Moving home.... Application confusion...

[Scootagal]

We are probably going to move to another town next year. DC will go to secondary school Sept 25 so we in theory should be applying by the end of October 24....which is soon.... 😩
Do we apply in our current area or the new area given we have no address or date?? We are even thinking private if all goes wrong but kinda a big commitment...
Has anyone else done the same and have any sage advice or success stories??

Don’t know but logically i would imagine the area you reside in now. Otherwise we would all put in for schools in the best catchment areas, with a promise you’re going to move there lol

You'd think that but the new council said to put them down 🤔 and I read elsewhere to apply in your current spot🫠 I'm still digging but thought I'd ask here too as part of the ongoing hair pulling research!

A few years ago, we applied for a school not in our county. We had to apply from our then current address and get a paper (rather than online) form and our then local authority processed the application.

I am not sure all LAs are the same, though.

(in the end we went private)

And if you are going private, entrance exams for sep 2025 will be later this term.

You have to apply from your current address. You could consider putting schools in the target area down but would be advised to put at least one local one you're likely to be offered in case the move doesn't happen.

Unless the LA you are applying for is drastically under you will not get in without a catchment address. You need to apply to your own local LA based upon where you live now, go through that process. Once you move and have the address confirmed ( ie through exchange or contracts or rental agreement) you then can apply for the new LA. It’s more tricky as it’s a difficult year, and places will be filled up in the new LA with those in catchment…. However once offer day has been and go email the local schools and see what the waiting lists are like. This will then give you an idea of where has space and where doesn’t. Having private as a back up sounds a wise idea

@Scootagal please don't leave naming schools in the intended area until after 31st October. As @titchy explained, you have to apply from your home LA, but you can name any school, anywhere in the country, on that CAF. If you have named schools in the new area from the outset, and put them above your 'insurance' school in your current area, ou may get a place in the new area on March 1st, but if you don't, you will be on the waiting list from the off (if it's not a long list, a place may come up quite quickly, even if you are currently ranked way down itto start with) and will (hopefully) have a place at the local school in the meantime.

If you wait until your application for the other area schools will definitely be 'late' to apply for them, your DC will still be fitted into the waiting list in the correct position according to the oversubscription criteria, but if there was ever a point in the meantime at which a place would have been yours from your current address, you will have missed out on it.

Thanks all - very helpful!