Secondary school wwyd?

[Autumncontent]

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. My dc will be starting year 7 in September 2026.

A few years ago we unknowingly moved out of the catchment for what would have been our first choice secondary school. We are only about a mile away but the cut off changes each year and it really is the toss of a coin whether we will be in catchment.

There are 3 potential schools for dc.

School A is our first choice. It’s a mile away and although it’s not an amazing all singing all dancing school, it’s where all dcs friends will go and it’s a perfectly ok school.

School B is a stones throw from our house, but it’s very unpopular, very up and down, headteachers changing every few years. I know teachers who’ve left and said it’s awful but equally I’ve known children attend and be happy there.

School C is a very good school, about 1.5 miles in the other direction, but totally away from dcs primary school and they’d know no one. Plus it’s not on a bus route or easy walk.

We are looking to move house anyway, we’ve just had a house near to school A fall through. Realistically there aren’t many nice houses come up near school A. So it’s really a case of a few roads.

I don’t know whether to take drastic measures and try to rent a house near school A and rent ours out. Or whether to leave it down to fate and hope for the best, whether to try for school C as second choice.

Dc just says they want to go with their friends.

Realistically you aren't moving by the October deadline.

I'd list schools A, C, B as that seems your preference.

What's your catchment school? You need to put that down (even if you put it down as your last option) as a failsafe, unless you're happy being sent wherever there's a space.

Renting a house and renting your house out may not work. Many areas would consider that fraudulent, as you would likely return to the house later. That may not be your intention, but they may make that assumption. Some areas have explicit rules about owning a house within a certain number of miles.

Realistically I would list the schools in your order of preference and keep house hunting. If you move, you can update your address. If you don't get your preferred place, it might help your waiting list place if you move nearer.

I wouldn't recommend your renting plan - a lot of stress and expense. Being a landlord is a lot of work and expense too. From what you're saying, I would apply for A,C, B in that order.

In my experience, most secondary school kids don't stick with their primary friends anyway, so I would ignore the friend issue.

School C sounds eminently walkable - it's only 1.5 miles. I am of course assuming there are pavements and not lanes without pavement between your house and the school. Walking 1.5 miles every morning and afternoon is good for health.

I agree the renting plan could be extremely stressful. Although I don’t think our council care as long as you can provide proof of council tax.

If we do find another house moving may help with the waiting list place.

School C is probably out of catchment too, but they tend to add an extra class if oversubscribed. I’ve just checked and it’s actually 1.8 miles (40 minutes) walking. It is doable. I’d probably end up dropping dc and they’d have to walk/bus home.

School B is the only guarantee.

What are the the last offered distances for A&C? And how far are you?

School A went something like
2021 900 metres
2022 1100 metres
2323 1150 metres
2024 1900 metres
2025 1500 metres

And we are 1300 metres away.

You seem to have to be ridiculously close.

Im not too sure about school C I’d have to check, but the distances are further and they tend to add on an extra class anyway.

With the lower birth rates 10 years ago, I'd be reasonably confident about getting school A. You were well within the last couple of years.

I hope so.

Renting/being a landlord could end up as worse than stressful. My tenants lost their jobs and at the same time, a serious and unexpected problem occurred in my property. The tenants stopped paying the rent and I needed a 4-figure sum for the repair works. Due to them not paying the rent and also my chronic illness, which also started at around the same time as the job losses and the discovery of the problem witb the property, it was impossible for me to raise the money to do the repairs. What's more, I couldn't evict them, because I hadn't done the repairs and the tenants could have taken me to court and won - the fact that they were in massive arrears was irrelevant. So, I didn't evict them but that then the tenants reported me to the council for not doing repairs and the council was going to take me to court. I only got away without legal proceedings because i managed to sell before the council managed to instigate legal proceedings. (The new owner then managed to get the tenants out after about 6 months).

I would put your favourite school as your top preference and start moving as close as possible to that school now.

You won’t make it by the application deadline but you should make it by the time the waiting lists are shifting, and be rocketed up the lists by living so much closer.

IF you are planning to move anyway and the location suits you.

It looks like the distance in the last couple of years meets your distance range comfortably. Has the school increased its capacity? That’s quite a big distance jump.

They haven’t increased capacity there PAN is 191 but last year and the year before there were significantly less applicants.