Pls help figuring out in-year school admission when moving from abroad

[Hode]

This is my first post, so be gentle with me!

My partner lives already in Hampton Wick. Me and my 14 year DD shuttle between Switzerland and UK. I am already a UK taxpayer (Council Tax), so I have proof of address for the admission.

DD is in a school in Switzerland now, I don't want pull her out mid-term. We move definitively in mid July in to Hampton Wick.

LEA (Richmond) say the child need to be physically in London or the UK before we can apply for a school. I am now afraid if I make the in-year admission during the summer holidays we do not have a school place, because during this time no n-year admission are processed.

What I can do know, that she will not miss any school day in September? Our preferred School is Teddington School which is 0,5 m from our home. At the moment this school is oversubscribed, but they told me, because we live so close to the school, DD will be on the top of the waiting list. And in the summer time a lote of people are moving away, so the chance will be high to get a place after summer break.

Shall I send the in-year school admission now, to be sure that she have a place in September?

If I send the application now and LEA propose a school place straight away, can I talk with the school, that she can finished her term in Switzerland? Or will there a problem, like we lose this school place?

Sorry so long!! If anyone has experience with in-year admissions from abroad, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

you cannot send it now, what if a place opens up next week, they offer it to you and you cannot take it up? What I would recommend is moving here in the summer but aiming to do so a few weeks before the summer holidays. 1st July would be ideal. Maybe the Swiss school has broken up by then?

Agree with Sanam about trying to arrive early July. If there is a place she could even start them and hopefully make some friends for the summer holidays.You are in the fortunate position that there is also Turing and Grey-court within striking distance. I wouldn’t,t be surprised if places come up at Teddington since it’s recent Ofsted. I know people from your area who have also got in year places at Orleans.

Most schools expect pupils to take up places in a school relatively quickly after they have been offered a place but it does differ from place to place. On average they would certainly not expect it to be more than half a term.
I would question the statement about you needing to be physically in London to apply for a place because you can apply from any address as long as you can prove that daughter is living at that address. Any admission appeal process will take a minimum of a month to organise but you can only appeal when you have been rejected by the school. If you work back from the middle of July, when term finishes then to me it seems reasonable to be applying for a place in September at the beginning of June, knowing that any appeal will not be before early July. I would apply from your address in Switzerland with a note that your UK address is X , which you already own and will be moving back to in mid July.
Even then I suspect that there is a reasonable chance that any appeal will not be till September, as you are correct it is very unlikely that there will be any appeals held in August.
Getting back to the UK as soon as is possible has got to be best thing to do, but it is only fair that daughter finishes the year at school in Switzerland. No matter when you apply as soon as you are in the UK you need to get the address that the LA have altered to the new address and your position on the waiting list altered.

We did this last year OP. Same area too. We arrived mid July and I got the forms into the council that day. DD14 was offered an in year place within days at a very oversubscribed school. I can't believe how well it went after all my fretting!

You do have to wait until you are resident. Don't do anything now as it could have a negative effect on your application. For my younger DC still in primary, I turned down a place and they became highly suspicious of me for some reason. I ended up getting her into a school by ringing round myself and she didn't start until mid-September.

Teddington has had a weak ofsted recently so I presume DC will be moving/applying elsewhere so that should benefit you. As pp said, there is also Turing House, Greycourt, Richard Reynolds (if you are catholic though not sure you need to be) and Waldegrave though you could be a bit too far from them but always worth a try. There's also a new school RUT that has just opened plus others. So lots of options. Don't worry.

to know, I know people who moved to Richmond from abroad and the council asked to see the boarding passes showing they had flown to London already. So as previous poster says, just come in July and apply asap when kids are physically here.

yy, we had to send boarding passes to council with our application so really there is no way of doing it before you arrive unless you are back and forward the whole time and then I really wouldn't advise it because as I said previously, it is not nearly as bad as you imagine. Honest!

Thank you all very much for the friendly and very helpful answers.

LA has already informed me that I must enclose the last school report (translated into English), proof of address and boarding pass for application.

That's all not a problem. I received the school report directly from the school in Switzerland in English. I also have the proofs of address and a lot of boarding passes, because we spend almost every free minute here.

I'm just very afraid that my DD won't be able to start school in September because I sent the application too late.

But as you all has adviced me, I will wait and do this, when we live permanently here.