Hello everyone,

I've got 3 kids within 5 yrs of each other and need to settle them all in to school/uni when we return. Anyone out there has the experience of trying to get into a good state secondary school from overseas? Do you know of any state schools that accept an overseas address? I only know of one in Essex, and would like to find others to keep my options open.

We would be returning when one of them starts year 7, and as I understand it, I need to apply the year before. But we won't have a UK address until we return the following summer, so how do I get round this problem?

Then as I understand it (thanks, Dreadsoc), that the other two who will be miv way thro secondary/ or starting A levels, will need to apply for a in-year application over the summer when we return. Doing it this way, will it mean that my other 2 will prob end up in schools that are unpopular (and hence they have vacancies) ?
Is there a way I ensure that they will all be in the same school ?

Will be grateful for any advice. Thanks.

My daughter went to our local high school in our village ( Staffordshire) one of the best high schools in Staffs with a waiting list, anyway we moved to Canada and stayed 13 months, decided to go home ( rented house out - big mistake - another story ) so returned to the same address and the school were happy for her to return to the same class etc.... ( she was YR 10 on our return )

It wasn't as simple as coming home and going back to school though, we had to apply to the County Council, fill in forms and then wait 3 weeks for them to decide whether or not she could go to the school? but they did say we could have done this from Canada, so our mistake, waiting until we got home

I suppose the difference is, we already had a UK address to come back to.
You could contact the local councils in the areas you are looking at moving to and explain your situation and see if they can give you advice?
Or if you have family in the area of the school you would like them to attend, use their address, until you have found somewhere to live?......not sure 'how legal' that is though, so don't quote me

Although, our neighbours wanted their grandchildren to attend our local primary school, the daughter was planning on moving into the village anyway but they hadn't yet found a property, they used the grandparents address until they eventually found a house in the village........

Sorry if this is no use to you whatsoever but Good Luck with the move

It's a help to me as we'll be in that situation in a few months with children going into Yr7, Yr9 & Yr11.
While I was busy stressing about the one going into Yr11 cold, I'd forgotten about Yr7 having to have applied before Christmas, so mine will probably end up scattered across a huge London borough, as we don't have an address either!

On the same note, does anyone know if they'll hold back the Yr11 kid (August birthday), and start him in Yr10, or will they automatically put him in the correct year, despite him coming cold into the exam year?

Hi we had no problems getting our children into schools, we didn't know where we'd be living so didn't apply until we got here. We applied for my son's year 7 place 2 weeks before the start of term and he was accepted into our second choice school which is rated as outstanding.

The key for us was choosing an area where there were really no bad schools. I found the LEA extremely helpful, I thought they'd be a bit rude as I was applying so late but they really bent over backwards to help out, especially with the secondary school application.

I know most LEAs don't like doing that, I had thought about holding back my August born year 7, as he was only in grade 5 in Australia! However my son was adamant that he wanted to go to secondary so off he went (he's coped really well missing year 6 - you'd never guess).

It might be a bit different for a year 11 though as you'd be halfway turlough exam courses. It might be worth talking to the heads of the schools direct?

I have looked into this a bit as my daughter would be going into yr 11. As I understand it is just not possible, not because it's an exam year but because so much of GCSEs are coursework based and this is started in year 10 and would be too much to catch up on.

So we are delaying our return purely because of this reason

So are you saying they won't place a "cold" student in year 11 at all then, because he's going to have to go somewhere!! Unfortunately we can't delay our return.
Assuming they won't let him go into Yr 10 instead, I was hoping at least he could start making friends in Yr 11 even if he had no hope of passing any exams!

Ah well, will fight that battle when we come to it. Nowt much I can do from here anyway! Thanks for your input.

The schools I spoke to said if they had place (which they didn't!) she would have to be moved back to year 10.
I wish you luck and would be very interested in what you find out and how it works out for you.