School admission and moving

[user1497258834]

My youngest son has a place for secondary school for this September and we are considering moving out of the area 10 miles away but want to continue with the same school as we have another son at the school going into year 10 this September. If we exchange before the start of the new school year but complete after, is our school place safe? The school won't try and take the place away or ask us to move schools in the coming years?

Hi should add that we've lived in the area for 15 years and wanted to move to a new better house but can't for find anything except this house which is out of the catchment area. Our eldest has been going to the secondary school from the start and we want both boys to continue to go to the same school. Are we putting the younger sons place at risk? Or are the school comfortable with this as we are in the catchment when term starts and have an older sibling at the school already going into critical year 10. We would be devastated in either boy had to change schools. On the other side we love this new house too.

I was told by our council education department that it's the date you apply that's important (for us 31 October 2016) and once the place is allocated you can live wherever you like.

Ring up your council education department and ask. Or the school admissions officer. I found them both helpful.

Just to add - we put our house on the market in October and have only just now got a buyer. So we're unable to apply anywhere else.

The catchment for the school is really small this year - 1 mile, when it was 4 miles last year, so I was wondering if we had to find a new place within a mile to keep the place.

But no - was told as long as you can get them there, no issue, the place is yours. I don't know if it varies in different areas so I really would check with them.

They cannot take away your place simply because you move house. Even if you complete before the start of the school year your place should be safe. The only grounds on which they could take away the place would be if your application was fraudulent or deliberately misleading.

Thanks for the advice. I'll take your advice and call the council and school. I'll post an update here later.

Thanks prh47bridge. That's reassuring to know

I have just double checked with my local council's admissions office and they have confirmed that the offer will not get retracted if we move now. So one less thing to worry about.

That's good. Yes it's a relief to know it won't be messing their schooling up.

Please note I also contacted the school admissions and they confirmed my sons place is safe. Thank you for the advice.