Relocating from overseas

[Emy78]

Hi all,

First poster although look through the boards with interest and very useful.

I’m hoping to get some advice on secondary transfer and continuing interest.

We are a family of 5 with 3 girls (currently years 3, 6 and 8) navigating a relocation back to UK after 10 years abroad. Husband with company transfer to London office (Jan-21) and plan is to rent in Herts initially.

Have researched the process and been in touch with HCC for in year and secondary transfer who have been very helpful.

The in year process I guess will be what it will be when we arrive seeing which schools have places (aiming for St Albans but open to Hertford, Harpenden, Hitchin, WGC, even as far north as Royston will be wfh 2-3 days a week so longer commute not a dealbreaker).

The main challenge we’re facing (on a long list!) is by moving on in Jan we miss the normal Dec deadline to be resident for dd secondary trf. It will be difficult to move any earlier for work reasons. Given this we will at the mercy of the first continuing interest in early March.

My main question - is there any way to gauge how successful continuing interest will be depending on a schools history of over-subscription?

Its extra difficult as we need to list our schools before knowing where we will find a rental property. The 4 we are thinking to add are Sandringham, Beaumont, Sam Ryder and Sir John Lawes. I know, I know - we are not making things easy for ourselves!!

Do we take the plunge and hope for the best finding a rental in the right area to stand the best chance of a CI place? Which i’m not very hopeful of.

Or, aim for a different area and schools (other than St Albans and Harpenden) to stand a better chance?

For example, if say we find a house within 0.5 miles of the school should this give us a reasonable chance of being at top of CI?

Any advice appreciated on the realities of what we are about to face!!

Thanks
Emy

We are thinking to rent in St Albans but not sure this is the best plan if unlikely to get a place through CI. The difficulty is having to select 4

It’s a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. However, basing yourself in St Albans gives you a number of great secondary schools - if a place comes up and you are highest on the list of admissions criteria (I.e. you live next door) then you’ll get it. Thing is, everyone wants those St Albans schools so everyone will be doing the same. Places do come up but not regularly - they don’t have such transient populations as London.

There are other great locations you could consider too. Berkhamsted has Ashlyns School, there’s Tring School and Clement Danes which are all great schools and in locations with a great commute into London. I know a boy who applied for a place at Ashlyns for Y7 but didn’t live in the town. He was offered a place 9 months later. Berkhamsted has access to three grammar schools (in that you are out of county and catchment but many children from the town get places). This means that when In year places come up at the grammar schools then children do move. This is something you don’t get in St Albans.

I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. There aren’t any easy answers to your question.

Secondary applications for year 7 are made in .October, so a few weeks . Whever you move you submit a late application listing your preferences, but even then you may find the place offeed (in March) is at a different, less oversubscribed school. For places in January 2021 you would make an In Year application and for primary it is likely to be wherever there is a vacancy , possibly not together. If your eldest gets a place at one of your preferred schools there may be sibling priority applied to to your dc2 secondary application. Address may be prioritised ahead of sibling link or below, you need to check each school's admissions policy.

Can either you (alone) move a few months ahead of DH to set things up, or can he go in Jan and set things up and then you and children join him in March? That’s how we’ve done international moves. One of us always goes at least 2-3 months before the rest of family to secure a rental, cars, and start the in year school applications. It means a bit of overlap- paying for two homes at once. But worth it to move the children door to door and not risk them having months with no schooling.

Re-Reading your OP. When we moved to the U.K. from the US, it was middle of school year too. What I did is contacted the county office for the schools and asked them which schools had places for my childrens’ years. They track this information by school for the county. We then targeted the village/town that had the most places that could be matched up to our children. The school people can’t “promise” places but these were openings that would only be filled by another family moving earlier with children in same years. So chances were, we had high probability of securing them school places within weeks of securing a local catchment area address.

Then my DH moved first in January. I stayed with children selling our home and they stayed in US schools. DH secured a rental property in the village in catchment area with lease starting in February. He then immediately put in school applications with requested start date for Summer Term (after Easter Break) this was in April. The applications went to county, who then approve the school place contingent on the individual school saying the child meets academic requirements for the year. I then got the specific school records/grades sent over to DH that the individual schools requested. I had sold the house in January, and set closing date in March. Packed up house and moved to U.K. in March. Children started school in U.K. in April.

It helped too that if DH needed school records to submit to the individual schools, I was still there in the US and could walk into their schools and get the needed records quickly. If we’d had to do it from the U.K., I’m not sure they’d have understood what we needed or been as quick getting it sent to us. What with data protection laws and having to prove your identity. It’s easy to do that in person with ID when the school knows you as your child’s parent. Not so much by telephone or email from another country.

Did HCC give any indication of possible vacancies for your yr8? If sibling takes admission priority then getting her somewhere is your priority. Then your yr6 late application will be top of the wait list.

Thanks all. A lot of interesting points made. Will widen our property search area and not limit our options too much. On schooling will take it step by step and make an on time application for Y7 transfer in Oct with a few varied choices. Then see how In Year options are looking as we get closer to moving. Maybe we will get lucky. Moving date not confirmed with everything going on right now so all up in the air. Then two weeks quarantine before we can look for a place. It will be a experience whatever happens!!

@emy78 how did your move go? Where did you end up? We're about to make a similar move after many years abroad and I'm so worried as we've missed all the schools deadlines. We're looking in St A and Harpenden x

Unless you are applying for Reception or secondary y7 (or occasionally y3 junior transfer or middle schools in some areas) there is no formal deadline. You would make an In Year application.