How do we apply for a Secondary school in an area miles away ?

jazzypinkpuppet

Hello,
My son is due to start secondary school in September 2014, he has special needs including Dyslexia which he is on school action for but it is not severe enough for a statement. There are some very good schools in our area but none that we think would be suitable for him, he would not pass the 11+ test so that rules out those schools too. We have found one that we think would be fantastic for him, very hands on and practical, it is still in our county but is about forty miles from our current home. We are happy to move to be near this school, but I am so confused on how and when to do it. We need to apply this October, so with our current address he would not get a place but we can't move this year as we would not change his primary school. Is there a way of telling them that we would move to the area before he starts ? There must be loads of people who move areas to be near schools how do they do it ?
Thanks in advance

peachyprice

You need to check with your LEA, here definitley you cannot apply for a school place at an address you don't live at yet. The only time they will let you apply with your new address is if you have exchanged contracts and have a confirmed completion date at the time of closing of applications that year. Otherwise nobody would actually move would they, they'd just tell the LEA that they were going to and stay where they are once they got the place.

Maybe your LEA would be more relaxed, but if it's an over-subscribed school it's highly unlikely.

The people who move to be near schools they want move before the closing date.

onlyroz

Our LEA says that if you want to apply to a school in a different LEA then you still have to do it through them. I suppose that they take the application and pass it on. It might be different depending on where you live though - I'd contact both LEAs and ask for advice before putting in any applications.

jazzypinkpuppet

Ooooo this seems like it will be a lot harder than it seemed in my head.

Thankyou for your replies x

jazzypinkpuppet

peachyprice wrote: »

Otherwise nobody would actually move would they, they'd just tell the LEA that they were going to and stay where they are once they got the place.

.

sorry If I am being thick but I am confused why would they stay where they are ? It wouldn't be an option to stay where we are, the school is too far that's why we need to move.

peachyprice

Most over-subscribed schools have a very small catchment, ours is something silly like 1.25 miles, if you were to tell them you were moving within catchement but only lived 2 miles away there wouldn't be much point in moving once you'd got the place because you'd still be near enough to get to school.

There are parents who wouldn't consider 40 miles too far for the right school and would happily stay put once they had a place.

Hope that make sense

jazzypinkpuppet

Oh yes thankyou I understand, I am so un clued up about all of this sort of thing, it is an over subscribed school so it seems we would have to move before the deadline this October and perhaps rent a home local to his primary school for the last few months, it would be a bit unsettling for him but a means to an end. Thanks for your help:beer:

peachyprice

That's what most people do. You'll probably find that letting agents close to the school have properties in the surrounding roads that get used for this all the time. Our certainly do. The same houses go up to let every September once the children are back at school and are snapped up by October :rotfl: :rotfl:

suki1001

We live right on the border of north/west yorkshire, so we had this problem with my dd.

We knew which school we wanted, however it was tricky to know whether she'd get in, we could have stopped where we were, but it was no guarantee. We'd planned for ages to move to the area and her primary school was a feeder school for the secondary, but that still didn't free us from the risk of not getting in.

Anyhow, I was told, even if we were buying a house that we couldn't use that to up our bid i.e. it wouldn't have worked to have said - we're in the process of buying a house, we have a moving date of x. They would only accept the address etc when we'd moved, because the sale might have fallen through etc.

In our case, it was just very difficult to get a mortgage, we'd planned on living in the village for 7 years - it just never seemed to happen.

Fortunately we managed to get a mortgage a while before she went to secondary. Now the fact she can walk to school is a big bonus and it was well worth the move - but boy, it took some planning!

FBaby

I would indeed be very careful of your choice of house to buy if you main aim is to gain access to the school. When my partner and I agreed that instead of buying a new property together, we would extend his, I immediately looked at schools and was reassured that we were in the catchment area of the best school. It is massive school, so being under 1 mile, I felt quite confident we would get a place. What I didn't consider is that the school gives priority to the local infant schools, and as it turned out, had just enough space for those children. Some lived much further away, but managed to get a place to the infant schools, and therefore got priority over those living near by but new to the area. We were offered a place at a school further away on remedial measures...

As it turned out in our case, the school we were allocated is an excellent school, they just had to replace the headteacher and since them has performed brilliantly, and actually got better SATS results last year than our very popular local school. I also discovered that we were not the only one in the area with that same issue, and has discovered that one of his very good friend in his class lives only two streets from us.

All this to say, do your research properly before moving, as you might found that feeder schools take all the places and no matter how close to the school you are, you won't get in.

Spendless

I too, would check the admission criteria of the school you are interested in. Though in my area it does usually go
children in care
catchment
siblings
feeder school
distance

A lot of areas prioritise siblings as a 1st choice. When my son went to Secondary 50 children many of which came under feeder school category didn't get it as the intake year was so big (millennium children). Also check if the school or council is on the brink of changine the criteria. After what happened for my son's year, his school switched the sibling and feeder school criteria round. The adress my area takes is the one you live at on the closing date for applications, so check that out too.