New house, for school

ACG

I am not expert on this as we have a 2 year old, but we bought a house close to a decent school purely so she could go to a better school than me and her mum went to (not that either us got involved in drugs/crime etc but we grew up in that kind of area).

If you are fortunate enough to be able to buy a second house, you are hardly going to be worrying about higher rate stamp duty (which I believe can be claimed back if sold within 3 years?) or council tax for 12 months. Reliastically you are going to incur all sorts of costs, legal, estate agents fees when selling and so on.

Would it not be easier/cheaper to rent a property closer to the school?

Oxid8uk

This is what in the application information for the area I live regarding addresses, probably similar for most local authorities:

Verification of address:
(a) Parents’ written confirmation and declarations will be sought regarding important information. Parents will be asked to verify in writing that they are residing at the address claimed and intend to remain in the catchment area.

Places will be withdrawn if such declarations are subsequently found to be incorrect or not honoured and the school is oversubscribed.

(b) Documentary evidence such as Council Tax payment or, Child Benefit letter information will be sought.

(c) Claims of new residence in a school’s catchment area will be judged on circumstances and the documents provided; completion of both sale and purchase, where relevant, are normally necessary before a place is allocated.

(d) Officers may be authorised to visit addresses to clarify whether families are living at the addresses claimed. Such visits will be undertaken in a reasonable fashion, by officers carrying appropriate identification.

In my area I have heard they are hot on ensuring allocation is fair, and places have subsequently been revoked when people have tried to get around the system i.e. renting a property closer to the school when they own a house elsewhere, putting down another family member's address etc.

If you were to simultaneously buy and sell house and it therefore be your family's only residence then it wouldn't be an issue but if you are applying for a place for 2020 then you may be too late.

shortcrust

Are any health professionals involved already? If not then speak to the school SENCO about the social anxiety and other issues, whatever they may be. Speak to them about your concerns about her being separated from her peers. Get people involved and make this a joint problem rather than something you’re dealing with on your own. This is something they should care about. In my experience - and I’m a health prof who worked in schools for years - a kid with genuine social anxiety and perhaps school phobia(?) would be treated with a bit more flexibility in this sort of situation.

maka12

shortcrust wrote: »

Are any health professionals involved already? If not then speak to the school SENCO about the social anxiety and other issues, whatever they may be. Speak to them about your concerns about her being separated from her peers. Get people involved and make this a joint problem rather than something you’re dealing with on your own. This is something they should care about. In my experience - and I’m a health prof who worked in schools for years - a kid with genuine social anxiety and perhaps school phobia(?) would be treated with a bit more flexibility in this sort of situation.

my daughter has been under senco since she was 3 and still is, she is also under CAMHS
so hopefully that will go in her favour?

davidmcn

ACG wrote: »

If you are fortunate enough to be able to buy a second house, you are hardly going to be worrying about higher rate stamp duty (which I believe can be claimed back if sold within 3 years?)

If they sell the first house within 3 years - which doesn't seem to be part of their plan at all.

shortcrust

maka12 wrote: »

my daughter has been under senco since she was 3 and still is, she is also under CAMHS
so hopefully that will go in her favour?

To be honest I don’t know because I don’t know the area or the personalities involved. However, potentially the SENCO and CAHMS are valuable allies who can make sure that decisions about your daughter’s next school take account her needs and not just the catchment area. Sadly, with things as they are that often won’t happen unless parents really push for help. Arrange a meeting with the SENCO and just talk simply and openly about your concerns and about what you want to happen. Getting CAHMS involved might be more difficult simply because they’re probably massively stretched, but ask for a review about transition to secondary.

The question you want to ask people is what are we going to do to make sure my daughter goes to the right secondary school.

gettingtheresometime

ska_lover wrote: »

My thinking being that you are planning to do something very expensive and extreme, in order to keep your daughter from having go to a different school and I understand why

However, in doing so, it is in some ways, enabling and concreting her issues IMO, as what happens six years later, for sixth form, or for Uni, or for a job?

Life brings about change, and instead of protecting her from that - I feel you would be best placed spending the money, on some serious intensive therapy for her

Otherwise, you are just storing issues up for yourselves, and her, for the future

You cannot prevent her becoming anxious, she needs to have the coping skills to deal with it

I realise this all may sound like I am having a pop at you but genuinely I am not, what you are proposing is like popping a sticking plaster over a dam - at some point the sticking plaster will not be enough

Going on from this, if your plan was successful then bare in mind that she may not be with her friends anyway as they may be in different classes/streams.

zagubov

maka12 wrote: »

Hi all

i just found out that my daughter might not get into secondary school, because i live on the border of catchment area, they tell me its 50/50 chance, my daughter is 10 yrs old and been to the feeder school since nursery, she suffers from social anxiety, and has other issues,its is impossible for her to go to another school she wont cope.
as she is used to her class mates and its still a struggle for my wife to get her to go.
questions for anyone that can help.
Can my wife buy a house next to school in her name (i pay for it) and me and family live there monday to friday,and move back to our current house on weekends.? will council pull me up on this?,
my plan is to keep both houses wife has one i have other.
she pays council tax on new one i pay tax on old , how will this work ?
i plan to live like this for a year and see how we get on, then i could rent the new property out and move back to old house, how will council, accept this, if they found out would they kick her out of school?
is there any where i could contact for advice?
as i want to keep everything legit..
thanks
maka

Why move back to your old house at the weekends?

Just put it on the market and sell it.

If your new house is in a good catchment area it'll hold its value /accrue more value better than your current one.

Mrsn

FTBdreaming unless your school was a private school then volunteering and getting involved so to speak will not make any difference. All school places are allocated by the relevant local authorities set against very strict criteria to award the places against. They also when dealing with the inevitable appeals process have to show the exact breakdown of how the spaces were allocated. Usually it’s ”looked after children” and the those with EHCP’s that are given spaces without question, only then does it come down to catchment areas and siblings in the school.

Any mistakes/errors/fraudulent information given has serious consequences for not just the family on that particular application but others who have been denied a space wrongly or those stuck on a waiting list.

OP it would be a good idea to have these letters from GP’s and CAMHS when applying for the school place. I’m assuming the child doesn’t have an EHCP in place currently?

[Deleted User]

You could try getting an EHCP, which will name a preferred school. However, while I got one for my son in 6 months, they can take longer. Its easier if your child's school is behind the need for an EHCP but I actually put forward the request for an EHCP assessment. Just write a letter saying why your child needs to be at this school, listing diagnosis and how her anxiety affects her ability to attend school and learn. You can include social skills in this.

My son has ASD and school anxiety, so he actually went to a specialist school which was set up to reduce anxiety, unlike mainstream schools. Its a lot smaller, smaller class sizes, its quieter (everywhere is carpeted), the school reacts quickly to things that cause anxiety (rather than denying them like every mainstream school he went to did). He still gets anxious at times, but its much easier to resolve.

But I also feel that CAHMs isn't always any good. While you can, if your daughter goes to this school, have her attend the new school with some of her friends, there will also be lots of children she doesn't know and its still a new school and will have lots of rules she's not used to. So still very anxiety provoking. It might be wise to seek CBT help with your daughter's anxiety. My son sees a children's specialist counsellor through MIND. I was pleasantly surprised how good they are. He also goes to Reiki which also seems to help.