Moving and schools

[Izzpop]

Hi all,

We sold our own house 2 weeks ago and today had a offer accepted on new property so are qt the beginning of the whole buying/selling process. We are moving 2 hours away from Bedfordshire to Worcestershire. Can anyone advise what we should/could be doing with regards to school places? Should we be approaching schools to see what availability they have? Also when are we able to apply for school spaces? It's all very confusing! Anyway advice would be appreciated!

We’re in the middle of the same thing (and also moving to Worcestershire!). I rang round schools to see if they had spaces and also contacted the schools admissions team at the LA. You need to apply through the LA (assuming it’s state school you’re after) even if you know your preferred school has a space.
We were told we had to be able to take up a place within 6 weeks of it being offered.

I’ve just seen on your post on another thread that it’s Malvern you’re moving to - so are we! If you want to know anything I might have found out about primary schools then give me a shout!

Okay thank you. I'll make a start speaking to the schools to see if they will provisionally have spaces in the right year groups. Am I right in thinking you can't apply until you have at least exchanged contracts?

We moved a couple of months ago and moved primary school. It may be different between LA, but we couldn't apply for school places until exchanged (got a letter from solicitor confirming exchange and completion dates). As soon as exchanged and got letter, we sent this with the application (filled in firms, scanned, and emailed). Prior to this I had emailed the local primary to check if there were places (about once a month for about 3 months). First to check about places, and follow ups were to confirm if places still available.

And then we had to start within 4 weeks of accepting the place.

No, you can apply at any time, you just need to be able to take up a place within 6 weeks of them offering you a place.
We applied about a week or two after having an offer accepted, but it took us 5ish weeks to get to exchange.

The above info is for Worcestershire - other LAs are probably different!

@Clettercletterthatsbetter

I’ve just seen on your post on another thread that it’s Malvern you’re moving to - so are we! If you want to know anything I might have found out about primary schools then give me a shout!

Yes it is Malvern. Looking at Dyson Perrins for my eldest and possibly Somers Park for my youngest. Though might also consider Northleigh.

Ah great thank you. I think we are a way from exchange yet as our seller is deciding whether to look for a property or going into rental. But useful to know we can apply earlier. I was expecting to have to wait until exchange.

I think it depends by county. We weren't able to apply for schools until we'd exchanged and could take up the space within 10 days. So my children couldn't start until about 5 weeks after we moved due to delays in allocation.

I knew our area was severely oversubscribed so I created a spreadsheet of all the schools in the area, noted their distance, ofsted rating, absence stats, if they had wraparound care. This helped shaped my top 3 for the application, and prepared me so I knew immediately what schools I would consider or discount immediately with their counter offer should my top 3 not be available.

I couldn't do much more than that sadly and obviously couldn't visit schools etc. It has been the worst part of our move as although we got our 3rd choice it takes a good 40 mins to do the school run which I find really frustrating. They're on waiting lists for our nearer top choice schools.

We haven't exchanged yet but I applied 2 weeks ago as LA said you had to apply 2 weeks before you need the place, as it's coming up to our end of term on Friday (Scotland) I applied 2 weeks before end of term I've received a phone call to say DC has a place starting 17th August. Completion date is estimated to be 30th July at this point. Do fingers crossed it'll all work out.

I'm in Malvern.

I'd avoid Northleigh. I moved my DS from there as did many other parents in a mass exodus last year. It's now part of the same academy as Somers Park but friends who still have kids there are not giving good reports.

I'd stick to Somers Park - maybe Malvern Vale campus if you can (child will need to be going into year 3 or below as it's a new school building up).