When to move to secure primary school?

[8DaysAWeek]

DS is 19 months old. He'll be starting primary school in August 2021.

I want to move house to a better catchment area to best secure a place at a primary school which feeds into a good secondary school.

I need to know when the latest is that we can comfortably look to sell up and move. When do you apply for primary school??

In an ideal world I'd be selling up now but of course house prices are so much more expensive in the catchment areas we want and we need to save up as much as possible!

Anyone any experience with this?

Don't know where you are at the moment, but don't assume that you need to move without checking out the local schools. We moved to where we are before I was even pregnant (but was planning on it). We half expected to have to move outwith Glasgow within 5 years (probably to East Dunbartonshire where I had been brought up and where my parents were/are where we had spent 2 years looking unsuccessfully before finding our house the first night of looking on the South Side, within 2 miles of where we were living at the time). We then found that a local primary school (Glendale Primary) had a fantastic reputation. Thought we would have to put in a placing request and then found out that it had a a weird catchment and we were in catchment already (even though it is further away than our closest school ).

We did have to put in a placing request for secondary school (Shawlands Academy rather Bellahouston, which is technically our catchment school) but to date Shawlands has always been able to accept placing requests.

There are also plenty of good feeder primaries to Shawlands, like Shawlands Primary or Langside Primary (can't remember the names of the others).

19 years later, the twinkle in our eye ds is now in S6 (so much for only being in this house for 5 years ) and I can't be happier with the schooling he has experienced . He already has two unconditionals for a popular course at Aberdeen and Strathclyde (he is still waiting on hearing from Edinburgh). His teachers at both primary and secondary have always pushed him to achieve his fullest potential - not just academically, but holistically too (sports, self-starting, motivating, socially aware).

That's a wonderful story prettybird! Certainly worthwhile looking into it all a bit more detail, which I'll spend the coming months doing.

Definitely worth checking with East Renfrewshire Council.
Not sure about primary entry but I understand that the current criteria for Secondary means that anyone moving in to catchment and starting a feeder primary during P7 and maybe even a bit further back than that?? won't necessarily be guaranteed feeder secondary if numbers are higher than places.
Not sure exactly where it leaves people on the priority list but definitely further down than catchment kids who have been in a feeder primary for longer.

No idea if this also applies to primary entry in case of oversubscription but maybe worth checking.

Check with Council
I might be tempted to move sooner rather than later
Mainly because if you wait you put yourself under pressure to get a house before whatever the deadline is
Also it's quite nice to get to know a few people before they start school

East Renfrewshire housing market is ferociously quick. Realistically Id start looking for a house now because you'll probably get outbid/pipped at the post a few times unless you have ££££ to spare.

There's every chance that if you leave moving till later then you might not actually have a home in catchment when you want/need one.

Mint - that is not correct. I think you are confusing those pupils who are in a feeder primary school on a placing request. If you live in the catchment area you get a place in the secondary. If you are in by a placing request then you have to make a placing request for the secondary and the longer you have been at the primary school will increase your chance of a secondary place if any spaces - but behind siblings. But in the popular secondary school - St Nin, Mearns Castle, Williamwood - fewer and fewer placing requests are successful as families moving into the area to get a catchment place.

Agree Senior, there was a letter out at the start of the year discussing the tightening up of catchments and placement requests.

A lot of East Ren is an ageing population, and as they retire and downsize families buy up these houses quickly and it adds further stress on the schools. It's only going to get more restricted as time goes on.

Senior I know that pupils in feeder primary via placing request are lower down priority than families who have moved into catchment more recently and have to place request again.
I could swear however that there's definitely something about not guaranteeing your place in feeder secondary now if you hadn't moved into a catchment address and feeder primary by a certain date (maybe part way through P6 from memory?). Think it was where automatic feeder numbers proved to be larger than secondary places available or something along those lines.
So in that case you would be above the placing request feeder pupils, but below those who had been in the area longer for automatic feeder entry if you see what I mean?
I definitely didn't imagine it as had discussions with a few other parents about it.
Probably unlikely that scenario would happen though as they'd skip ahead of any placing requests and presume at primary level they would do similar.

In the event that the number of applications from catchment pupils is greater than the
number of places available at that stage in the catchment school, all catchment
applications will be processed as placing requests with registration places allocated
based on the Council’s published placing request priorities. See “Making a Placing
Request or Request to Remain to a Roman Catholic or Non-Denominational Primary or
Secondary School in East Renfrewshire- Guidance Information and Application Form” for guidance

From Council website. So essentially where catchment pupils exceed places all catchment pupils are treated as placing requests and the priority kicks in.

One of those is length of time in feeder primary.

Again, probably worse case scenario as would still leap frog non catchment kids even if they'd been in feeder primary from P1 and you'd only had feeder address from P7.

Worth bearing in mind for OP though if also applying to primary registration.

Had another read through.

Looks like length of time is one of the priorities used for transition from primary to secondary (where catchment pupils with catchment addresses outnumber places.)

It doesn't seem to mention that same criteria for initial primary registration though so maybe OP ok for timing.

Mint - that only happens when catholic schools are over subscribed by catchment pupils and then priority is given to catchment catholics with baptismal certificates. In East Ren pupils now have 2 catchment schools - one non-denominationsl and one catholic and when catholic schools over subscibed catholics get priority