What happens if you move between deadline to apply and admission?

[Feedtheducks]

We have to put dd down for schools this autumn. We are looking to move house but with little on the market this may take a while. What happens if we move after the deadline? Do we just get whatever place is left in the borough? (ie in an undersubscribed school?)

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It depends on your LEA, if you move to our LEA it prioritises children who move mid-year (including at the admission stage) and guarantees them a place in one of their two closest schools. other leas are different, but we found it less of a nightmare than we'd imagined, moving mid-year and having to change schools. we did it twice with 2 children.

I know it's worse in some areas but you need to check the lea admissions policies for your area.

Where I am, if you change address after the deadline for applications before they allocate places you are supposed to inform them and then you go on to the waiting list as if you were a late applicant. North London. I'd call the LEA and check if I were you.

We did this last year, in Surrey, and you go onto the waiting lists as if you are a late applicant. You will probably be allocated an undersubscribed school, but can stay on the waiting list for others if you prefer another (we did and a place came up about a month into term)

The admission process will be in full swing in the Autumn Term. You need to establish from the LA exactly what the situation is in the area. Don't rely on word of mouth get the official booklet and see what is there in black and white.

There will be a cut off date for submission of applications and the admission authority will use the current address for the process of seeing whether you can have a place at the school. Obviously the further away you are the less likely you are to get a place.

If you have no new address before the cut off date then you will probably be termed a late applicant and you will only be allocated a place after the initial allocations have been made.

So if you are looking for a specific school you need to have moved before the cutoff date to have any chance of getting a palce at the school in my opinion.

thanks all. i really failed to think about this in good time. dd doesn't start school till jan2012 so it didn't occur to me we'd have to think about it so soon...

Around here Jan 2012 isn't a start date. It is September 2011 or September 2012. You really need to look at the websites for LEAs where you may move. Also don't assume your child will just end up at a grotty school. There is a lot of movement on most waiting lists, also some areas of the country have falling roles.

No matter when your child will start school, the reality is that you will be making your preferences known to the LA in autumn term 2011. That gives you in effect 12 months to move to where you want to but you do need to pay particular attention to the LA information and the school admission criteria to ensure that you are moving into a house that actually does give you what you want in terms of schools - definitely do not believe anything estate agents say about school catchments etc.

If your DD starts January 2012 then you will be applying this autumn onwards as the place is for the year 2011-2012.

You will need to check what your LEA's policy is (and the one you will be moving into, if it is a different one).

We applied in one LEA and then moved house to a different area. DD is going to start reception in September. I did make sure that I looked at schools and houses together and only at areas where there would be spaces for both DD in Reception and DS, currently in Year 1. We have moved now and DS is enjoying his new school and DD looking forward to starting school.

You will not necessarily end up in a not-good school - schools may be under subscribed for various reasons.