moving for secondary schools - any experiences?

[rollypolly80]

Hi,

Just looking for advice when it comes to moving houses for secondary schools. Been trying to figure out buying/renting a place now versus later - and have noticed that a few people suggest to wait and move for secondary schools. I've only recently moved to the UK and I am just not quite sure regarding logistics and would love to hear people's experiences.

In particular, if you've moved for (state) secondary schools i.e. as far as I understand you need to be in place Sept/Jan when the child is in year six. But what did you do about the last year of primary school? Commute back to the old one or just find a new primary for the last year? Was that difficult? I live in London - so am thinking that if I stay in the area (central) and move further out in the future then that could be quite a trek back to his current school. Would love to hear from anyone who's done it or has any suggestions/advice. Thank you

The deadline for secondary admissions is 31/10 so you need to be living at your new address by then.

Thank you. Will keep that in mind. Currently, I am looking a bit into the future - would you have any experiences on what people do re/primary schools when they move away for secondary schools?

No, we moved before we even had children into an area with great primary and secondary schools so we haven't had to move again (Now have one at primary and one at a top non selective state school) so very happy with what we did. Personally I would only move for primary if you moved to an area with great secondary schools - if I was only going to move once, I would do it for secondary schools.

We have just moved for secondary schools - oldest DC is in year 4 so we have changed primary school to the new area. We did commute back to old primary for a short while but it's 10 miles through rush hour traffic so not sustainable long term.
If you are in London and catchments are tiny it might be that you only need to move a few miles so can keep your dc at their current school when you move. If you need to move further then move as early as you can so your dc will be able to settle in to new school and make friends before moving to secondary school.

DC's junior school used to have an influx during Year 5 (it was an unpopular junior that was a feeder for a popular secondary).
I think that's probably a good time as it gives your DC long enough to get settled (and there is lots of flux in friendships in Year 5). That said, they had a few children join in Year 6 as well and they seemed to settle well too.

The main issue with moving primary school will be finding one that you like that has spaces at a non-standard entry point.

My post has reminded me that another thing to consider is whether your area has a "feeder school" system (i.e. certain primaries get priority at certain secondaries). If it does, just moving into area might not be enough to get a place at your preferred secondary.

interesting, thank you. DS is currently in year 1 - so debating buying locally and him staying where we are with the intention of moving again at a later stage and before secondary or just moving now for 'secondary' and change his primary at the same time. It's a whole new culture for me - great to have your insights

Whatever you do OP, don't do what we did which was leave it until January of Year 5 to put your house up for sale thinking it would sell quickly. Only to realise 6 months down the line that what you could sell it for wasn't enough to move to the area you wanted to and other (more affordable) areas just weren't going to be as good as where we are now 😐

@Meredusoleil ...hahaha.....that was literally was I was planning on doing if moving for secondaries in a few years. great to know that this might not be such a good idea. may I ask what ended up doing in the end?

its great to hear people's experiences of how this actually works in practice. :-)

We are staying put and hoping Dd1 gets a place at a school off the waiting list. As it stands, we have accepted an out of borough school in order to avoid our local secondary which although improving lots, is still not quite 'there' yet iyswim?