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School place applications: what you need to know when relocating families

The British education system is respected around the world and when relocating families from overseas, you’ll find that parents are more than happy to settle their children into the British system. Although generally straightforward, there are some nuances in the admissions process that are worth noting. Here we share our experiences of relocating families with school‐age children.

State schools ‐ all about the timings

Applying for a state school involves a parent having a permanent, valid address as part of the application. Therefore, a family must have signed a tenancy agreement or have moved in when they fill out an application. The deadline for secondary school applications is the 31st October 2015 while the primary school place application process for the 2016 intake (for children born between 1st September 2011 and 31st August 2012) is open between now and 15th January 2016.

Gentle feline purrs, cute puppy paws and cheeky little chinchillas. Pets are part of the family and many people relocating to the UK will either bring a four‐legged friend with them or intend to purchase a pet once they have settled in.

The sticking point is often landlords. To them, that loveable bundle of fluff actually represents the unshift‐able smell of wet dog, a plethora of scratches in the paintwork, unsavoury stains on the carpet and a case of spray‐resistant super fleas. Boiling it down ‐ a pet costs a landlord in extra maintenance, repairs and end‐of‐tenancy cleaning.

Bristol is the largest and most popular city in the South West of England.

It holds a Royal charter and unusually has county as well as city status. It is emerging as a centre of retail excellence and trade, as well as having a thriving tourism industry and the red brick University of Bristol.

When you add all these factors together, you result in a unique lettings market that is under mounting pressure from rising tenant demand.  Letting agents are finding that rents agreed on new rentals are increasing, especially for modern properties that are easy to maintain and turn‐key ready. Local lettings agent Atif Javid at Intire Lettings is quick to highlight figures from the Office for National Statistics, showing that only 176 news rentals in Bristol are coming on every month while the population in the city is rising by almost 400 every four weeks ‐ highlighting the supply and demand imbalance.