When should we move?

[Pomegranatemum]

Feeling in a pickle over this and would appreciate some advice. Sorry it’s a long one.

We currently live in London but for various reasons want to move out, which will entail selling our house. We don’t know where we’ll be moving yet (one for another thread!) but I think our biggest problem is when. We’d originally had in our heads to move some time next year, but DC1 will be starting school in September 2026. Which as I understand it means that we need to submit our preferences for schools in January 2026? The second most relevant time factor is that I will be going back to work after maternity leave with DC2 in late September this year.

So when should we move?

One estate agent said to start marketing our house in April this year so as to hopefully have the move mostly sorted by the time I return to work. He said it would be too much for us doing it in e.g. September when I’m returning to work. I’m on the fence about that, but can see his point. DH turned pale when I suggested this timeframe to him as it was much sooner than he’d been thinking and we have a lot on our plates as it is with the DC and his work.

Another agent suggested marketing at the start of September, thinking we could have moved by January. Is that a bit risky re: school applications?

I suppose another option is that we start marketing our house in September and be prepared to rent a property in our chosen location if the sale hasn’t gone through by, say, mid December, so that we’d have the address locally to be able to make the school applications in January. I wouldn’t want to be paying rent and mortgage for too long though!

It feels like if we don’t get the applications submitted in our new area by January 2026 then the whole move will have to be put on hold for a while because moving while DC is in reception would mean we’d struggle to get her a place at our first choice school. Is that right? Are most half decent schools fully subscribed in reception? For the reasons we want to move, delaying by a couple of years would not be ideal.

WWYD? Is there a better option?
Thanks in advance.

We made a decision at a similar time (no mat leave, though). House went on market in March, moved in October. That gave us a decent amount of time to get our bearings and work out which schools we had a chance with/would like to send DD to.

We already knew where we were moving to well, though, as we had family there.

One thing I would say is that your DC is in a low birth year (they fall off a cliff after 2019 in many ways...). DD's school was catchment only in 23/24...in the 24/25 intake, it was still full, but took kids from every category. It is the same with all of the schools where we live (a market town popular with families).

Very few schools in our area were fully subscribed for this year's Reception cohort. Many good schools still have spaces available. Birth rate is falling, although of course it will be area dependent.

House sales can be so unpredictable though in terms of time scale. You can't possibly predict when you'll be moved by based on when your house goes on the market. I'd say the earlier the better, but obviously you need to do some serious research/thinking first in order to decide exactly where you want to move to.

Ah, interesting about schools being less subscribed than they used to be. I had been thinking that if we decide on an area soon we might be able to ask our preferred school or the local authority if they are full for this year, which would give us an indication (albeit not guaranteed) of what it’d be like for September ‘26.

Totally agree about moving always being unpredictable. I’m definitely not looking forward to the process! This will be our first time moving with DC with us…

You can usually find admissions data on the county council website. They publish the admission numbers, numbers of applications and which criteria they went to in terms of priority (what these are can depend by area or, if a religious school (or maybe academy, not sure?)) gor the previous year's intake, so no need to call the school :)

One thing i would say is that if you move at this stage, you may not get much choice for preschool/nursery for the last few months. We didn't really consider this as much as we might have as didn't think it would be an issue, but were thankfully lucky to find somewhere good... only issue was that none of DC's new preschool friends went to the same school (which hasn't ended up mattering at all. A term in and she has very firm friends at her new school- much better than at the preschool!)

Ooo, thanks for the info about data.

What to do about nursery/pre- school is on my list of worries….just slightly lower down 🙈

I don’t know if this is all a terrible idea. It seems so difficult!

April is a good time to sell. In our area sales are taking around 6 months at the moment. It depends were you want to move too. I live in an area with very good schools and despite the falling birth rate their full because people out of the catchment area apply to them. There is one space avaliable in the reception year.

I would just crack on as soon as you can. Moving can be quick but our last very simple chain took 9 months. All agents say It’s best not to overthink what you need to do to get your house on, just tidy up and schedule any maintainance work - we’re on the market with a broken facia but work is booked in to rectify.

Check with the admissions department at the local authority you are moving to. I moved in the January before my eldest DC started school. We were just outside the submission date but my local authority has an extension until March when you can change your address on your application if you are moving house. We applied initially applied from our old address then we just had to submit evidence of exchange of contracts before the March deadline.

If the area you want to move to has similar rules then it gives you a bit more leeway with timings.

Personally, I'd get it up fir sale now.

Consensus seems to be to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later. So I’d best get cracking on where to actually move to….

True.

In our area there were previously 10 oversubscribed schools. This has dipped to 4 and all oversubscribed schools took out of catchment last year having previously been 100% in (small) catchment.

One school is reducing intake by a class next year (they had 4, have been unable to fill 3) and another is merging. Both schools are good to very good, and not heard a bad word about either.