Proof of address and moving home

We expect a child’s home address to be the property that is the child’s main residence, not an address where your child may stay sometimes for other reasons such as childcare.  This address must be owned or rented to the parent or person with parental responsibility.  The child must be living there at the time of application.  You cannot submit an application using an address that you are hoping to move into.

Informal living arrangements with friends or relatives will not be classed as the child’s main residence and will not be used for admissions purposes. Temporary addresses used to improve your child’s priority for a school place will also not be accepted.

We will check the address that you use on your application to ensure that school places are offered correctly.  We use a variety of sources and council systems to check this information.  We may ask you to provide documents to verify your address, particularly if you have recently moved.

Your proof of address must be in the same name and address as those you have provided on your application and must be recently dated.

Proof of new address

You will need to provide 2 documents from the following list. Please do not send original documents.

• proof of purchase or tenancy agreement
• driving licence
• car Insurance
• benefits letter
• household insurance
• utility bill

Proof of leaving your old address

You will need to provide 1 document from the following list. Please do not send original documents.

• final utility bill/ council tax
• proof of sale or tenancy agreement ending

Proof of address for child

You will need to provide 1 document from the following list. Please do not send original documents

• Child Benefit
• hospital appointment letter
• medical card
• benefits letter naming child
• immigration documents
• NHS registration letter

We may in some circumstances, make an unannounced visit to your home.

Please tell the School Admissions Team immediately about any change of address. If you do not do this, your application will become invalid and this may lead to any offer of a school place being withdrawn.

The School admissions code permits the right to withdraw a school place that was obtained by fraudulent or intentionally misleading information even after a child has started at the school.

If you are planning on moving after the closing date, but before offer day, you will still need to apply on time, using your current address. When you have moved into your new home and sent us satisfactory documents to prove where you live we will update your application.

For your new address to be considered in the allocation for an intake place, you must have moved and provided us with the documents required by:

• the end of the autumn term in December for secondary applications
• 1 February for primary and infant to junior applications

For any house move where the evidence is received after this date, we will process your application against your current address, and will consider your new address after the main round of allocations on national offer day.

If you move house after your child has been offered a place and your new address would not have qualified for a place at the offered school, your child's offer of a place will be withdrawn.  This is because there were children living closer or with a higher priority on national offer day that that do not have a place.  The admission arrangements for the school determine that places cannot be offered out of order.

Informal living arrangements with friends or relatives will not be classed as the child’s main residence and will not be used for admissions purposes. Temporary addresses used to improve your child’s priority for a school place will also not be accepted.

Where a child lives with parents that have shared responsibility for the child, the “residence” shall be considered as the home which the child resides for the majority of the school week. You should send us a court order that determines who has the child the majority of the week.

Where the child is split equally throughout the school week or in the absence of documentation, determining the main address, then the “residence” shall be defined as the home where child benefits are paid. If neither parent qualifies for child benefit we will use the address that is registered with the GP.

Recent changes to the recipient of these benefits or the address with the GP to obtain a preferred school place will not be accepted.

When you apply for a school place you will be required to confirm that any other parent with parental responsibility is in agreement with the application and is aware of the details.

If a parent who has not made the application wants information on the application, they should speak to the other person with parental responsibility. If this is not possible, we will make reasonable enquiries to find out if you are entitled to receive this information.

We will ask the applicant whether there are any prohibitive orders in place preventing this information being shared. Depending on the age of the child, they may also have the right to consent to whom the relevant data is disclosed to. 

We can only accept one application per child and parents are expected to agree school preferences before applying. The admissions team cannot become involved in any disputes or differences over the application. If you do not agree you should seek legal advice.

If there is a court document stating that a child’s school place cannot be changed, we will withdraw the application upon receipt of a copy of this document.