Moving child to new area in London for year 7. Help

[TidyFox]

Hi - first post
I’m a single mum living in one London borough. After a number of years in a relationship with my bf in another borough, I’m considering moving myself and my daughter (currently year 5) to his borough . he has a house in a catchment for one good secondary. We might live together, we might not - aren’t sure yet. but I am looking at how I get into the borough for school applications and also manage my daughter at her current school (1 hr away). How does anyone coordinate this? If I were planning on moving in with him, what substantiation would be required for the catchment? Obviously I don’t have my name on the mortgage or anything.

Im totally stumped how anyone manages this without incurring huge expense or inconvenience 😮‍💨

Your address is your address (and your child’s) - no requirement for a mortgage to get a school place. As long as you don’t own a property somewhere else you should be fine.

If and when you move tho I would aim to move your DD’s primary school too if possible - that is, if there is a place locally - firstly to make life easier and secondly so she can start to make friends with ppl she will be within secondary.

Check that the secondary school doesn’t have feeder primaries.

Your name on the council tax bill will prove residency. I assume that you’ll swap primaries to a local one ?

Obviously if / when you move in with him then he will add you to the council tax plus you will move the address for your bank accounts / mobile phone bills etc so you will have plenty of proof of your address. When you DD moves to a local school she will also have the correct address on record so will also not be an issue

Obviously you will need to have moved by the application deadline this time next year for this to work (or move later and hope that you get a waiting list place)

Basically your choices are:

• Move by start of year 6 and find her a local primary
• Move by start of year 6 and have a massive commute
• Finish year 6 where you are then go on waiting lists and hope a place comes up

None of these are ideal so it comes down to what is more important, finishing primary with friends or getting the secondary you want.

I recently moved my daughter in Year 4, and she settled very quickly and easily… I would explore just moving into a new Primary school rather than commuting 2 hours a day.