In-Year School Admissions After Moving House

Most parents meet the school admissions system once, during the normal round, when a whole year group applies together and offers land on the same national offer day. A house move throws that out. You need a place now, in the middle of a term, for a child who is already in school somewhere else. That is an in-year admission, and it runs on different rules from the application you may remember. This page sets out how it works, what you have to provide, and what to do when the school you want has no space.

The short version: you apply to the council for the area you are moving to, places are handed out as they come free rather than all at once, and there is no shared deadline to hit. Knowing that changes how you plan the move.

How in-year admissions differ from the normal round

In the normal round, everyone applying for a Reception or Year 7 place uses one common application form, ranks several schools, and waits for a single co-ordinated offer day. In-year admissions work nothing like that. You apply because a place is needed during the school year, the application is handled as it arrives, and a school can only offer a place if it has a genuine vacancy in the right year group.

Three differences matter most for a family that is moving:

No national offer day. There is no fixed date when offers go out. A place is offered when one is available, which can be quick or can mean a wait, depending on the school.
Places depend on vacancies. A popular school that filled every seat in the normal round may simply have nothing free in your child's year. That is not a judgement on your application; the seats are taken.
You apply when you need a place. Rather than a season, the trigger is your move. The advice from government is to start early, because a school cannot hold a place open ahead of your arrival.

If you want the wider picture of how the whole system fits together, our guide to school admissions in England covers the normal round, deadlines and offer days in full.

How to apply: council first, sometimes the school

The starting point is the local council for the area you are moving to, not the council you are leaving. As the government's page on applying for a school place puts it, you contact your local council to find out about applying for a school place once the school year has started, known as in-year applications.

What happens next depends on the council. Two patterns are common:

The council co-ordinates everything. Many councils run a single in-year application that covers all the schools in their area. You apply once, name the schools you want, and the council manages the requests on your behalf.
You apply direct to some schools. Academies, free schools, voluntary aided faith schools and others can be their own admission authority. For these, the council may direct you to apply to the school itself. The council will tell you which schools sit outside its co-ordinated scheme.

Whichever route applies, ask the council two things straight away: the earliest date you can apply given your move, and exactly what proof of address it will accept. Both vary between councils, and getting them right at the start avoids a rejected or delayed application.

Proof of address and applying before you move

Address is the part that trips families up, because admission authorities use it to rank applicants and they check it carefully. You will usually be asked to show that you live, or are about to live, at the new address. Typical documents include a signed tenancy agreement, a mortgage offer or property deeds, and once you have moved in, a recent council tax or utility bill in your name.

You can often begin before the move. Government guidance for families relocating notes that you may need to supply proof of your new address, for example a mortgage or rental agreement or deeds for the property, and prove that you will live in the area before the start of the next school term. A school cannot reserve a place for a future move, but the council can usually accept and process the application once you can demonstrate a firm commitment to the address.

One warning worth taking seriously: do not apply using an address you do not genuinely intend to live at, such as a relative's home or a property you have not yet committed to. Admission authorities can and do withdraw offers obtained on a misleading address, even after a child has started.

A parent completing a local council school application form on a laptop with address documents on the desk

How oversubscription criteria and waiting lists apply

In-year applications are judged by the same rules a school uses in the normal round. If a school has a free place in your child's year group and you have applied correctly, it offers the place. If more children want a place than there are spaces, the school ranks applicants against its published oversubscription criteria, the ordered list of rules that decides who gets in. Our guide to how oversubscription criteria allocate places walks through how those rules are applied.

When a school is full, it refuses the place, and you can ask to go on its waiting list. The key thing to understand is that the list is not first come, first served. It is ranked by the same oversubscription criteria, so a family that joins later can sit above one that joined earlier if they meet the criteria more strongly, for example by living closer. That means your position can move up or down as families come and go. There is more detail in our guide to how waiting lists are ordered.

Timelines and what to expect

Because there is no national offer day, there is no single answer to how long an in-year place takes. Most councils aim to decide a complete application within a few weeks. The real variable is supply: where a vacancy exists in the right year group, an offer can come quickly; where the year is full, you may be relying on the waiting list and on a place coming free.

A few practical points smooth the process:

Apply as early as the council allows. The sooner a complete application is in, the sooner it can be matched to a vacancy.
Keep your current school place until a new one is confirmed. Do not give notice on the old school before you have a written offer at the new one.
Provide everything in one go. Missing proof of address is the most common cause of delay, so send the documents the council asks for with the application.
Get offers and refusals in writing. A written refusal is what triggers your right to a waiting list place and an appeal.

What to do if no place is available

If the schools you want are full, you are not out of options, and you can pursue several at the same time. Joining the waiting list keeps you in the running for each school. You can also appeal: a refusal can be taken to an independent appeal panel, which judges the case for that particular school. Our guide on appealing a refused school place sets out the grounds and the deadlines.

There is also a safety net for the harder cases. The School Admissions Code 2021 requires every local authority to operate a Fair Access Protocol. According to the government's guidance, its purpose is to ensure that, outside the normal admissions round, vulnerable children and those having difficulty securing a school place are allocated a place as quickly as possible, with all schools in an area admitting their fair share. The protocol is for children who cannot secure a place through the usual in-year route and who fall within set categories, so it is not a faster lane for everyone, but it does mean a child should not be left without any school for long.

While you sort out a preferred school, take any reasonable place offered as cover, so your child is in education. Accepting it does not stop you staying on waiting lists or pursuing an appeal for the school you really want.

Getting your move and your application to line up

The cleanest in-year moves are the ones planned in step with the house move rather than after it. As soon as the new address is firm, contact the receiving council, find out whether you apply to it or to individual schools, confirm the proof of address it needs, and get your application in. Name realistic schools as well as your first choice, keep the existing place until an offer is in writing, and use the waiting list, appeal and Fair Access routes if the obvious doors are shut.

For the official rules, the government's page on how to apply for a school place confirms that in-year applications go through your local council and sets out what proof of address you may need. You can start your wider research, including comparing schools in your new area, from the Schools Insight homepage.

Frequently asked questions

What is an in-year school admission?

An in-year admission is any application for a school place made outside the normal admissions round, for example after a house move, a relocation, or a decision to change schools. There is no national offer day and no shared deadline. You apply when a place is needed, the application is processed as it arrives, and a place is offered if one is available in the right year group.

How do I apply for a school place after moving house?

Contact the local council for the area you are moving to and follow its in-year admissions process. Many councils run a single in-year application for all their schools, while some ask you to apply directly to certain schools, such as academies and faith schools. The council will tell you which route applies, the earliest date you can apply, and what proof of address it needs.

Can I apply before I have moved?

You can usually start the process before you move, and applying early is sensible because a school cannot reserve a place ahead of your move. Most councils will accept an application once you can show you are committed to the new address, for example with a signed tenancy agreement or completed property purchase. Check the council's exact rules on proof of address, as they vary.

What proof of address do I need for an in-year application?

Councils typically ask for documents showing you live, or will live, at the new address, such as a tenancy agreement, mortgage offer or property deeds, and often a recent council tax bill or utility bill once you have moved in. Some require you to prove you will be resident before the start of the next term. Using the new address before you genuinely live there can lead to an offer being withdrawn.

What happens if there are no places at the schools I want?

If a preferred school is full it must refuse a place, but you have several options at once. You can ask to join the school's waiting list, which is ranked by its oversubscription criteria rather than by how long you have waited, and you can appeal to an independent panel. Where a child cannot secure any place through the normal in-year route, the local authority's Fair Access Protocol exists to find one quickly.

How long does an in-year admission take?

Timescales vary by council, but in-year applications are generally decided within a few weeks of a complete application being received. There is no fixed national offer date, so the wait depends on whether a place is currently available and how the council processes applications. If you are refused, you should be told how to join a waiting list and how to appeal, with appeal hearings normally held within set statutory timescales.

A house move is enough to manage without the school place becoming its own crisis. Treat the in-year application as a fixed task in the move: council first, proof of address ready, realistic schools named, and the waiting list and appeal routes lined up in case the first answer is no.