Relocating for good secondary school catchment

[headofchaos]

how many of you have relocated in order to get into a good catchment for a secondary school? If you have, how far have you relocated to and at what point did you make the move ? E.g did you relocate to an area still drivable to the current primary school ? How did the admission process work if you applied for a school before actually living in the area ? do councils take into consideration the catchment area of the house you are moving to before you have actually completed the move?

You have to be living there. My brother moved his family at the start of oldest year 5 from London to a commuter town, they changed primary schools but continued weekend ballet lessons in the London ballet school to keep in touch with friends. They commute into London most weekends though for either parent or child’s social life.bigger house! And better secondary schools there than where they lived in London , but the primary school is notably worse

We moved Easter Yr5. We were having to move anyway, so targeted our move to a school catchment we chose. Hors journey, so we moved Primary School

We did miss out on "Feeder Svhool" status as that was beginning of Yr5. But living in the Priority Area was enough.

To answer your last question - no, you need to be living in the address, or rather, you need to apply from the address you are living at (which if you have not yet moved, will be your previous home).

I have not done this, but I sometimes wonder why anyone would continue to commute to the previous primary instead of switching to primary in the new area, where the DC's new secondary school friends will be.

I had a colleague who moved into the solid catchment of a popular secondary near me but kept their then year 3 and 5 IIRC DC at the old primary, which had been a 5-min walk and was now a testy 30-min rush-hour drive in the wrong direction for both their workplaces. Ofc if there is no place in the newly local primary then that makes sense.

It might be region specific, but I've seen that you need to have a sale agreed and demonstrate progress to that point but you don't need to have moved. These are edge cases and the couple I know who did this needed to jump through some hoops to prove it.

As with all things, there's a central rule, and then there's some nuanced edge cases which need personal involvement.

The best of luck to you!

The application will be from the address you live in on 31st October in your child’s year 6

Some, but not all, local authorities, allow an address to be updated within a limited time after this date, without it being treated as a “late” change. But you would need to check case by case.

Some London schools also look at the length of time you've been renting a property in an attempt to stop folks from gaming the system by temporarily moving closer during the application process.

Best advice is check the admissions policies of the LA you are considering relocating to, and if necessary the specific schools if different. They should have clear policies on the details like the dates and what evidence they take of home address (eg they may take a solicitor's letter for a new build).

@headofchaos every local authority is obliged to publish a Secondary Admissions Brochure which will contain their local rules for proof of permanent address. Areas with very popular magnet schools are likely to have very tight rules to prevent people from gaming the system. In addition, individual schools may have relevant clauses in their own admissions criteria, published on their websites. You need to read everything carefully.

My family did it for me 50 years ago. Moved from an area with rough comprehensive schools to a Grammar area. We moved so that I would be in the new area for what is now Year 6.

We moved in the January of Year 5. A little earlier than we needed to, but we needed to sell our house and go into rented, and we needed to know the sale would go through before the application period ended in October of Yr 6. We moved from one London borough to another, and they tend to be very strict regarding new addresses. We wanted to make sure we weren't on council tax records or bills at our old address, and to have all our bills, GP records etc at the new address. We chose to rent for a couple of years, partly because it gave us time to find a house we really wanted to live in long-term, and partly because renting a smaller flat meant we could afford to live right on the street of the secondary, so we were pretty much guaranteed a place. When we eventually bought a house, we moved about a mile away, so still within walking distance but we wouldn't have been able to afford a house this size so close to the school.

We have done this. Feb of year 5. Only 2 miles. We’re not able to get our kids into the local primary (yet) so commute back to their old one . It’s too early to say whether it’s been worth it!

I did this. We moved counties in the summer holidays between y5 and y6 and he started at his new school at the start of year 6. There were others who started then and presumably they had the same plans.

No regrets because about half of his class moved up to secondary school with him so the summer holidays between primary and secondary was less stressful than if he completed y6 at his old school then started secondary school knowing nobody.