“Parents assume they just have to find a property in the catchment area, and their child will automatically go to the local school. But that’s not how it works,” she says.
And she would know. Sarah Teasdale is a seasoned educator with extensive experience teaching in her native UK, Ireland, the UAE, and Africa. She’s also a mum who raised three daughters abroad, making her uniquely equipped to support assignee parents getting to grips with the UK school system.
Surprising fact #1 You can’t start the enrolment process for public school from abroad
Many families don’t realise that, before they can apply for a school place in a UK public school – the route chosen by most expat families – they must not only have secured permanent accommodation in the catchment area with their name on the lease, but the child must also be living at the property.
This is because it’s the local council that funds the education of the children in their area. And they will only take legal responsibility for a child – and allocate funding for their education – once they see that the lease has begun, and the child is legitimately living at that address.
In practice this means applying to the council from the first day of the tenancy and submitting a copy of the lease as well as the children’s boarding passes or evidence of registration with a local doctor to prove that they are residing at the property.
“This stops people from using a UK friend or family member’s address to get a school place and prevents education shopping from abroad to join wait lists, which is what used to happen before,” she explains.
But Sarah stresses, once the children are in the UK, they are entitled to a school place. The council is obliged to place all children under 16. Between the ages of 16-18, this responsibility shifts to the family, but schooling until 18 is mandatory by law.
Surprising fact #2 Even if you live in the catchment area, you might not get your first choice of school.
Because most assignees relocate over the summer holidays, in the middle of the calendar year, their only choice is to make an “in-year” school application. That means there aren’t as many places available because the majority have already been filled by parents who applied “on time”.
An “on time” application requires, for example, that if your child is starting primary school in September 2025, you file their application by midnight on the 15th of January that year. For secondary school, you need to apply for a place by the 31st of October the year before your child is due to start.
“Of course, this isn’t an option for the parents we work with,” Sarah says. “Their child will definitely get a place, but it will only be at their number one school if it has places left. If the child is placed somewhere else, the council will let the parents join the wait list for their preferred school, which we encourage them to do.”
In her experience, parents who get the opportunity to move to their children to their preferred school within the first couple of weeks will do so. But if a place becomes available once the child is settled, they seldom make the change.
How to apply for a school place in the UK
When securing a place at a public school, Sarah’s application to the council includes a list of local schools ranked in the parents’ order of preference. The council then comes back with a placement that is non-selective. This means it’s not influenced by how well the child is doing academically, there’s no test to determine aptitude, and the council doesn’t require previous report cards.
For private schools, the application process is different. Before the family even arrives in the UK, Sarah discusses their schooling criteria and preferred locations in depth. Then she identifies a place at a suitable school and works with the family to complete the application process. This ensures the child can start school immediately once they arrive.
School search and house search go hand in hand
Because of the way the school system works, and the current state of the UK rental market, Sarah’s policy is to encourage families not to focus on particular schools. Instead, they should identify two or three areas in which there are several schools that have good ratings – not only because they might not get the school they want, but because they might not even find a property in the catchment area.
Schooling is the biggest priority
For Sarah, her job is not just about securing school places. Arguably more important is the work she does educating parents about how the UK school search system differs to what they’re used to and managing their expectations accordingly.
“For assignee parents, finding the right school is the biggest worry by far,” she says. “So it’s extremely rewarding to be able to support anxious parents through, what for them, can be a daunting process and give them the confidence that their children will be able to succeed in this new setting.”
Family stability is key for a successful assignment. Do you have assignee parents bound for the UK? Contact AGS Relocation UK to for a no-strings-attached discussion of their schooling needs.