My son has just finished year 4 and moving to year 5.
I have a slightly odd request, may be someone will be able to help.
I am currently based in Norfolk and wanted to move to a 'Grammar school area'
I work in London,so can relocate to any of the 3 areas (Bucks/Berk/London)
I have been studying the grammar school admission policies and I am confused as to which region to move into.
I don't want to move into a grammar school area and find out that my son did not qualify.
Ideally I would like to move once it is confirmed that my son has got admission into a school (or sort of)
Is there anyway that some schools don't need a postcode till the very end ?
Has anyone else faced this situation before ?

Hi Atenolol

There are quite a few people each year who try to do what you are doing - they tend to get more crossed eyed and frazzled as time goes on...

It is possible to apply for "super selective schools" from just about anywhere (these are schools who give places based on score but not on distance.) They are in the minority and there are none in Bucks - there is a list somewhere am sure it will appear shortly.

Any school you are interested in will only be offered IF you put it on the CAF - you are offered the first school on your list that you can qualify for, and will only receive one place.

You have also to consider what you will do if you don't get any of the selectives - needing to be in a place with a good non selective school means being generally resident well before the CAF date.

Good luck and mind the blood pressure - keep taking the tablets!!

For Berks there is a consortium of schools in Slough but I believe they all have some form of catchment. In Reading there is Reading boys which has an approx 15 mile designated area. For both you need to be in catchment for the CAF form submission I think - could be wrong so you would need to check the individual schools as they have differing rules.
Reading schools are not great if he didn't get in, but Wokingham ones are much better. There are several decent Indies if you have the funds. I don't know what Slough schools other than the grammars are like.

That is it for Berks I am afraid, it's not really a grammar county - there are just a few grammars in it.

Have you thought about Herts at all? If you moved to Watford you could apply for Watford Boys, Parmiters, Clement Danes, this is the Watford Consortium where you just sit one exam for seven school and it is only Maths and VR, no English. St Albans is another option, you could get into the Parmiters catchment area and then have good St Albans schools as a backup. DG

In Bucks distance is involved in allocating schools.

You would stand a chance of getting one of the less popular GS (but still good) - for example Chesham Grammar or Sir Henry Floyd Grammar in Aylesbury as they tend to be 'all offered'. This means they could offer everyone who put them on the CAF a place.

The format of the 11+ is under review at the miment for 2014 entr.

My son and I have just been through this process. We lived in North Bedfordshire, family (including unwell mother) live on Berks/Bucks borders. I missed ALL the deadlines but managed to persuade Langley Grammar and Bucks CC to let us do late testing. I don't recommend this route as it was only down to my mother having been hospitalised that finally swung it for us. And estate agents and solicitors vouching for the house being on the market and our looking for new houses in the relevant areas.

Anyway - ended up owning and paying mortgage for house in North Beds whilst renting in Marlow. The cross over of 3 months cost me a fortune! We were (fortunately) allocated the local Marlow grammar school on the second round of allocations. But I believe we had the only space allocated since the initial March 1st allocations. It was all a bit too much of a close call for me - convinced I have aged 20 years since we started the process 9 months ago.

My recommendation would be to move to an area such as Maidenhead - which falls into the Slough grammar consortium and also (usually) into a couple of the Bucks grammar schools as well. If you wanted to be Bucks only, then you need to live as close as possible to the school you want. Bearing in mind some of the schools insist you are resident (and can prove residency) for 18 months prior to starting the school.

None of the schools will make you an offer until you are resident, so if you wait for the results, then try to move, you run the risk of not being allocated in the first round - and second round allocations appear to be very hit and miss. And of course, all this will change over the coming few years anyway!

Taking the above into account, I believe my more sensible route would have been to move at the beginning of Year 5 as opposed to the last term of Year 6 ...

I am lucky in that my son has implicit faith in things going the way I want them to, so was not at all stressed at the thought of having moved and not having a school to go to - but it was a really close call and I still can't quite believe the whole thing worked out for us in the end.

Best of luck with your decision - but PLEASE don't leave it as late as I did!!!

The less popular ones will as the distance from where you live will be used if the school is on your CAF. Otherwise no-one out county would ever get a place ....

To have choice you do need to move sooner rather than later but pick an area with a good 'back-up' option.