Move house now vs move child later – primary school dilemma!

[KS2305]

Hi all, I’d really value some perspective from families who’ve been through something similar.

We have a daughter who will be starting school in 2027. We currently live in Addington area (Kent) and the local schools are very good, but long-term our hearts are set on Otford / Sevenoaks (area, schools, being closer to family etc).

Financially, it would be just about possible to buy in Otford/Sevenoaks soon, but it would be a very tight year while we still have two children in nursery and I’m income-capped due to childcare funding. Waiting a year or so would put us in a much stronger position.

So the two realistic options we’re weighing up are:
Option 1: Stay where we are, let our daughter start school locally, then move later (meaning she’d likely move schools after Reception or Year 1).
Option 2: Sell up, rent for a year in Otford/Sevenoaks, so she can start school there and stay put — then buy once finances are more comfortable. Renting would feel a bit painful (in terms of wasted money and disruptive), but doable.

I’d love to hear from parents who have had the same dilemma/choice to make.

• How disruptive was a school move really at that age?
• Did renting feel worth it in the end?
• Anything you wish you’d known at the time?

Thank you 😊

Hi, I would suggest moving ASAP. The local primaries if good/outstanding will likely be oversubscribed meaning that if you wait until year 1, chances of a place being available is unlikely. You could then face years of waiting for a place or being placed in a school not close to your new home. This happens all the time, I am a teacher myself and our waiting lists are huge as well as some families who assumed they would get a place when moving into catchment mid-primary and now are commuting back to the old school- nightmare!

Just to add - we rented before buying near our daughter’s school and it was worth every penny. She’s in Reception now and I couldn’t imagine taking her out of her new friendship group. She would be so sad to do that. Whilst I’m sure she would adapt, it feels unnecessarily disruptive to do Option 1.

Good schools are likely to be oversubscribed, as PP said. You can’t assume you can move in R or Y1 and get the nice local, good school you want.

I’d move asap. Also helps with making friends etc.

@OnlyMabelInTheBuilding & @carbibarbie - thank you both! This is really really helpful and i am going to discuss this with my husband. Seems a no brainer to rent in the area we want whilst we have the crunch year of childcare and then we can afford to buy something we want. Thank you 😀

This is very sensible advice.

I would move sooner rather than later. Also, being a renter sometimes puts you in a stronger position for buying because you're not in a chain.

Check that if you sell up and rent that you would be able to get another mortgage again.
We looked at doing this but since my husband was self-employed and we had 2 kids, we foudn out that if we gave up our existing mortgage and rented, then tried to get another mortgage, we couldn't borrow much at all!
So we had to port our existing deal, and be part of a chain etc.

Move now. It’s now looking likely that we’ll end up with two kids in different schools as the area we want to move to are full for my son’s year. I wish I’d had the money to be able to move beforehand but it’s too late now :( If you can afford it at all, do it.

Move asap don’t disrupt her if you don’t have to - and you don’t . Get ahead of it.

People often speak of temporary renting in an area you wish to move to, as wasted money, but compared to the price of a house, the outlay is minimal. It also puts you in an excellent position for an onward purchase and gives you time to really determine what and where you want your future home to be.

Another thing to consider is that house moving is a big deal for a child and starting school is also a big deal. So IMO better (if you have the choice) not to overwhelm them with both at once.

What is the market like where you are moving to? If it’s slowed down, is there any chance you could make the tight year work? It seems like the less disruptive option.

Move now. Being in rented puts you in a strong position to buy. But if you really didn’t want to do that you could look for a project house/somewhere a bit smaller you could extend down the line so long as you could live with it for a year then do the work once you’re free of the nursery fees burden.

i moved area in October half term of just starting reception and then on waiting list for preferred school and moved again for Y1. Just done his gcse and is fine. You need to get a school place though when you move as they might be full

I wouldn't worry about the disruption element of it. An early/mid primary child shouldn't have a problem with a move (been there myself as a child and parent).

But as others have said, you're unlikely to get a place at a good/popular school at 6 or 7.

Tbh with you - we cannot afford to increase our mortgage at the moment and realistically cant until one child is at school. Moving in terms of a mortgage would mean a fairly big step up, one because Otford/Sevenoaks is expensive anyway but also we would want something we can grow with. Our house is lovely but a new build which is becoming too small pretty quickly! I can, however, rent for a similar mortgage price to now or even a little less and live with something that isnt perfect but is in the right area for school catchment and then once DD starts school and a lot of nursery money is released (as well as my husbands retraining being a lot further along the line) we can maximise and buy something for long term. My fear is that if we stay where we are until we can financially afford to buy in the area we want / have freed up money in childcare etc, DD would have started school so would be a case of moving her. Which you ahve all very rightly pointed out is not a great strategy!

We moved just in time to start reception and apply for reception place. Our now neighbours moved a year after and their son, whose the same age, couldn't get into the same school as it was oversubscribed (he still got into a good school but not what they wanted and not with my son who they knew would be a little buddy for their v v shy son). So I personally would move. Saying that kids 1-2 kids have left and gone to different schools and new kids have come into the class and settled well in reception & yr1 but I'd say definitely a different decisions yr2/3 onwards from other parents experiences.

If you know you want to be there ultimately just suck it up!

I grew up in Otford and my step mum is still there. Her new neighbours couldn't get their 5 year old into the village primary school so I would say based on that to move before you need to apply.

In terms of moving schools, children are very adaptable - both of mine have done it mid-term, the shy eldest moved in year 2 when we moved across the country, and the very outgoing youngest moved from our local village primary to a private prep in year 5. They were both absolutely fine, and just settled straight in no problems. However, you need to think about whether there will be space at your preferred schools if you don’t move before initial school placement allocation. If they are very popular, the classes may be full. So with that in mind it may be best to move sooner rather than later. However that does then tie you to a limited area to house hunt in when you are ready to buy I suppose, unless you are prepared to travel to drop your daughter to school (something we have done since we moved almost 10 years ago as we now live on a farm in the middle of nowhere so have to drive our children to and from school).

Moving them in reception or year1 is no problem. People coming and going all the time at that age and they're still really good at just making friends. Even moving anytime up to year 7 is acceptable. Thereafter don't even consider it unless something really dire happens.

It’s more about whether there are places available. Both schools in our chosen area are over subscribed :(

I don't know the geography but if it's commutable you could put in a placing request just now and move later?
That being said we moved my daughter after P1 because we weren't happy with the school, and she was nervous for maybe the first week but soon settled and made tons of friends. Was the best thing we ever did! She's P5 now and barely remembers anyone other than a couple of girls she kept in touch with from P1.

We did exactly this - our DD started school (reception) in one school then we bought in a different area and moved her so she started year 1 in her new school.
It was actually not that disruptive for her at all, she settled in very quickly. It depends on the child of course but most are very adaptable at that age.
Educationally it won’t make any difference.

The only thing to consider is how likely she is to get a place in your first choice of school? Check if they’re oversubscribed or not and likely to have spaces.
We knew we wouldn’t have this issue so felt confident she’d get a place at one of two schools in the area, and we got our first choice.

We just did this! Realised that the secondary schools in our area were a bit rubbish and that we wanted to be in a different city closer to family. Moved our eldest going into year 2. Best thing ever! We were really worried about it, uprooting him, changing his school and life etc. But he's absolutely taken it in his stride. We made sure we kept in touch with people from his old school (though he's largely forgotten now) and it helped that there was a bit of an overlap where we'd moved house but he was still in old school (which was about half an hour drive from new place).
Obviously, it's not ideal, but life rarely is. We have a better quality of life here, we know he's going to go to a good secondary, and he's made lots of new friends.
I would say that it probably gets harder as they get older, but we were pleasantly surprised with how he took it in his stride at 7.

I moved my child in year 1. They settled really quickly. The part that was harder was friendships were already formed, parents and children so it took longer to get to know people. Ideally I’d move for reception as my youngest started at the beginning of reception not knowing anyone and it was much easier and I felt we were included more.