Applying for secondary schools from abroad

[Montemar2]

Hi, could anyone advise please... we are currently living abroad but are due to return to the UK just before our eldest daughter starts senior school in 2016. We still have a house in the UK which is rented long term. Can anyone tell me how We would go about applying for secondary school from abroad as I've been told you need to be resident in the UK at least 6 months before hand. Would that mean giving the Tenants 6 months notice? Many Thanks in advance

Unless you are abroad on Crown service or in the armed forces you cannot apply until you have returned to the UK. There is no requirement to be resident for 6 months before you can apply but you will need to meet the council's requirements for proof of address so check those out. They will be in the school admissions information on their website.

You have a permanent UK address so as long as you have proof of this, you will be fine. We applied from overseas.

We applied from overseas in March for Year 8 places starting in the following September, albeit to faith schools who are their own admission authority.

We were told by the local authority that we could apply if we were able to take up the places within 2 weeks of an offer. We provided a copy of the tenancy agreement showing that the house was due to be vacated in August and that we would be able to move back in at that time. We were staying with my ILs so actually used their address for the application along with the tenancy agreement.

One of the schools offered us a place in May for a September start. The other called us in July, a few days after we arrived back, offering a place but we'd already accepted the first.

It is worthwhile phoning the LEA and having a verbal conversation rather than emailing.

And call the schools so they take you seriously. Think one we look at was amazed when we actually turned up

I'm in the same position except returning for September 2015. I already knew but I spoke to the council on Friday just to check (desperate) as applications have to be in by end of October and they confirmed you cannot apply for state schools in our borough unless you are resident. You can apply the day you touch down so to speak. They can also tell you which schools you stand a better chance of getting a place at before you arrive. But owning a property makes no difference where I live, you can only apply when resident in UK. If you are thinking of private schools that is different and you can apply from overseas.

Interesting that people have applied successfully from overseas. In most LAs the rules are that you must apply from the address where you are currently resident unless you are in the armed forces or overseas on Crown service. If that is an overseas address you won't be entitled to a place.

It is worthwhile phoning the LEA and having a verbal conversation rather than emailing

If they say you can apply before moving back to the UK make sure you get that in writing. Then you will have evidence of what was said if they do something different.

I got a primary school place for DS about 10 weeks before we moved back to the UK, but I did have a rental contract for a house on which I was going to start paying rent from 8 weeks before we moved back. I think they may have stretched the rules a bit because I was moving back to the UK due to being suddenly widowed. I and my mother were in close phone contact with the LEA, and I went to see the possible schools in person when I was back in the UK for DH's funeral. I'm not sure if they'd have been so accommodating if it had been a planned move.

(that was an in-year admission, btw, but the same week was the application deadline for DD's reception place for the following September, so as soon as I knew which school DS would be going to I also had to put in that application on the basis of having a sibling at the school, as well as the address that we were planning to live at)

TheDogs was applying for an in-year admission. MEGirl: was yours in-year or for Yr7?

Montemar - is your local secondary school over-subscribed or is it easy enough to get places? Are there other schools nearby that would suit you? If so it could be OK to wait. In any case you could be a late applicant and take your chances on the waiting list over the summer, and if you live almost on the doorstep of the school you would stand a god chance because the waiting lists are in order of the admissions criteria, irrespective of when you join the list.

If you are in London, I would not take chances: for all our Secondary Transfer admissions we have had to show council tax and utility bills in our name at our address, at the time of application, in October.

Are you all working abroad? Could one of you come back in time for the October admissions and then travel back and forth until the summer?

Whether schools are over subscribed in your area makes a big difference to how you approach this, IMO.

Have you visited the Open Days? When will you do so?

We were applying for two Year 8 places and one Year 4 place. The DCs were already in Year 7 and Year 3 at the time of the applications. As I said though, we applied for faith schools, one of which is an Academy.

DD returned to the same school she was at before we moved overseas. We were told initially that there was no space but on the day we arrived back in the country we received a call to say that another child was leaving and that we could have the place. The Year 8 places were offered in the May, a couple of months before we came back, but I suspect that may have been because they were under subscribed at the time.

When our kids were in Year 6 there were many families where one parent brought the kids back to the UK and the spouse remained overseas so that they wouldn't miss out on Year 7 places. I guess we were lucky because we weren't caught up in the Secondary Transfer and as Tiggy said, we were applying for in-year admissions for both schools.

Yes, in a sense you were lucky, particularly if you got your preferred schools.

The OP appears to be applying as part of the normal admissions round which means she needs to be resident in the UK by the end of this month. Unfortunately it sounds like she has already missed the boat and therefore will have a limited choice of schools.

The OPs daughter is due to start secondary school in September 2016. To submit an on-time state school application they would need to be resident in the UK from October 2015 so it's not too late yet. If they are returning to an area where most state secondary schools are oversubscribed, returning early would be the best option, unless they can afford independent school fees!
"We applied from overseas in March for Year 8 places starting in the following September, albeit to faith schools who are their own admission authority."
For in-year admissions it doesn't really matter if the schools are their own admissions authority - sounds as if this family found a school with vacancies in the correct year groups. MEgirl's experience although encouraging doesn't mean that academies and faith schools are any more likely than other schools to have places available.
For all schools you still have to meet their admissions criteria (even if you are moving from abroad) so there's no point listing schools where you don't meet these criteria. For example, faith schools tend to have church attendance as a criteria and this may not include church attendance overseas.
HTH

No, it isn't too late yet but it is unlikely they will be able to get the tenants out of their house before the end of the month, which is why I think the OP has probably missed the boat. I agree that the best option is to move back to the UK within the next 3 weeks.

But if she's applying for 2016, she has a year to wait before having to be resident, in order to apply in October 2015?

Yes, she's applying for Sept 2016, not 2015, so not quite the panic!

But it sounds like Dogs and MEgirls experience isn't applicable to Yr 7 Admissions process.

Sorry - you are quite right. I got my years mixed up. So the OP has not missed the boat at all. She has 12 months to move back to the UK.

Hi all, Would like to know if anyone have experienced In Year admission for Secondary schools in UK from Overseas?? Thanks in Advance.

This is a zombie thread - you’d do much better to start a new thread, with more details about your situation.