CAF - Relocation for Sutton Grammar School

[Murugan]

Hello

We are basically from bucks county, my son qualified for all 3 Sutton school and bucks county as well.

Wilson’s - Absolutely happy to relocate

SGS - Is that worth to relocate for the school over the royal Latin?

WCGS - Same question above ?

or

better to go with Wilson’s as first choice and then our local grammar school (Royal Latin school) would be better option ?

Any suggestion please

Thanks
Murugan

I think you should carefully check the admissions policy for each school. In the area that I live in, a CAF form needs to be submitted by 31 October to the local authority. This lists the schools in order of preference. The home address used for admissions is that as at 31 October and that is verified using council tax records. There are a few places for "super scorers" in some of the grammars where location/home address is irrelevant but they are very few.

If you move post 31 October, a new address will only be taken into account as of 1 March (ie after the first round of offers are made) and you are treated as a late applicant.

I have been advised by my council that they can help with updating the address for the application, if the move is completed during 31 Oct - 12 Dec with proof of new address submitted to them no later than 12 Dec. The date may vary across councils, so you may want to check with your council to confirm.

Extract of the reply from my council for reference only:

As you will see, we cannot accept a future addresses. Therefore you must make your application using your current address.

Then once you have moved, you must send us your new address and proof of your new address so that we can update your record. We will only be able to update your address if you have moved and provided all the documentation to us before 5pm on 12 December 2024. See page 13 of the brochure – Change of address/preferences.

Did you look at the schools on open day?

On the league table I have, Wilson’s is 1 in the whole country, Royal Latin is 75, Sutton is 43, Wallington is 61. Read the Ofsted. Look at the websites, look at the GCSEs they offer, for example which languages. Trips.

If you are happy where you are put Wilson’s 1 and your local one second and only move if you get Wilson’s. They have passed over 600 boys and there are priority places for FSM and 18 aptitudes so that only leaves 148 places. There are no guarantees. You may get it on 1 March or much later off the waiting list. If your local school is guaranteed I would put that 2nd on the CAF.

Do you want to relocate, are there other dc to consider? The areas are very different.

I haven't seen the brochure they refer to but I would want to be absolutely assured that they would not treat any move as a late application. Maybe you have that though.

So the question then is would you be able to move within that time and to where? Where practically can you go? What available to move to?

What about other siblings etc? Are they likely to gain a place at that school in future? If not, would you move again for them? How would that impact on the sibling who is in the school you've moved for? What about work etc?

Where would younger siblings go to school if they are in school now? Commutes etc?

Maybe none of that is relevant.

You will struggle to find people who know those schools well enough to compare. I know the Sutton schools. Personally in your situation I think you would be mad to relocate for any of them, Wilsons included, but certainly not for SGS and WCGS. They are good schools but you have a local grammar and can stay living where you do. Your child is likely to get loads of top grades at any of them.

Wilsons allocate places on score. Address is only used in a tie break I.e. where more than one boy has the same score for the last place.

SGS also has a reasonable proportion of places available regardless of distance (from memory it is 40% ish but I might be wrong).

So the OP can apply with her Bucks address and have almost as good a chance at Wilsons as someone who lived next door to the school. They can then relocate between March and Sept if he gets a place. I personally wouldn't recommend it when you have a decent school option where you live, but it's perfectly possible and I know people who have done this.

Not meaning to be rude or dismissive, but uprooting a family from one grammar school area to another, on the basis that one area has a grammar school with, say, slightly higher average grades or something, isn't really a thing that very many people do at all in this country. All of these schools have identical funding per head, identical class sizes, teach identical syllabuses, an so on. Young adults relocating for universities, which have very different syllabuses etc, is very much a thing, but for schools, no.

Also, FWIW, Almost no-one will have first hand experience of the state schools in areas that are very far apart.

I know that there is a small number of [mostly recent Indian ancestry, which I assume is true of OP with a name like that] families who do relocate in this way, but this approach is unfathomable to, I should think, well over 99% of the population. The tiny number of parents who do 'shop around' between areas are well represented on the 11+ forums, which might be a better place to ask.

I agree that all grammar schools are more or less similar. No point in moving that far to area of Sutton for one school. If you get in QE boys then it’s different story given your ds is very academic. Else no point to move for Wilson’s or others in this area. QE also don’t have catchments till tie break and is best grammar school for boys. My DS is very happy we moved from Cambridge for that 2 years back.

I have friends that work at Wilsons. It's a good school yes, but I'm not convinced how much of their grades are 'value add' and how much is just that they are able to be so incredibly selective on the top scoring pupils. I think most of their students would have achieved the same good results at any decent school- these are boys whose parents push them hard and have the funds to pay for extensive tutoring. Those kind of parents are carrying them to good exam results either way, I wouldn't relocate and uproot a kids life for it. Also it's not the most aspirational of areas- Wilson's school is metres away from the Croydon boundary.