Buckinghamshire school address evidence

[chairoka]

Hi everyone,

I would need advice about the address evidence request of the Buckinghamshire county council.

DD is in Y4 now. We're thinking to move to Buckinghamshire to try to apply those grammar schools. We would like to move there not solely because of the education but also we would like to live closer to London.

According to the "Apply for a secondary school place" webpage, family living in Buckinghamshire usually only need to provide Council Tax account number as proof of address.

However, if someone is moving houses, few more evidences are needed as proof of address -
You must send us evidence that supports each of the three following points:
1)That you have acquired/have access to a new address, and the date this occurred;
2)That your previous address has either been disposed of, or is no longer available for you to live in;
3)That you and your child have moved in and are living in your new address.

I understand the deadline for an address to be considered in first allocation round is 1st Sep in Y6. I wonder, how early we need to move to Buckinghamshire to avoid providing further address evidence? For example, if we move in Summer term of Y5 and study in a Buckinghamshire primary school in summer term of Y5?

We'll be struggling to provide evidence 2. We live in a self-owned house in Oxfordshire and we don't plan to sell it / let it out in short term. Even though we try to sell / let it out, it may take quite some time as it's in a village and not easy to be sold or let out.

Thank you all in advance!

ring the LEA and get confirmation in writing

you’re not planning to move schools until next september

doesnt that give you time to be optimistic you’ll be able to sell or rent out your current property?!

It’s different for every school in Bucks.
I would suggest going to the website of every grammar school you may be aiming to live near, and checking individual admissions policies.
Also do NOT rely on an estate agent claiming a house is “in cachement” for a grammar school: go on the Bucks county council website where they have a link to the allocated distances from each Bucks school for last year (and the criteria for each of those distance allocations).
It’s a bit of legwork but FAR better than moving and then finding out your child can’t get a place because you moved in too late or don’t have rhe right proof of residence.

oh and some schools are so used to families renting for a year close by and then moving back to a much further away home, they specifically exclude you retaining ownership of your “old” house. So check the small print for each school VERY carefully.

Would agree with that. I’d also expect that having your property listed with an estate agent to rent / sell would be sufficient evidence if the other items are clear.

Also be aware that Bucks has a policy that if you own a property within 20 miles of your rented address then they will use that property as your true address, not the rented one.

Each school has its own admissions criteria but some have additional residency requirements. For example, DCHS requires you to be living at your address prior to 1st April in the year prior to admission. So for September 2025 admission you have to be living at your address from 1st April 2024.

Every year there are children who have their grammar place removed because parents are using an “address of convenience”. If your owned property is more than 20 miles away and you meet the residency dates then your application is fine. If you then move back to your Oxfordshire address though, it could be looked on fraudulently.

www.challonershigh.com/userfiles/dchsmvc/Policies/Dr%20Challoner's%20High%20School%202025%20Admissions%20Policy.pdf

As well as looking at the 'how places were allocated' table on the Buckinghamshire CC website, look at the map of actual defined catchment areas, as that is relevant to the ranking of applicants against each school's oversubscription criteria. Catchment areas are not regularly-shaped around a school, so somewhere can be e.g. 2 miles from School A but OOC for it and therefore e.g. criterion 6 of 6, but 4 miles from School B and actually in its defined catchment area and therefore e.g. criterion 3 of 6.

I don't think you can call Bucks admissions but you can email them.

Presumably, the other issue will be finding an in-year primary place. If you rent a house in Bucks and keep your DD at school in Oxfordshire, you may be subject to scrutiny, especially if the journey is a long one, the rental property is small (cheap to rent) and it appears you may still be living or semi living in Oxfordshire, especially if it is clearly the family home.

If you change your old house to a buy to let mortgage it will probably tell you that you're not allowed to live in it

What if your child doesn’t get into a grammar? Would be happy with your child at a secondary school? So much effort to fit the system and then for nothing.

Nope, that isn’t covered in the schools’ admissoon criteria as an option, nor are restrictive covenents . The house has to be no longer owned by the OP. not “on the market”, not “looking to dispose of”, Just no longer owned by them. Over the years so many parents have strategically rented near the school they want then moved “back away”, the admission authotities are rightly cynical about parents who buy/rent a 2 bed terrace next to a school for a year while continuing to own a 5 bed detatched with large garden 15 miles away.

@chairoka the Bucks grammar schools are fully aware of all the ways parents try to circumvent their admission policies. The bottom line is, as PPs have explained, you will in all likelihood need to sell your Oxfordshire home or that will be considered your primary residence. Promises that you are looking to move, or that your house is on the market, or that you are trying to sell but can't won't gain much traction.

Sorry if you feel that's unfair, but those are the conditions the schools apply.

Yes, I know of someone who was exactly in this situation. Bought a flat close to a grammar in bucks, but hadn’t managed to sell their house 15 miles away. They were living in Bucks from summer of y5 onwards, but still at primary school in the original town, and I believe they had every intention of moving back to their old address once she started y7. They had their application withdrawn in February and were left with no place at all on 1st March. They moved back to their original house within a week so it was absolutely an address of convenience!

We are thinking to move to Bucks in Year 5 and enroll her to a primary school in Bukcs, not staying in her current school. My current property in Oxfordshire is more than 40 miles away from Bucks. It's impossible for us to do daily travel. As said, we want to move to Bucks not only because of the grammar schools, but we also want to live closer to London. We have no intention to move back to Oxfordshire once she started Y7. Getting rid of the current property will be a issue for us due to mortage and construction issues..

Your child might end up in a secondary school. Not worth moving for.

So glad that LEA are taking this seriously now! It was CF like this that robbed my daughter of her grammar place as proven by ombudsman…she got there in the end but it was bloody stressful!

If your owned house is commutable then they will rightly assume that you're playing the system.

OP has said above:
“My current property in Oxfordshire is more than 40 miles away from Bucks. It's impossible for us to do daily travel.”

It does not matter that it is 40 miles away. Bucks will use the owned property address for allocations. You have time to move fully and may be able to port your mortgage.

From www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools-index/school-admissions/school-admissions-guides-policies-and-statistics/guide-to-moving-up-to-secondary-school/understanding-the-terms-we-use/#normal-home-address

"Normal Home Address
This is your child’s home address; it is where you and your child live together, unless you can show that they live elsewhere with someone with legal care and control of your child. This must be a residential property that is your child’s only or main residence.
It must also be a property that can be permanently occupied 52 weeks of the year without any restrictions on occupation and not subjected to any planning or contractual restrictions on the duration of occupancy.
It must be your child’s only or main residence that is owned, leased or rented by the child’s parent(s) or person with legal care and control of the child.
It cannot be an address at which your child may sometimes stay or sleep due to your domestic arrangements.
A child’s Normal Home Address is where he or she spends most of the week, unless it is accommodation at a boarding school.
In deciding which is your Normal Home Address we would not usually accept an address if:
you or your family has a second property elsewhere that is or was your main residence. We expect that you have sold, or leased, through an agency, your previous property or that a lease agreement on a property you previously rented has expired and that you have no other residence.
only part of a family has moved out of the Normal Home Address unless this was part of a divorce or permanent separation arrangement. If this is the case, we will require evidence.
two or more families claim to be living together in a property which is not suitable for the number of adults and children present (for example, we would not accept an address rented on the basis of a house share or lodger’s agreement, especially if you still own a property elsewhere, even if you have let it to tenants and/or some of the family still live elsewhere).
a child moves to a home other than with their parent, unless this is part of a formal fostering or care arrangement. We will check this information.
the address is that of a holiday home. A family living at a known holiday home address will be asked to provide leasing evidence and if there is a limitation on the tenancy then it will not be accepted.
We can refuse to accept where you say your child lives if we have any doubts, in which case we will continue to ask for evidence to show that you and your family live where you say you live. We may ask our legal team to investigate or ask that you provide legal confirmation of your address. We may check the evidence you have provided with other agencies, including our housing team, Council Tax records and your child’s current school.
If we offer a place at a school and then discover that the offer was made on the basis of fraudulent or misleading information (for example, a false claim to living in a catchment area), and this denied a place to another child, the offer of that place will be withdrawn. This has happened in previous years."

None of this changes what you have already told us. As the link posted by @LIZS states, you cannot retain your current residence, then own or rent elsewhere and claim that you live there, that is in direct contravention of the Bucks rules.

I accept that you are not trying to game the system and genuinely wish to move. Unfortunately what you wish to do is precisely the sort of thing attempted by those who ARE trying to game the system. That is why the Bucks grammar schools have a blanket ban on this behaviour, and they aren't going to make an exception because you have issues around your mortgage/construction.

Your only solution is to sell your current property. If you can't or don't want to do that, you will have to reassess your schooling options. Perhaps you could move for Sixth Form?