Moving school 2 children different ages

[Petramum75]

Hi we are thinking of moving our 8 year old next year to a near school and also our 4 year old.
What is the best way of applying as we dont want one child to get a place at the new school and there to be no room for the other child meaning we have to travel to two different schools.
Is there a way of applying jointly or what is the best way of doing it please?

Find out if they have spaces first. The school themselves will know. You could ring the council but policies vary on whether they give information out. You can also google admissions data for specific schools - if they weren’t full ( in that year group) when that year reception started reception there’s a good chance of spaces.

When you do apply you’ll do separate applications for each child but they’ll look identical.

We’re going through this with our 8 and 6 year old. I looked up local schools, checked admissions and emailed the schools. All 3 schools emailed me back with the information I needed.

This happened to me and there's not much you can do!
You'll certainly be lucky though if they have space for both :)

The school admin team should be able to tell you if there is space. At our school the admin person said yes there’s space, apply for both and tell me you’ve done it and I will chase council team to approve asap. If there’s space the head let’s the children start before paperwork has even come through.

Remember if they have space for one the other will usually get a sibling preference so it really depends how much you want to move and whether you could logistically manage 2 drop offs for a short time, and how much movement there is (more movement in city schools than rural ones).

We are currently going through the process of moving our children out of prep school and into a local state school. Whether or not you can get them into the school at the same time depends entirely on whether the school has space. Our local in-year admissions department wouldn’t give me any information on spaces available, but I called each school I liked individually and they were all happy to tell me (after all, if they have spaces they want them filled! My eldest is in yr1 and my middle son is in preschool, and the school we really wanted had no spaces, so we just had to sit and wait for one to come up. We got a call 3 days before the end of this half term saying there’s space for the eldest but no space in preschool for the other. They don’t hold spaces - so if we wanted our eldest to get the place in yr1 we had to take it immediately. So we have kept our middle boy in preschool at his old school and our eldest will move to his new school at the start of the next half term. It all happened very quickly once there was a space for him. In the meantime we will have to do 2 drop offs until a) a space comes up in preschool or b) reception starts next September as my middle son will (hopefully!!!!!) get a place as a sibling.

If the school you choose has spaces in both classes then you can move them together. If it doesn’t, you will have to decide whether to move one and do 2 drop offs while waiting for a space for the other. But they won’t hold one space for you while you wait for the other. It’s either take it or leave it!

Is the 4 year old in reception or starting next year?