Applying to school in an area we don’t yet live in

[wingingitandsoaring]

My son starts primary school next September (2026) and I want to apply to schools in the area that we will be moving to. We will be looking to move there in early 2026 but probably won’t have moved before the applications close which I believe is mid January. Does anyone know the process for applying to a school before you have moved to the area? We won’t have any proof of the move before it’s done because it’s not because of work. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated!!

You apply with your current address but if the schools are oversubscribed you'll be lucky to get a place at the ones for which you have a preference. How far away are you moving?

I don’t think you’ll get away with this sorry. School places will be offered to those in catchment before you. Unless your son has disabilities/is in care with you?

Have you checked their oversubscription criteria? It’s usually on the school’s website in their application booklet or on the council’s website. A couple of schools in my area don’t have any catchment area at all.

If it’s definitely catchment based I’d get your skates on and move quickly, or hope your child is in a low birth year so you can apply to transfer.

@Acc0untant the area we are moving to is about 40 mins drive away.. my partner lives there and we are moving in together. Would i be able to use his address? I am not moving in to the place he lives now though.

@alcoholnightmare No he doesn’t have disabilities

You can’t use his address, it’s fraud. You have to use the address you are living in when you apply.

@CalypsoCuthbertson so the sooner I apply the more likely we’ll get a place? Wasn’t sure if they took that into account or just waited until all the applications were in

No, that would be a fraudulent application and if caught any school place offered (and they do check!) will be rescinded.

You either need to move earlier or be happy with whatever school the LA finds a place in. You can be on the waiting list for schools you'd prefer but there are no guarantees you'll get a space.

You need to apply from your current address but can list schools in the new area. You might get lucky and get a place if any are undersubscribed. You can find out how subscribed schools were this year to give you an idea. If not, you can go on waiting lists and update your address once you move. There is often some movement. Waiting lists are ordered on how well you meet the admissions criteria, so if you move near a school, you might go near the top of the list, assuming their criteria is mainly about distance.

Many areas have a second date they will accept address changes by (usually either end Jan or early Feb), which would be useful if you have moved by then.

Other option would be to genuinely move in to your partner's house by Jan, and then apply using that address. I appreciate that might not be practical.

I think PP meant just move by 15th Jan. All on time applications are treated equally. There is no benefit to applying earlier.

No, I meant get your skates on and move so you can apply from your new address!

I don’t know how it works elsewhere, but in my area everyone has to apply by the deadline then they take a few months to deliberate and let everyone know, then there’s a round of appeals before term starts. So it doesn’t make a difference when you put the application in, but you must do it by the deadline.

Have you checked the councils website for the process? It can vary so much across the country I would go by the actual advice rather than MN.

@BendingSpoonsthanks. So if we didn’t get a place in any of the schools I applied to in the new area, would my son be given a place in a school near my current address? Then I’d have to transfer him once we actually moved? How do you join waiting lists? Is there an option to do this if you don’t get into a school you applied to?

@CalypsoCuthbertsongotcha! Haven’t checked the council yet but will do, just thought I’d see if any advice here first!

You can apply from any UK address but if there is a wait list you will be pretty low on it due to distance
If you apply from your existing address you will get a school place based on that and then once you move you can apply for in in year transfer and the LEA will have to find you a place at A school, might not be a school you necessarily want though. You can joint a waiting list for any school

All “on time” applications received before the January deadline are treated equally, there is no advantage to applying as soon as they open the system or on January 15th. There may be a window to update the address on an application for a few weeks and be considered “on time” but it varies by area so you need to check if and when the cut off is. If you use existing address you can still list schools in new area but if they are all oversubscribed distance to home may mean you are not allocated a place there and will potentially be given one undersubscribed nearer your home address. If you were to update the address after the deadlines have passed the application is “late” and looked at after initial allocations are made, which may mean your preferred schools are full but be allocated one in the new area. You can go on waiting lists whatever happens.

Sounds like best bet is applying for an in year transfer as don’t think I will be able to move before 15 Jan! Thanks everyone!

If the reason for the move is just to move in with your partner, and you're already sure that's what you both want, why delay until after January 2026? You absolutely must be at your new address by the deadline to guarantee a place somewhere local to your new address (no guarantees you'll get one of your preferences, but they'll have to give you something in the area even if it's just the nearest school with space).

If you don't move until after the deadline, you have to use your current address and therefore risk getting nothing in your new area if all your preference schools are oversubscribed. You absolutely cannot use your partner's current address. That would be a fraudulent application, as your son doesn't live there, and any place obtained by submitting that address would be withdrawn when that is discovered (which it would be, as you need to supply the school with proof of address).

Basically, your life will be 100% easier if you look to move before next January.

If you can't move before the deadline, your best bet would be to seek out a small village school that is usually undersubscribed.

We did this for secondary.

We applied from our current address/local authority. As soon as we moved we updated the address on the system. We had to provide mortgage details, council tax bill and bank statement showing new address. The old authority then transferred the application to the new authority. We were then treated like anyone else who had applied on time. I don’t think it would’ve worked if we’d moved after allocation day though.

Birth rates are low so many schools don't fill their spaces in which case how far away you live is irrelevant - anyone who applies will get a space. It doesn't feel like it on MN where people are more likely to complain if their school application didn't go to plan, but where I am 96% of people get into their first choice of school. It's worth checking with the LA if places were filled this year and for the past couple of years as would give you an idea if you would have any chance at all of securing a place using your current address.

If you are moving soon after mid-January check the process for people moving house with the admissions department. We had to move at this tike and my local authority had a later deadline (March) for people changing address. You had to apply with your existing address by the usual deadline but then had until March to submit proof of change of address (we used the solicitor's letter as proof of exchange).

It's worth checking the "how primary spaces were offered" document for this year, for the borough you're moving to. It will list which schools are under subscribed so you could apply to those in order to guarantee a space? In our area about 70% of primary schools had vacancies for this coming September.

How long after the deadline did you move?

Deadline was October 31st and we applied 2nd week of December.

@wingingitandsoaring it is less hopeless than some previous posters are detailing, because the important thing is that this is a multi-step process, and your difficulties will be mainly for the initial steps, and your situation will improve in the later ones.

The process is:
You express your preferences by the initial deadline (dec/jan)
You get made an initial offer on the offers day (mar/apr)
There is an acceptance deadline a few weeks after that, after which there is a second round of allocations to redistribute any places that weren't accepted.
Then there is a 3rd round to redistribute the places that have noe been released due to some kids improving their offer in round 2.
Come September, some kids whose places were accepted will nevertheless not show up on day 1, and the schools will spend a couple of weeks minimum trying to make contact with them. Eventually some of those places will be released and there is a 4th reallocation to people that are still on waiting lists.

(I am disregarding appeals because I am assuming there is unlikely to be reasonable grounds for an appeal for you)

The most important thing for you is that if you can manage to move and be officially resident at your new address by the time of the 2nd/3rd/4th rounds, you will leapfrog up the waiting lists - your position on waiting lists is purely about how you match the specific school oversubscription policy, NOT about when you applied. So, if you move in March to an address that is right next door to a school that has a place released for rounds 2/3/4 you will be number one on the waiting list and will get a place, so you need to choose your new home very carefully then hold your nerve.

The local authority will have published a list of places offered against PAN for each school, and these are usually available online for the last 3 years. Check out all the undersubscribed schools that are accessible to you for the area, and see which are the most acceptable to you. Make sure that at least one of these usually-undersubscribed schools is the final choice on your preference list. You can then put more popular schools higher up your list, but the undersubscribed one will neverthrless probably be what you are allocated in round 1 - but don't worry, that is just your backup last-ditch fallback.

You then make sure that you are registered for voting/council tax/child benefit at your new address, hopefully very close to your favourite school, and make sure that the Local Authority and the schools know your new address and that they have adjusted your waiting list priority based on your new address. With any luck you may well get a school you genuinely like in round 2 or 3. Remember at this stage that you can be on the waiting lists for as many schools as you like. There is a lotof shuffling between April and September.

You can even hold out for round 4 if you (a) accept the disruption for your child being at a less-preferred school for a couple of weeks and then moving OR (b) If you can possibly arrange a month of leave from work (or other childcare arrangement) for September and hope that a place comes available before your employers run out of patience.