Moving back to the UK - Residency, In-Year places & Waitlists - Catch-22!

[CataKiwi]

We're planning to move back to London from New Zealand in 2016 and the first peg in the ground is finding a secondary place for our 13 and 15 year olds starting in September. Both are musically gifted so we'd like to be able to find a school within commuting distance to the City to match.

This is the dilemma - Quite apart from the scarcity of in-year places anywhere, and the reluctance for schools to take in-year admissions for year 11, the Catch-22 is this : We can't waitlist until we are resident and we can't move until we have a school place because that determines where we live.

If we move immediately to get a good spot on a waitlist then our kids are going to be out of education, sitting on their hands for 6 months on the off chance something materialises.

There must be a way - we'd need some advice !

We went private when we moved to the UK because we couldn't get a place in the secondary school 3 minutes' walk from the house.

Hi CataKiwi, the appeal was successful because the school and LA had originally said we could use our existing address to apply from, even though we weren't resident as the time of application (moved back in a few weeks before term started). After we had applied on this basis, the school changed its mind. The appeal panel decided that the school had made mistakes during the application process, and we had all the emails to demonstrate this. It was a really unpleasant experience to be honest, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go to appeal unless they have a lot of time and emotional energy to expend!

And yes, schools and LAs are wise to people using temporary or family addresses to apply from, and if found out, the child's place could be withdrawn, even after they had started at a school.

Good luck with the move, hope it all goes well for you!

Not all international schools would do IB, in fact relatively few schools in UK follow it in middle years, but each will differ .You may well find that they offer iGcses instead, then IB in 6th form instead of A levels as do many other private schools. An alternative may be a fe college which takes 14 -19 year olds and has more flexibility although you may struggle with the music criteria and prefer to look for alternative extra curricular specialists.

Not all interntaional schools do the IB some offer A levels in sixth form.
It really depends on your dcs but if you are thinking of returning down-under for university the IB could be useful.
If you are thinking of university in the UK, check the UK residence requirements to qualify as a home student as this could also affect the timing of your move.