Anyone have experience of In-Year Applications

[TwoFlatsasOne2019]

We are looking for DD to start a new secondary school next September (2020) - she would be going into Y9.
There are a couple of good schools in our area and we wouldn't mind which one she went to, though prefer one slightly more than the other.
I'm planning to make an in-year application mid-July 2020 for a September start.
Would it be possible to apply for BOTH the schools in our area?
How would this work?

Know experience, but I know a little.

• you can apply to as many as you want
• mid July is too late. Check with your LA what is the earliest you can apply for admission in the September, it is more likely to be mid June or so.

Assume you are at a middle school or independent at the moment? if you are at an independent you could possibly apply even earlier and take up a place after the indie has finished but before the secondary has.

Note that good schools may not have places, you may need to appeal. So don't assume you can just walk into a y9 place.

@prh47bridge or @admissions will be able to advise more competently.

No experience. (Changed my mind mid sentence).

No secondary experience.
We have just started at a new primary (well, last month).
For us, it was very simple. Places offered within one day of contacting the council - we were allowed to apply for 3, but they had already told me where had the spaces I wanted.
Others (yes, I know lots of people moving country, and hence school) have had a much harder time.
So, I'd say it totally depends on where you are in the country. But also apply 3 weeks before term ends - we had to be in school 3 weeks after accepting the offer.

This is the current Hampshire rule:
You can apply for an in-year place up to four weeks before the place is needed. Exceptionally, in-year applications requesting a September start will be considered from 11 June 2019.

Definitely look to apply in mid June, no later or you will probably not get an appeal date till mid September, assuming that both schools are full.
You can apply for school places at as many schools as you want to but just in case there are places you would be best to firstly speak to the school and ask whether they are full or not. If they are full apply by the middle of June. If by remote chance the school has a place then you need to ask them whether they will accept an application for a September start. It is quite likely that they will say that you need to take the place up within 4 to 6 weeks, different LAs have different rules over this. You will then have a difficult decision to make, accept the place and move before you want to into the new school or hold off the application and hope that nobody else applies and grabs the place.

Thanks for the advice everyone.
Will definitely apply mid-June, if not before, then.

Not at an independent school but our summer holidays do start earlier than the British schools - two weeks earlier - so would be great if she could start for the last two weeks of Y8 to get settled in.
Hadn't thought of that, so thanks @TeenTimesTwo

Won't be appealing, as DD could just carry on at her current school until a place came up, but I presume if we didn't get a place, we'd just be on some kind of waiting list?

The child does need to be resident in the UK to apply, I think.

So if you are currently abroad I think you and she would need to be actually in the UK.

I presume if we didn't get a place, we'd just be on some kind of waiting list?

No waiting list for in year applications in our LA, you basically just had to keep putting in new applications each time you were turned down!

So if you are currently abroad I think you and she would need to be actually in the UK

Different LAs have different rules on this. Some will accept applications from overseas provided you have a confirmed UK address, others won't accept an application until you are actually in the UK.

Nothing to add to Admissions reply which covers it all nicely.

No, we're not abroad, just not in a British school.
We're actually just applying to all our local secondaries - we apply to the schools directly for in-year, so I'll probably give both schools a call.
Thanks everyone!

I know someone who moved from abroad mid year in the first year of the GCSEs course. They had to apply when they got to the UK, London. Was offered a couple of schools and they started the next week. Child was interviewed. Child had to drop language GCSE as the language they’d studied-the home country abroad- wasn’t a standard school language. Also had to do a lot of catchup work on some courses, as the child was doing IGCSEs abroad and had to swap to standard GCSEs here. Child worked hard at home to adapt to the new courses.

You've probably thought about this already, but you may need to weigh up the advantage to staying in current school for all of next academic year against the risk of not getting a place at one of your two preferred schools at all.

ie It may be better to apply now and move early if a space comes up rather than hoping you can get in for the start of a new academic year.

(Sorry to have disrupted with mis-suggestions you may be abroad).

We did mid year application when moving areas - they did close down over the summer so definitely apply earlier than mid July. Once you are in the area both our old and new areas had waiting lists - in one in was automatic, in the other you just got sent a rejection and then you had to phone and request to be added to list. I thought they didn't have a waiting list but one time said on phone there's no waiting list and then lady explained there was but not automatic.

We got places in our first choice school but were moving very close to it.