Moving out of catchment after applying for catchment senior school

[ACS198213]

have a question around secondary school applications. Me and my sons father are separated, and the father was living in a flat for 18 months or so before applying for secondary schools. His flat was nearer to our preferred school so we put that address down on the form as son split time between both places equally and not likely to get in from my address. Father was still living at the same flat at the time of allocation in March and continued to do so until the end of May, so lived there for 2 years in total. When his lease came up for renewal, he decided not to as wanted to buy a house, so has moved back in with his parents temporarily while he looks for a house within the schools catchment area. Issue is now, july, I’ve had a call from the school saying there is a discrepancy with the addresses between the council and what they have (we had informed them of dads address a long while ago and was on file), I said to the school both addresses should be on there as he was living with both of us. But obviously at the moment dad is no longer at that address while he looks for a house. I wanted to know if the school can now withdraw the place as my son is no longer at the flat, even though at the time of application he was, and allocation and for two months after. And if this is grounds to do so, as people do move between allocation and starting the school sometimes?

There are a number of things to consider in your specific case.

A place cannot be withdrawn once offered except under very specific circumstances - unless it has been offered in error, a parent has not responded within a reasonable period of time, or it is established that the offer was obtained through a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application. This latter may be where the school is worried, that the address wasn't your sons actual address at the time (it should have been yours), or that the address was an address of convenience rented just for applications.

So normally, a perfectly above board move after allocations but before starting is fine. Some LAs do try to claim that places can be removed simply if you move between allocations and start, but if the move is genuine, they should not be doing so, and I would expect a place lost that way to be given back at appeal.

What does the admissions criteria say about proving address? In cases of 50/50 split residence, some will take either address as long as parents agree which, but some insist on using the address that child benefit is registered to. I assume in your case it is the former, otherwise they would have requested proof earlier than this. Given the length of your ex's residence, and presumably the fact he could if required prove his contract ended in May (and when it started) I don't think you should have any issues showing that the address was genuine at the time of application.

I would check back at what the criteria say about which address to use and reassure yourself you meet that criteria and can prove it.

@PatriciaHolm thank you for your quick reply. Yes father can prove he was there for two years and contract ended in May. Also on the application I declared my son stayed with his father during the week, which was the case as he worked from home and was able to do more! So we have done nothing wrong but I'm just worried they won't see it that way as the school called to say discrepancy on the addresses, and also I'm really why they have called now, in july, once my son has already done an induction day, and why not at the time of allocation

@PatriciaHolm but child benefit and doctors surgery registered to my address as never occurred to me to change it!

Well, all you can do at this stage is talk to them. It may be a simple administrative query about where to send documents, for example. You need to ask them.

Legalities aside, this is the oldest trick in the book and the schools know that. Genuine or not, you can't blame the school for believing that you have played the system. I live in an oversubscribed catchment, I get it - however if I thought that my child had missed out on a place by being say 0.89 miles away rather than 0.87 miles away (that is our current secondary boundary) and a child getting a place who now lives 2 miles away. I would be furious!

We've done it this year - talk to the council and it might well be easily ironed out.

We applied, had place offered and accepted at our 2nd choice - then moved shortly after offer day. LEA then rang us after that to say a place had come up at first choice and we rang the LEA to query as we'd obviously since moved out of catchment... and they were like "fine with that - you lived where you said when you applied" so we got the place.

You haven't done anything wrong

You were living in the catchment area when the place was offered

That place is now your DC no matter where you move to

You are moving due to a separation

This is in itself is traumatic for your DC

Loads of families move out of catchment areas at some point in their DC time at school.

They're not expected to move school but can if they choose to

It's fine don't worry about it

Probably someone has queried how ACSjunior got a place ahead of their child when they don't live any nearer. Unfortunately there are people who do game the system - eg by one parent temporarily renting a flat nearer the school. They're just checking out what the circumstances are: hopefully once they see that it was just happenstance and not you deliberately gaming the system, they will be fine about it.