Secondary School Applications - documents needed

[Elfy]

Hi all, it's that time of year again... we are in the process of applying for schools for our son. And although we haven't left it to the VERY last minute, we have hit a problem.

According to the Lambeth website one piece of documentation we need to provide is our council tax bill. We only get one a year and I think it went in the bin. (Not much forward planning here...) We've lived in our house for 8 years and I can get a screenshot of our council tax account from the Lambeth website... but not sure if this will be sufficient.

My husband called them and they said a utility bill, driving licence, etc would be an OK substitute...but this is not what it says on the website and we have no evidence in writing that someone from Lambeth said this would be OK.

The alternative is to get an affadavit from a solicitor (for payment).

Has anyone got any experience of this? Seems a hell of a lot of hoops to jump through!

[lolasid]

I had lost mine too. I phoned lambeth and said it was for the secondary application, she said it could take up to 7 days but I got it in 2 days. So phone now and you should have it by Wednesday. You will also need a driving licence or child benefit, if you get that. You need your child?s passport or full birth certificate- I used a prescription and passport, driving licence and council tax as I don?t get child benefit. Good luck

[Elfy]

I just called them and actually managed to speak to someone. She said 5-7 days..but fingers crossed it comes sooner than that. I also had to get a signed letter from the doctor re my son living at our address. I suppose there are people who try and scam the system but they could just check their records and see we have lived in our address for 8 years. Now to decide which schools we want...

[hpsaucey]

What?s this for exactly - particular schools? No mention of needing them for general admissions on southwark?s site. Unless it?s changed in the few years (???) those pieces of ID were presented at the school after a conditional offer had been made.

HP

[alex_b]

If you have a mysouthwark online account the "printable view" is pretty much identical to the postal version.

[Elfy]

Maybe Lambeth is different to Southwark? Us Lambeth residents (literally on the border) have to either upload scanned copies of various documents or send them in. Council tax, utility bills, driving licence, proof of address for child... quite a few docs.

https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/school-admissions/proof-of-address-and-date-of-birth-documents

[hpsaucey]

Wow - sounds as though is different for Lambeth then.

HP