2027 secondary application but live out of area

[Neverenoughchoccy]

Weird one.
Currently live down south while eldest finishes year 11 and youngest year 6 next year.
We are 100% buying my PIL house next July back 'home' which is 2.5 hours from where we live.
We need to apply for secondary school this year to start next September but obviously we don't live in the area at the moment.
We don't know what to do!
We can't apply here as we won't be here, but how do we apply at 'home' when we don't live there but we 100% will?!
Help, anyone been in the same situation?

Given that it’s your PIL house and not a strangers house can’t you register for council tax etc there now? Or buy it now but move next July?

Honestly? I would bring your move forward. You would probably be ok if you could show you had exchanged without having yet completed by the on time application process for being allocated in your new area, but where we are (London) without any legal paperwork showing intent, you would not be allocated in the new area. Trying to get a place that you would want in the new area in July would be v difficult. Hopefully, somebody with more knowledge will offer some expert advice! Good luck.

Apply via your current LA and you can list schools in either area. However an oversubscribed school in the new area using distance to prioritise will probably mean you can only get a place once you move.

We'd move now in a heartbeat! But our eldest is going into year 11, doing really well (he's a mid road kid doing way above his average). He's been offered an apprenticeship already back 'home' so many reasons to go.
Won't the council check where our youngest is at school, even if we DID buy now?

Slightly different but when I had to apply for my eldest to start school I had to apply for the area I currently lived in knowing I wouldn't be there by the time he started. Then once we got a move date I applied to the school I wanted him to go to in the area I moved to. I was living in the Midlands and moved back down south to be with family

Apply as usual using your current address, id suggest including one local option as well. Once you move next summer then you’ll be added to waiting lists. Or apply to an undersubscribed school in your PIL area.

Can one of you plus younger child move into PILs now?

They can be on waiting lists for schools of a higher preference than the one offered from the outset (they need to check whether this will happen automatically or by request). The position on the waiting list will almost certainly improve as soon as they have a proven address in the locality.

Deliberately listing the local 'less desirable' school in the new area as a low preference is a good idea; bird in the the hand and all that.

We had a similar issue in that my son was allocated a school in the catchment area we were living in, despite a planned house move taking place before the year 7 start date and the only options I chose when applying were for the new catchment area. Unfortunately as the school was over subscribed in the new house catchment area we were not allocated a place there, I appealed this and they said that I had no further grounds to appeal until we had officially moved house. We ended up moving to the new house 2 days before my son started secondary school so he had to attend the school in the previous house catchment area and we still do not have a place in the local area. Could you give PIL address anyway as you know that is where you will definitely be with no chances of the house move falling through , then if they question it you can explain then? They would be in contact with current school at some point to arrange transition days but maybe you could explain he’s staying at that school to finish year 6 then will be at PIL address?

Do not try to pretend you've already moved. That is classed as admissions fraud.

You apply to the LA where you currently live. You can name schools in the area to which you intend to move, but it is unlikely you will get a place at any of them due to living so far away unless one of the schools you list is unpopular. However, you will be on the waiting list for all the schools to which you apply and, when you do move, your place on the waiting list will be adjusted to reflect your new address.

when you move you have to let the LA know straight away and provide proof of address and than you’ve bought the house etc. Your child will then be put on the waiting lists for schools in your new catchment. You could bump higher than others straight away due to the distance you are to the schools you have picked but it’s not going to be guaranteed.
If I was you I’d ring the LA of the area you are moving to and get as much advice as you can.
They will have to find a space in a school for you child when you move. But you won’t get much choice. Unless you’re moving to a private school.
Im sure they will tell you that you have to apply for schools in your area at the very least for now. But in London you can apply to any borough so I don’t know how it works where you want to live to. You may be able to apply from your home location.

This is a better version of what I was trying to say

It's so backward isn't it?!?
It's silly taking a place where I live knowing we won't be here. It just doesn't make sense.
I was wondering if we could get an official letter signed by PIL.
We did talk about one of us moving now, but it's 2.5 hours away.

Before you panic too much.. do you know how oversubscribed the school is in tge new area? In plenty of places yiu can get a good school in the summer holidays.

Some accept the Exchange ofContracts as evidence of a new address, so your PILs might consider a long exchange?

No, an official letter signed by your PIL won't make any difference.

Some LAs will accept a new address if you've exchanged contracts, but many don't. You need to check the rules for your PIL's LA.

It's not though. Things change, house moves fall through or get delayed, people change their minds about moving...
Which is why the council only gives priority to people ACTUALLY living there (and military moving back from overseas postings, who don't exactly have a choice in the matter).

So every single school bar 3 are oversubscribed.
One of the 3 we will list down though as one of our options. They had 210 spaces and offered 89 this year. It's a small school but son is at a village school at the moment so that's not a problem.
They had an inadequate rating 4 years ago, but has gone up. It's a catholic school so a bit hmmm (we're not religious. I went to a catholic middle school and hated the masses), but the current reviews of the school are good.
We are moving to a village and a few of the kids go there because of the spaces so again not a bad thing.
Just going to have to try our luck!

Where fewer (effective highest preference) applications are made for a school than there are places avaliable, then you could be applying from Timbuktoo, let alone another part of England, and the place would be offered to you if no higher preference of your own could be. So no luck needed if you are one of anything up to 210 applicants without a higher preference offer. That is what the Admissions Code says must happen.

Similarly, when none of your preferences can be met, the authority where you officially live for application purposes is the one which has the responsibility to find you a place at the nearest school to that address with one available after all listed on time highest effective preferences have been met. So that is what happened for the PP who was moving. There is no onus on either authority to find a place in the 'yet to be moved to' LA. Once you are in a position to prove an address in the new area, the new LA has a responsibility to find a place for you if all of the schools applied to are full, if necessary by invoking the Fair Access Protocol (I say 'if necessary', because I have many years experience now of parents who 'have no place', when it turns out that they have been offered and refused to take a place at the local undersubscribed school - quite often 'not knowing anything about schools in the area', but somehow having absolute knowledge about that one. Not that I am suggesting that this applied in the PP's case).

Would you be fairly certain to get into your preferred school if you were already living at PIL's house? In that case, although you might only be able to go on the waiting list, once you move, you will almost certainly go to the top of the waiting list (beaten only by anyone else who has recently moved and comes higher up the criteria). Provided the school hasn't already gone over its "PAN", that would mean it would only take one kid to not take up their place, and you'd get in. Unfortunately, if they take extras on appeal, then you need to wait until the numbers have dropped below PAN.

If it is possible for one of you to move with the younger child before the LA does second-round allocations, that might help. After all the places have been offered, some will be declined because the child is going private, so if you've moved by the time those are offered to those on the waiting list, then that means you get in before they start on the appeals. When that happens seems to vary between LAs. You should also check whether they will accept your new address if you haven't yet bought it - some areas are very strict to avoid people temporarily renting in catchment to game the system, and won't count it as your address if you own elsewhere.

You may be able to talk to someone at the school to find out whether they usually end up over PAN, and whether they get much movement in the summer. Summer movement can continue into September - sometimes kids don't turn up at the start of the term, but there's usually a delay while they check whether they have moved out of the area or just gone on holiday, then they can offer the space.

We moved when my oldest was in year 6.
check out what your new local authority says and their criteria/process for school applications.
my local authority specified we needed to be in the house and completed before they would accept the new address as part of any application. Our authority had an extended date for house moves.
we had to ensure we were moved by this date.
if we moved later the application would be processed with our original house address
which would have obviously meant we would be lower down the school criteria if oversubscribed.
if the area you are moving to has Oversubscribed schools you want to get into be careful of this.
our local authority would wait until you had moved, had the new address and then process the application in lines with schools oversubscription criteria. If you move after allocation day this may mean you would go on a waitlist. An absolute minefield I would recommend you trawl your new authorities website, their rules and the individual
schools you want admissions criteria. We literally moved a week before the extended deadline - very stressful.