Can the local authority remove my daughter's secondary school place?

[Kare1977]

Hi,

My daughter is currently in year 6 and we have accepted a place at her preferred secondary school; my son is already in year 9 at the same school. We currently live in catchment and have done for the past 13 years but we are planning on moving and would then live out of catchment by one road!!

There is a possibility we might move house before she actually starts in year 7 and I wondered if this was the case and the local authority found out could the rescind her place and make her go to another school??

The school we have a place at at the moment is very over-subscribed and I know competition is fierce to get in.

Many thanks
Karen

They cannot take the place away just because you move. The only way a move could trigger loss of the place is if they think you gave false or misleading information on your application. If you have lived at your current house for several years that is very unlikely. However, you should tell them about your move when it happens. If you don't that may make them suspicious that you are trying to fiddle the system.

Thank you.
This is reassuring. No we've definitely not tried to fiddle the system and all the information on the application is 100% accurate. We weren't in fact planning on a move at all but our circumstances have changed. I would inform the local authority of our move but didn't want them at that point to say she couldn't go there!
Thanks again.

Just ring them and ask - we were moving during the period for school applications. I spoke to the school and the headmistress kindly rang the council in front of me and asked for advice. The council said two things, as long as we were physically living in catchment when we submitted the form it did not matter if we moved as long as we told them we moved so we were not trying to deceive them. We ended up extending our rental until the day after the deadline for applications and then contacted the council to tell them our new address. We had submitted our form in January, moved out of catchment in February and our children started in September and the council was all fine with it as we had told them the truth.

There is no need to ring and ask. The Admissions Code is clear. Once an offer has been made it can only be removed in very limited circumstances. The place cannot be withdrawn simply because you move.

Is there a sibling policy at the school? If so you would still be in a top category anyway, surely?

Or is it siblings within catchment?

This was us - we moved in between allocation and starting secondary. The local authority were very clear, the offer stood as we had lived at our previous address 10 years and applied whilst still living there.

Thank you so so much everyone for taking the time to reply! I feel I can look forward to a move now and not worry about her losing her place x

I would check with your area - I know some London schools now have rules that you have to live at the address at the date of application (Oct) AND the date that school starts (following Sept). I know of a school that literally removed kids in September because of this so it does happen.

PhoenixMama I have known that happen too - but only when a family had moved , or 'moved' , into a rented flat to apply and then moved back to their original house before or when school started.

Like Incey, I have known it happen when the move turns out to be 'back' to a previous address out of catchment, or out of a very short-term rental of an obviously unsuitable property (e.g. 1 bedroom flat for family of 5) made purely for admissions purposes (ie the change of address flagged up possible admissions fraud, which investigation then shows to have taken place).

I haven't encountered it happening because of a genuine house move between two genuine long-term addresses.

(And I should add that my understanding is that it shouldn't happen because of a genuine house move, according to the Admissions Code, as prh says. It may be that someone says 'Oh, my place was removed when I moved house', because nobody really wants to say 'I tried to commit admissions fraud...but i was found out'! Certainly those who I know had places removed for fraud told a VERY different story at the school gates....)