admissions to state secondary school as a non resident

[Smidge16]

My daughter and I live overseas and when my contract finishes, want to live in England. We are both British and my daughter will be starting Year 9. The problem I have is that we don´t have an address in the UK and so need any advice on applying to state secondary schools from overseas. We will be finishing in the Middle East in June and want my daughter to start school in September.

I might be wrong but I think they will want proof of a UK address first.

I too believe you need a UK address.

You need to plump for an area, move there, then contact the LA and ask for a list of schools with places and apply to them.

Unless you are overseas on Crown service most local authorities will not accept your application until you have proof of a UK address. Some LAs won't take your application until you are living in the UK. I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about that.

Thanks everyone. Really helpful. Can I just ask though if I have to be resident at that address when I apply for the schools or can I apply for schools while overseas? Thanks for any help!

You should clarify with the council/school. However the requirement is normally to be actually living at the address. So for instance you couldn't rent somewhere for a year starting this October and use that address to make an on-time application if you had no intention of moving back till next June - that would be regarded as fraud.