Category Archives: Schools

State schools – how to win the game

At first inspection, finding a space in a good state school when relocating can seem an impossible task.
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The best schools are full with long waiting lists (especially in urban areas), councils are reluctant to help before a family commits to a home, and increasingly the admissions process differs from school to school depending on a school’s management and status.

However, Dean Associates continuously succeeds in placing families in good quality state education.   What are the keys to success?

Step 1:  Manage the expectations of both the family and the client.  Providing clear and jargon-free insight from the start helps keep a potential stressful process calm.  This should include a clear and frank discussion of the “rules of the game” and the risk involved.

Step 2: Agree a strategy.  The aim is to give the family the best chance of success which means developing, and finding agreement, of a strategic approach.  The strategy needs to encompass many elements, for example, the age of the children, the duration of the assignment, the size of the housing budget, commute times, and specific requirements (faith, special educational needs just two examples).

Step 3: Burn up the phone lines.  When a family are on the grounds house hunting there should be a hot-line between the home search team and the education consultant.  How does a house affect school choices? What local information on school movement is available? In cities, one side of the street can mean a different school to the other side. Great communication is vital.

State school searches are not straight-forward and require experience, know-how and sheer persistence.

Chicken or egg?

One of the most common discussions we have with parents is whether they should choose the school or the house first.

Simply put, in what order should they relocate?

Our first answer would instinctively be “school”.  It makes good sense to centre a home search around a preferred school.  Living close to the school provides logistical ease and helps both the children and the family as a whole settle into a new area.

But this instinct does need to be informed.

A schools search without proper reference to what type of house a family can afford or what type of area might suit their needs is like going into the desert without a map – and risks wasting the time of the families, the agents and the schools.

It does not need to boiled down to one area, but having a shortlist of, for example, five areas provides real focus to the relocation process.

This is also important when families are looking to move into the state sector.   Availability in the state sector is always tight and the situation can be extremely fluid.  Often research needs to be carried out when the family are on the ground, checking around individual preferred properties.

So, in a perfect world, schools would come first.  But it is never as straight-forward as that.

English school children start school too early

The UK government is planning to give parents the right to delay the school start date for summer born children.

At the moment, children must join school in the academic year in which they turn five.  In principle, this means that summer born children can often be nearly a year younger than peers in their class.

Respected research shows that the negative effects of this forced early start is felt much more keenly in the UK than in many other countries where children start school aged 6 or 7.

It has also been shown that summer children can often under-perform compared to peers in public examinations and fewer stay in formal school after the age of 16.

The government has written to local authorities to provide guidance but may encode it in the school admissions code during this parliament.

School availability – May 2015

Late Spring is traditionally a time when school places come under greater demand as families finalise plans for the new academic year.  Below is an at-a-glance overview of the current state of play.

International schools

Most international schools have now completed their re-enrolment process for the new academic year, and thus have a clearer idea of their availability.

The major international schools in central London are showing very restricted places, even in the newer options, such as Halcyon School. We would advise that options are reviewed as early as possible to ensure that a proper back-up plan is established in the English system.

Outside of central London, the major international schools have a little more flexibility, though this is the time of year when there is usually a surge of applications, and we are seeing a definite increase in activity again. Again, early action would be recommended, even if families are in the early stage of considering a move.

As with every year, the growing French population in London means that places are very hard to come by in both the government sponsored and independent schools.  This is the same situation in other country-specific schools, such as the German School in Richmond and Japanese School in Acton.

State schools

For those planning a move for the new school year, state schools are normally unable to clarify their position on availability until early June.

The indications are that spaces are much tighter than normal, especially in some areas that have traditionally been positive hunting grounds for relocating families, for example Richmond upon Thames and Kingston in south-west London or Didsbury in Manchester.

Increased birth-rates and immigration have also seen bottle-necks created in the formal application points of Reception (age 4) and Year 7 secondary (age 11). Over a third of families missed their first choice Reception choice, more than that at secondary level.

Families moving into the state sector will have to consider how to build a strategy to maximise their chance of a school place.  Again, early planning is advised when possible.

Private schools

For those families moving with company support for tuition fees, there is some flexibility in the system.

Popular schools will tend to be full, especially in major urban areas such as London, Reading, Manchester and Edinburgh, though even there occasional spots have bubbled up as families hand in their notice.

If families are happy to look at more rural areas, then schools places are often easier to come by.