Thick question about applying for 1st school place - when do I need to be living in the 'catchment' area [shudder]?

[spicemonster]

I have a 2.8 YO DS and my grand plan is to leave London and move out to the seaside before he starts school so that we can spend more time together (would cut back on working hours).

I don't know what the deadlines are though in terms of school applications and how long I have to have been living there before I apply.

His birthday is in March, so presumably he would start school following September (ie Sept 2011). When do I have to start applying for a place? And can I move to a new house the month before I submit the application or do I have to have been living there a while (assuming school admission criteria is proximity rather than religious persuasion).

I know this is clueless but I am! TIA

Hi there

It depends on your local authority as they all seem to have different deadlines. We had to apply by Dec 18th last year, for a September entry this year (Kent). It was quite stressful as we were moving house to meet the deadline and only completed on the 10th December - so it was tight!! You had to submit proof of address at that point which was a rental contract, or I think that exchange of contracts for a purchase would have sufficed.

It will vary from council to council but generally you'd want to be living there by Dec 2010 - April 2011 (check with local council), unless children in the attached nursery get priority in which case it would be a year earlier.

Generally if it is based on proximity you need to be living there by the application deadline.

I would say to be on safe side you would want to move by the end of summer 2010 as admission forms and chances to view potential schools all starts around end of september (deadline here for form entry is november)

Depends on the LEA - here in Hampshire primary school applications for 2010 have to be in by the end of this week - 20th November.

They ask for proof of residence at the address so as long as you have something official with your new address in the catchment on you should be ok.

Ah cool. We will be moving to Kent so will check. Winter would give me a bit more breathing space - I am going for promotion next summer and I need to get that in the bag before I even consider handing in my notice and I have to give 3 months so having to be there in summer would have meant knocking that on the head.

We will rent for a bit anyway I expect so that we're not doing the whole buying/selling at the same time thing which is just too much of a nightmare.