Please Help, need an Urgent advice.

[Raju06]

My boy is in year 6, has been assessed suitable for grammar school in his kent test and offerred a school place in Maidstone grammar school for year 7 to start from September. I need to give the Maidstone grammar school my decision : accept or refuse by 15th of this month(March). As my husband is in army, been told it's confirmed, he will be posted to Shorncliff army barracks in June this year but we havent received his posting order yet, however expecting next week. Our plan was to refuse school place in Maidstone grammar school and apply in Shorncliffe but unfortunately, we haven't received his posting order yet. I am not sure, what shall i do if posting order not received next week? Very indecisive, either to refuse this offer or to accept? Even though my husband gets posted in June in Shorncliffe, we been thinking he will commute to his work from Maidstone until the completion of our year 6 in July and move in army accomodation at the end of July but would like to secure a year 7 place in Shorncliffe now. Need advice please,

personally i would decline the offer so it can go to someone else if you are not going to be using that school and do an application to the school where you are going to be living if you are certain that is where you are moving to.

For now, accept the grammar place because that way you know your son has a school place for September, especially as your husband may be able to commute.

You also need to speak to the LEA in Shorncliffe about school places there. Usually, you need a confirmed address in the new area to be able to apply for and get a place but make it clear to them that you are an army family moving for a posting - they should be ready to accept a posting order as evidence of change of address and the Fair Access Protocol will help you if schools there are full.

I wouldn't worry too much about accepting the offer. All state schools operate waiting lists - if you accept then withdraw, it will just make someone's day a bit later on in the year. (My son's on the waiting list for his first choice school where we live - apparently there is likely to be a lot of shuffling around of waiting lists over the next few months).

AFAIK, all the advice in the press seems to be "take the offered place, then set about making alternative arrangements".

Definitely take the place as if something goes wrong and your move gets delayed you could end up with a not pleasant alternative .

DD’s grammar in SE London give priority to not just Pupil Premium but Service Personnel too so do check if you can jump to top of any waiting list. The school you are applying to may be more flexible with address evidence than regular transfers and the posting order may be sufficient but for most folks we have to wait until we are at the address before we can apply so our experiences may not always apply to army families. Good luck with the move.

Thank you everyone for your invaluable advice, it helped me a lot in decision making, thank you.