Haywards Heath Secondary schools advice please?

[AussieMuminUK]

Hi all, my family is moving from Australia to Haywards Heath in August (my DH is taking up a job nearby). The plan is to stay long-term. I have a DD who is 11 and will be starting secondary school in Sept. and a DS age 8. I understand this is an awkward time to move but he was only offered the job 2 weeks ago!
My questions are:

1. Is it worth it to rent as close as possible to our school of choice (Oathall) to be in the catchment area)?
2. If we are offered a place at a school we don't want can we turn it down but stay on the wait-list for our next choice (I would homeschool meanwhile)? Thanks in advance, I'm finding this all unknown stuff regarding our children quite scary! ??

Oathall and Warden Park are both good schools. St Pauls is too but very catholic. The first two take from wide catchment areas but are both very popular. I would suggest that you phone them to see if there are places before commiting to rent. Renting nearby would be better and having a child that can walk too and from school is great. Oathall is on the Lindfield side of town. Ardingly also feeds in.

We had a similar situation moving from abroad to Haywards Heath. We applied out of catchment and got a place into Year 7, we did have the advantage of a house to come back to which helped. Would recommend to contact the schools asap. Also I found West Sussex school admissions very helpful as they will send all the forms you need. If your eldest is going into Year 7 that will help as it is an entry year. The primary school place might be more difficult; we couldn't get our youngest into our catchment school. Good luck with the move!

Thanks Flappingandflying and giddybiddy for answering my post, it was very heartening to get some replies :)
We have called the schools and council and all have basically been friendly but given us the same line" "Until you are here we cannot even start the process", but my DH will be there for work in a couple of weeks and see them in person, so hopefully he can get a clearer picture of what to expect!
Thanks for the tip about primary schools being potentially tricky. Do you mind me asking which school it was that your youngest into? I'll get the hubby to go round to them too!