Hi, i hope someone can help us. We are planning to move to Chesham before 31st october for Chesham grammar school. Do we have to move primary school as well before 31st October to be considered in 1st round of allocation for Chesham grammar school? As per our understanding only home address need to be within catchment area i.e near to school . Is there anything else needed to considered in 1st round of allocation? thank you .

Without rummaging on the Bucks website, I would hazard a guess that a change of primary school wouldn't be a requirement. But if you have apparently moved, lock, stock and barrel, to a new address some distance from your previous one, not at least to make an application for a place at a local primary for the rest of year 6 might be regarded as slightly suspicious?

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Where are you moving from? Is it possible to still keep sending your child to their current primary school after the move? It might be nice for the child to move to a local primary school and potentially make some friends ready for secondary school.

You can find the admissions policy at the bottom of this page. I don't believe there is any requirement to move primary school, but of course if your child doesn't it may raise questions about the move. It would depend where you were moving from.
There is information on moving & address evidence here. This details the evidence you need to give of your move, and the actions taken if BCC consider it to be a fraudulent move.
Please also think about whether there are places available at a local primary school and whether there is another school you would be happy with if your child doesn't qualify for a grammar school. Presumably you don't plan to move between 18th & 31st October? That would be a little tight.

ETA: I've just had a look at the admissions policy for the school & it says that for applicants to be considered as being gin catchment they will must be able to provide evidence of continuous residency sice October 31st. It could be argued that being at a primary school some distance away goes against this.

Thank you all for your reply. We are in stevenage( Hertfordshire) so it will be fair bit of distance to travel everyday for school. Issue is that our DS doesn't want to change school in year 6 . It is possible to keep him in his current school as I work in Stevenage and will be commuting so he can come with me every day. We were bit anxious about this as if we don't not change his primary school, it can be seen as temporary move and he might not be considered.

Will you still have your old house?

I can't see how the fact that you've chosen not to change your ds's primary school can make a difference to the application as long as you've permanently sold / handed back your tenancy of the property in Stevenage.
But that's a hideous journey twice a day every day for the next few months! Are you going to change jobs after he starts at CGS or are you going to do that commute every day?

That is the challenge for us. We own house in Stevenage and i won't be able to sell it until we know our DS got the place in school. Our current thinking is to put current property in Stevenage for rent and we will rent property in Chesham which will offset our cost. We are planning to move between 18th and 31st ( providing our DS pass in exam). Is anyone in the forum know if someone move this way? Because of this we are bit more anxious of not moving school in Buckinghamshire as well but our DS don't want move school in year 6. Is any one know if giving our current property on rent, count as sufficient evidence of cutting all ties to previous address?

I would think Bucks authorities would look at that very closely for possible address fraud, as what is to stop you moving straight back home once you get a place (assuming you do)?

Why is your son so keen to stay in y6? He will he leaving his friends anyway so surely it would make more sense for him to start getting to know new people in primary, as you are planning to move anyway? Of course you can sell your house before your son gets a place - if you are happy to move for a school, assumably you are happy to live in Bucks and embrace life there, so why not take the leap now? Then nobody would suspect you of address fraud when you do apply for Grammar Schools.

There is some detail here as to how the LEA will look at the info

https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/edu ... ing-house/