Gettting school places if move house?

[MonnowCyclist]

Hello, sorry if this sounds naive, but we are thinking of moving to another area to be nearer family, and currently have dds in y5 & y7 in catholic schools locally. Would we have any chance of getting places in similar schools or would we automatically go to the bottom of any waiting lists please? Will contact local borough too but wondered if anyone has any advice please.

The short answer is it depends on where you are moving and whether the local schools have any places. If the schools have places available when you apply they have to offer them to you. If they don't have places and are operating a waiting list (many won't have a waiting list for these years), your position on the waiting list will be determined by the school's admission criteria. They aren't allowed to put you at the bottom of the waiting list simply because you've only just moved into the area.

thank you!

Being brutal about this, you need to move now because your year 5 child will be moving into year 6 in September and you will have to apply for secondary places in September / October time. If you cannot move by then you risk moving between November and March and being classed as a late applicant for the secondary school. That is little if no chance if it is a popular catholic secondary school.

Also if you can get your year 7 child into a catholic secondary school it will give more admission priority to the year 5 child. You probably will have to go to appeal for a year 7 place also to start with.

that's good advice, thank you - also a bit scary as the council person i spoke to said they can only hold places for 6 weeks, so will have to be very sure what we're doing

Most Catholic schools hold their waiting lists in order of crriteria and so if you are practicing catholic you should be near the top. I am in the same position, thinking of moving and DS going to yr 7 september and all good schools full. I do recommend phoning schools directly. Catholic schools hold their own waiting lists so should be able to give you a good indication of what your position is. Good luck with the move.