Applying out of borough before move to borough...

[Stampingmyfeet]

Hello

Wondering if anyone can advise.

My dp and his daughter (he is her sole guardian) are moving in with me and my dc next Summer. She is currently in year 6 (as is my dd). Her primary school is in the neighbouring London borough.

Our local school is good and walkable to and I'd love both the girls to go there. It's also oversubscribed and operates quite a strict catchment cut-off.

However, if we apply as though dp and his dd are currently living at this address, this is fraud (even though they will be living at that address by the time she starts Yr 7). Dp and I have a joint mortgage on the house I live in (he bought out my ex), but he isn't on the council tax, nor is his child benefit registered at my house (because he doesn't yet live there!)

Is our only (legal) option to apply to the local school to me from her current address and then appeal on the grounds that she's moved?

Thanks in advance

Yes putting your address would be fraud.

Once moved she'd obviously move up the waiting list, but that in itself doesn't give you a reason for appeal and you'd be advised to also put down a school which she could get to from your house which isn't oversubscribed.

Thank you

I thought as much.

I guess we'll have to chance it and hope she gets in somewhere she will be happy. It's a bit of a bugger though!

What will happen is that when she does move, she will move up the waiting list (maybe even near the top if there is sibling preference, and you have a child at the school, depends on how siblings are defined).

Can't he move quickly, now? He has a couple of weeks to notify CB and CT! And you can show he is a co-owner of the house, and that you have joint mortgage.

But yes, if you wait til next summer, if your home is v close to the school, and she can be classed as a sibling (as step siblings living at the same address) then she will zoo up the waiting list.

Thank you both for replying.

I hadn't thought about the step sibling/waiting list aspect.

I've also seen that some governing bodies accept the exchange of contracts on a house as proof of future address. I'm wondering if we could do something similar.

I just don't want to do anything dodgy!

Is he paying council tax elsewhere?
I think our council tax is in my name only. But you would need to notify the council, before 31st Oct / application date, that you no longer wish to claim the single adults discount. He could write to the CB people, and notify the primary of change of address, and move in with you even if he tends to live elsewhere in the week

Do the girls want to go to the same school?

Does he want his dd to go t that school?

Is there a reason you haven't moved in time for this deadline?

We want the girls to go to the same school. They want to go to the same school.

My dp is a widower and his dd lost her Mum when she was 6. We've only been together 20 months so although things have moved very quickly (ie him buying the house a couple of months ago), we have had to think carefully about timescales and not rushing (esp his dd) into a big change. Maybe we are being over cautious (or not cautious enough!).

We are also extending the house so that there is comfortably room for everyone when they do move in and this won't start until Feb next year.

x

I can see why you want to be cautious and take great care, OP.

I wonder if there would be any mileage in a 'social and medical' application to the same school as your dd? Apply this month, put it first on the CAF and submit supplementary material explaining the circumstances, demonstrating that your DP has bought the house, and that you are having the extension done, and that when it is built and you can all move in together, he wants his dd to go to the same school as her step sibling because she has already lost her Mum and needs a close family, stability and to know tha she can go to the same school as her sister.

Don't suppose she ever had any support from social services or the GP or HV to help her with her Mum's death, or any issues since?

If you apply to this school now and cite the reasons, it will put you in a better position if you need to appeal in the summer.

It might be worth thinking about them moving in say May. It'll have give your family time to adjust and be certain, but won't be too late for the initial freed up spaces that there inevitably will be following allocations day.

You could phone the school or borough to find out how many places were offered from the waiting list in recent years, there is always some movement and she'd be a sibling so would probably go straight to the top of the waiting list.

In most LAs the circumstances would not count for social and medical but it might be worth a go to out it on the application form - don't ask, you definitely will not get.
I think the obvious answer is to move now before the end of October and make sure you inform the primary school of the change of address. However it sounds like that is not going to be realistic. The only alternative is to apply from the current address and cross everything. Normally admission authorities have a sibling link that includes other children living in the same house but they are not living together now and will not therefore be able to be considered as a sibling link.
As soon as they move in you need to inform the LA and the school so that you get some level of priority but I suspect that your best bet is that you apply, get turned down and then appeal. It would be really useful and improve your case no end if you can show that they are living in the home by that time. The appeal hearings will likely be in April / May time which might also be very tight for completion of the extension.

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate you all taking the time to reply.

Knowing that the appeal hearings are in April/May might make us reconsider the moving in date. DP's dd could conceivably commute for a couple of months as it's only a few miles up the road.

x

just so you have all the necessary information, whilst the cut-off date for on time applications is October 31st for secondary schools, there is always a period after this where parents who are moving house can alter the address without prejudicing the application being considered on time. This is usually sometime in December for secondary schools but you need to check this for the LA in which you live. After that date a request to change address will mean that the application is considered as a late application and your application will be considered only after all on-time applications. You do not want to do that, stick with an on-time application with the current address. As soon as they have moved in, if it is before the 1st March, you should inform the LA admission office but emphasis that you are informing them only for the purposes of communications and the original address stays for admission purposes. After the initial round of allocations of places, which happens on the 1st March, you should inform the LA admission office of daughter moving in, that this is the address to now take into consideration for admission purposes and that there is a step-sibling in the household.