accepting two school places - advice please...

[goingplaces]

We?re moving to another part of the country this summer and have paid a deposit for a place at a private school there for dd, starting in September.

Meanwhile, we have accepted a place in our local catchment Grammar school where we live now, just in case we are unable to move for some unforeseen reason, (husband loses job, health issues, who knows what?)

Do you think this is an okay thing to do? Do you think my dd?s current prep school will raise an eyebrow and maybe say something to our local County Council?

Has anyone else ever accepted two school places to be on the safe side?

How would your prep school know in teh first place. It seems a perfectly logical thing to do IMO. As long as you let the relevant school know ASAP when you know which one you are going to take up, what's the harm? I'm sure the grammar school place will be snapped up by the next person on the waiting list. Just make sure you won't be liable for a terms fees if you eventually turn down the private school.

Well, the private school will routinely contact the prep school to check we have paid all our bills there and are therefore reliable payers, and I guess the County Council might routinely confirm secondary places with junior schools?? Not sure how the system works tbh.

I don't see why there should be any problem - you live in this area and have applied properly for a place at the state school. Any arrangements you make with a private school in another area for after you move (assuming it happens) are quite separate.

If your DD was already in the grammar school, you might well be applying for a private place elsewhere, but wouldn't deregister her from the grammar until you had a definite date to move away. That would be just the same, it's only the timing that's different because she hasn't started yet.

Thanks, yes, just want to feel that I am acting reasonably. Someone will be very happy when we eventually give up the Grammar school place!

We did at Year 3 and Reception, in fact at one point we had 3 potentials on the table. We moving back to uk from abroad and weren't sure until quite late on which would suit both dc. We cancelled in about the May when we were more certain.