Limeynic

I'm a Brit married to a Brit living in TX for 13 years. We are moving back to NW, Preston, Lancs area late summer 2011.
I have 4 children ages 6,7,9,12.
Since were planning to be there in August I've been tryingvto find out about schools for September. So far all feedback I've got has been that schools are already distributing places, by August all good suburb schools will be filled. If I don't like inner city places my kids are assigned I cam appeal. However, I don't know what we'd do in the mean time.

I've asked can I apply now but no one seems to know the answer.

Do any of you have experience or guidance you can give us?

brits1

Get in touch with your local education authority explain your circumstances, some are really good and might keep places open for you as long as they can, when I had to go to a Manchester school (we did not live in Manchester and this was many moons ago..gulp) I was offered a place at a school that was not my parents choice andso they refused the place, I was kept off school until the start of October when a place was available....I am not saying you will have to do this but that's what my parents did. I would also explain that your children would settle but better in an environment outside an inner city area as this is what they are currently use to etc. Good luck

RW11

Don't know if this helps but when we returned to UK from Jordan i knew of the schools in the area that we would be living, i decided on the one that was closest and contacted them directly whilst in Jordan, and they held a place open for my son. This wasn't at the start of any term however and it was in Cornwall so schools generally as far as i'm aware, don't get as full as cities for example. If you do have an idea of where you will be living i would just get a few schools contact details and ask them direct.

Limeynic

Thanks for the advise. I'll try the schools directly next week. I thought it was a no no as the city council told me it had to be through them.

scrubbedexpat055

City council were correct, rules changed in the last year or so

RPorter

Nice to read this thread. We aren't moving till 2012 but we want to look at addressing this while we are over visiting next Jan. (Going to be taking my Life in the UK test then). One more thing to add to the list of dicussing whilst there. Thankfully I only have one child coming with so I can deal with just one issue.