Big house/ area move between year 6 and 7- how?!

[Movingonup84]

We are seriously considering an area move for our family from a London suburb to a West Sussex town, in most part for the more outdoor lifestyle- we think the new area will be best suited for our family for the long term future. It’s about an hour’s drive from our current house.

Our kids are currently in year 5 and 3, and to keep disruption to them to a minimum, we thought we would make the move once the eldest had finished year 6 at their current (lovely) primary in London. However the school application system seems to make this very difficult and I wonder if I’m missing something? Surely people must move area all the time at this age and stage?

It appears we have to be living in the new area by the time the secondary applications go in in October, which means our eldest can’t finish year 6 in their current primary school. We would need to find 3 primary places in the new area (the year 5s are twins). It feels crazy that there’s no smooth way to move house/area between primary and secondary school, which seems to me an obvious junction at which to move a family if you need to. I understand that the school are trying to prevent admissions fraud and ensure local kids get a spot at the local secondary schools, but we aren’t trying to cheat the system. We will genuinely be spending the next 10-20 years in the new area, and well within the usual catchment intake. Is there any way we can make this move without taking our eldest out of their primary school prematurely? They would be really distressed to leave their class that they have been with since reception. Is it worth talking to the new secondary school about our plans? Seems unlikely that they would make exceptions, but has anyone had success with this before?

I’m not keen to rent somewhere in the new area and lie about where we are really living. Firstly because I’m not up for lying, and also, don’t they ask which primary school your kid is attending on the secondary application? Surely that would raise a red flag?

If it makes a difference we own a house in London, but it’s a fixer upper and not fit to be rented out. We would plan to sell our London house and rent in the new area first to get a feel for which bit we would like to live in long term, but would be willing to do some other combination of buying/ renting if it would make the transition easier for the kids.

Would appreciate thoughts from anyone with any insights, or anyone who has made a similar move before- thanks.

You need to move asap
into the secondary school catchment, so that you are living in the area for the 31 Oct deadline, and then take any primary places for years 5/6. If you move in the Summer after year 6, you’ll end up with the unwanted Secondary schools places.

Waiting lists are ordered in admission priority rather than first come first served. That means that if you rent somewhere very close to your preferred school you would most likely jump straight to the top of the waiting list and would be very likely to get a place for September in the vast majority of schools

You other option is to commute for Primary schools in Yr6.

We moved in Year 5 (with second child in Yr3). Elder child had no problems moving school at that point, and made lovely friends ahead of Secondary.

Move, get an address, then ring the LEA, and say you need a Y7 (plus the twins places) place for immediate start.
If you rent near the school, you will be near the top of the waiting list.

I agree you should move now. One massive advantage (apart from the obvious one of being able to apply for secondary as part of the usual process) is surely that your DC currently in year 5 can meet new friends who will be going to secondary with them, make contacts, go to events at the new secondary, go to transition days.

Even if you were able to move at the end of year 6 and parachute into a chosen secondary place (which you can’t - you would be relying on someone turning down a place between end July and start Sept, well after the main round of waiting list readjustment in March-June for secondary, as people decide on private or have appeals to another school granted), well – your child would know no one and would have left behind all their year 6 friends to go somewhere completely different.

PPs saying you will jump to the top of the WL at end of year 6 are not wrong, but it’s risky as being at the top does not mean you will get a place there – someone has to move. I wouldn’t risk that myself if I had a clear plan as you do.

Secondary is a hard enough change anyway. If I were you I would make it as easy as possible. I’m sure you will find a good primary for your year 6 DC – and even if it’s not perfect, it’s only a year.

Thank you all. Your replies are so appreciated. It’s not going to be as seamless as I had hoped whatever we do.

We are doing exactly this but this year!
Wanted to move for a few years, however didn’t want to take my eldest out of school until he left Primary.

So first of all we waited until after the secondary school places had been allocated and then rang all the schools to see if any had places. Luckily the one we wanted did (usually oversubscribed so worked out well for us)
I then emailed the council (who originally advised I needed a permanent address first) and told them I had spoke to the school and they are happy for me to have a place. A few weeks after admitting the application form we were given the school place (yes without an address!) They just told me to tell them when we have moved in and to let our council know we no longer need the school place which we haven’t done yet (just in case)

We were keeping an eye out for rentals for a few months in the mean time. One came up last month, viewed the next day and got accepted for it. (we get the keys end of May but are not moving in until school finishes) This will cost us a lot initially as we will have 2 houses to pay for but couldn’t see another way. We then put our house up for sale - currently negotiating offers but haven’t yet sold.

The council also told me I couldn’t apply for my primary school child until after Easter (I applied last week) with the proposed new address for a September start. I haven’t yet heard back from this but I haven’t got high hopes as I know the school we want is currently full. We may have to either go on a waiting list or go to a school further away.

We are quite lucky my partner can work from home (I am currently discussing this with my work) and also earn enough to be able to afford 2 houses for a short period of time.

Good Luck!

Now is the perfect time to move. Gives your eldest chance to meet some friends on Y6 for high school rather than staring high school not knowing anyone.

We’ve just done an international move an applied as late applicants because of it. We knew that this wouldn’t be ideal for school applications but we’ve made sure we are high up on the waiting list. We are currently number 1 for our first choice.

It's a risky gamble as you need two places; the area you're moving to could still be at a peak for their birthrate and you could be allocated a "sink" school with no chance of ever moving from it.

Better to be in a sink primary for one year than a sink secondary for five.

Often if 1 of a twin is accepted, then the second is also accepted as an 'excepted pupil'. So your 3 may not be harder than trying to find places for 2. However you may need to accept different schools at least to start with.

Move now don’t wait. We had friends in a similar position and were stuck with a terrible secondary school for all the children. Lots of time to make friends etc. in year 6 and bond over the leaving events too.

I did this, I rented in the new area . It was different as I was divorcing so ex put council tax for the old house in his name but you could rent it out. I drove dd 60-90 mins to school every day for a year!! And then I worked in the car or in a cafe as I wfh 4 days a week. Was very tough but worth it as I’m so glad she finished y6 with her class.

Just saw you can’t rent out your current house. In that case I would put the key bills in a family members name.

i had no problems, was never checked up on, and as you say with you, I was doing it for valid reasons.

i really don’t regret the commuting back to her primary but if it helps she is no longer in touch with anyone from that school and her friends are a group who all went to the primary here she would have gone to if I had transferred her. At the time though, she and I just couldn’t have coped with that transition at the same time as a divorce.

However you have other children to consider and it definitely made her very tired -
to the extent the school called me in.

so in your situation I think I would probably move your son for y6.

The move was great btw. Dd is happy and I have taken up horse riding - a childhood dream. I share a horse with a local friend.

Check with the planned secondary in the new area whether they are usually full? Not all areas have crazy pressure on school places and it may be fairly straightforward to get places if you're will to be a bit flexible over where the Y5s go to primary.

It does make a bit of a difference where in West Sussex you are aiming for. Some parts of WS have very oversubscribed secondary schools with children not getting any of their 3 choices (including their catchment) and being offered schools quite a distance away. So if it is one of these areas the risk you run is that there are no spaces locally and waitlists for the most popular schools are big with little movement after year 7 starts. WS is a big area though so you may be targeting a less busy part so it may be worth asking locally in the area you want for local knowledge about secondary places as to how vital it is to be there for 31st October.

Thanks all

It depends of course on your child, their character and social ability, but I think starting a new school and a new area for Y7 is really quite tough - my DD had to do this and we underestimated the impact for her.

If you moved by October so that you were in time for secondary applications, you could keep them in their schools for as long as possible if you could commute back, at least until places opened at a primary you were happy with for your younger one, and then see what is available for your Year 6s. If you moved in the early spring, they'd still have time to get to know some of the class before the transition, and they'd also get some of the fun times with the new class. Their old class might also let them do things like the Year 6 residential with them, if that hadn't happened already - I know children who've gone back for that from a new school (and ones who've gone to visit for the Leavers' assembly, or a party/bbq/sports day/year 6 play etc - slightly easier in one case as she was moving to private, so finished the term earlier, but still possible for occasional events even in state).

Move now. Let dC transition to high with local mates

Do be aware that post Covid there has been a pretty big shift in families relocating from London, especially inner London to the suburbs and further afield in the South East. There are some areas which are pretty tight for places as demographic peaks are moving from primary to secondary. To where are you intending to move?