London Schools- Worst case scenario?

Hi, Everyone,

I'm starting a fresh thread on this topic for some more specific guidance.

We are moving our 3 kids (11 and 9 year old twins) to London this July/August.  We are focusing on neighborhoods with decent schools, but I recognize that we will have completely missed the typical application/acceptance period.  My understanding is that we can't even apply to the schools until we have our residence set.  Which makes it really hard to figure out WHERE TO MAKE OUR RESIDENCE!

Ok, I realize this is a known problem.  But here's my question.

What is the worst case scenario?  If my local school is full, I understand they will assign my kids to the next closest school with an opening.

How far away could this school potentially be?  Is it possible I will need to get my 3 kids to three different schools (I know secondary school is a given as far as a different school for my oldest) and they could be in all different directions and an hour apart?

We are clearly not the only people who have moved families over the summer.  Things have to have worked out for people, right?

I am not opposed to a religious school, but we are agnostic and we won't have any letters of support from pastors or anything.  And do those charge tuition?  And I can't afford private school tuition for three kids (or really even 1! 15-30k a year!?!) Am I gonna have to homeschool?

Is there hope for us?  I know I won't really know until we find a house and contact the schools, but I would love some kind of reassurance that I am stressing myself out for no good reason. 

Help, kind people!

If the schools are full, they simply have to allocate you to another school in the borough (a bit like a county in the USA, but different to a UK county).  This can be far away and they may put all the kids at different schools.  This happens, not going to sugar coat it.  Honestly, it won’t matter if you live immediately across the street from the school as you are entering at a time other than the initial enrolment period.

ALL schools in the UK teach faith.  There is no separation of church and state here.  As a result, you will find very few believers amongst you.  Backfires a bit.

Have you pushed back on the employer about private tuition?  VERY standard in a relocation package when kids are involved.  Simply to solve this problem.

ALL schools in the UK teach faith.  There is no separation of church and state here.  As a result, you will find very few believers amongst you.  Backfires a bit.

There is a big difference between teaching faith at a specific faith school and teaching ‘religious studies’ classes at a non-religious school, though.

I attended a Church of England (CofE) primary school and then went to a non-religious secondary school.

At the CofE school we had:
- morning assembly every day, during which we sang religious hymns and recited the Lord’s Prayer
- religious studies lessons where we mainly learned about Christianity and sometimes the vicar would come in and tell us stories from the bible
- regular church-related events

At the non-religious secondary school we had:
- no hymns
- no prayers
- no mention of religion in assemblies or anywhere else in general school life
- no church events
- a weekly religious studies (RE) class where we learned about world religions and studied basic sociology topics... it was pretty wishy-washy though (lots of film-watching and colouring in)


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There is a big difference between teaching faith at a specific faith school and teaching ‘religious studies’ classes at a non-religious school, though.

I attended a Church of England (CofE) primary school and then went to a non-religious secondary school.

At the CofE school we had:
- morning assembly every day, during which we sang religious hymns and recited the Lord’s Prayer
- religious studies lessons where we mainly learned about Christianity and sometimes the vicar would come in and tell us stories from the bible
- regular church-related events

At the non-religious secondary school we had:
- no hymns
- no prayers
- no mention of religion in assemblies or anywhere else in general school life
- no church events
- a weekly religious studies (RE) class where we learned about world religions and studied basic sociology topics... it was pretty wishy-washy though (lots of film-watching and colouring in)


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Interesting how much it varies school to school.  We are at a non-church affiliated school and they have a daily prayer and have definitely learned bible stories.  And about heaven. 

Primary school turned my kids into proper bible thumpers.

Thankfully, it didn't stick for either of them.