are aiming for a particular school, read the admissions criteria carefully.

You need to be buying a house now really, to move ASAP. You don't have as much as you think with a child in Yr5.

Now.

Moved mine Year 3 and Year 4. Do not wait til Year 6. You can move schools before you move house if it's commutable? You can actually move to any school you like if there's space. Start doing some leg work and get ringing round primary schools that will feed for you.

it can take months to actually move, and you’ll need to be at the new address in time to apply to secondary school (about this time next year).

I’d get things moving asap if you’re serious about it.

How far are you moving? Could you keep the youngest ever they are for a couple more years? If not just get them both moved asap

You need to read the admissions process of the secondary school &/or borough. and the admissions process for the feeder primary school (do they even have any space?)

My DC is at a feeder school to a great secondary school. My DC is in Y5 - they had 2 spaces free at the end of Y4 and they are now full, I don't think anyone will be moving now. It was the same with my elder child.

My strong advice is to do this sooner rather than later as other parents will be thinking and acting accordingly. Y7 applications are at the end of Oct in Y6 so you would have had to definitely moved school by then.

I agree, I’d start the moving process now. You need it all sorted by end of October next year.

@CrayonOnTheWall Thinking about this, you need to get going on this ASAP. Would you need to move house? Is there any free spaces in the feeder primary school?

If you lived in my area, you would already be too late to make this kind of move. I guess it might be different if you lived in a more transient area

Move sooner
Around here secondary school applications need to be in by Christmas in year 6.
There are also taster sessions etc that happen before that, so your eldest would ideally need to be in the new school to start year 6 at the latest.
I moved to a new area the summer between year 5&6 so I had a year to settle and make new friends, that was way easier than moving later in year 6 would have been

You will need to be in the right postcode by Oct 25, so move now. Are you renting or buying as if you're looking to buy/sell, that can take many months!

Thanks for everyones replies, I appreciate them! You have helped loads, I hadn't thought this through, I was thinking starting school not application deadline. After your comments I contacted the primary school and have a call today for a viewing. We had considered renting in the new area until we can sell ours too. Speed is of the essence, I just wasn't sure how speedy we should be.

Yes, move now. Our move has taken longer than expected and our eldest is already in high school before we have completed.
If you are selling it can take ages.

To give an example we wanted to move for our eldest DD to start year 1 in a new school (we had been looking at moving areas for ages and didn't manage to do it in time for her to start reception). We had our offer accepted on this house in the April and actually moved in mid August so just in time basically.
Luckily the school we were moving to were not oversubscribed and accepted her with our old address and a "we are moving to the area" so we had to take a risk and move schools before the house sale had gone through. It was very stressful but luckily worked out.

So what I'm saying is you need to have moved in the next 6 months really to make sure you meet secondary school application deadlines.
I think if you don't manage this then renting temporarily in the new area will have to be a backup plan.

Also are you sure the new school has space for your DC? Will they guarantee them a space for Sept 25? Good schools tend to be oversubscribed and sometimes have waiting lists. If there's a risk of you not having a space if you delay starting until next September but they do have spaces now then you need to move this academic year really, maybe after Easter hols.

One thing to be aware of... if you own a property and rent another relatively close, they sometimes use the owned property address. Obviously if you own in Kent and apply for a school in Yorkshire they use the rental address.. but 10 miles or so they may not accept it.