What's the smallest Catchment Area you've heard of / how big is yours?

[P1kachoo]

108 metres? Bit of a silly thread really, but I'm just curious to hear what the smallest catchment areas are that everyone has heard of? I was watching the recent TV prog about admissions cheating and I think it mentioned a Primary in Hammermith with a catchment of 108 metres??? (Though it may have been 108 yards?)

[nancy75]

0.1 mile for a 1 form entry primary near me, most places go to siblings.

[P1kachoo]

Oh, and I realise this is a bit of a pointless question given in some cases nearly all the places will be filled by children meeting the other criteria, so there may only be 1 child admitted on distance criteria.... But I'm still curious.

[mummytime]

Well I know of secondaries where no children are accepted on distance - there are a lot of them. And they use distance in the other categories, in fact often "just siblings" don't get in - these are usually religious schools.

[redskybynight]

Are these "formal" catchment areas, or just the "distance last child admitted"? The formal catchment area for DS's school goes out to about 3 miles in one direction (which is quite rural) although only about a mile in others. And some years there are no "out of catchment" children admitted.

[TalkinPeece]

DCs school catchment is 11 miles across and I live a mile outside it, several miles from the school.

Stupidly small catchments are because Broon sold off the London school buildings for housing and LEAs are not allowed to provide needed places.

[BackforGood]

We don't have 'catchment areas' here - distance criteria will change year on year, depending on the distance the child who lives furthest away from the school, who got a place. This will change each year depending on number of places taken up by people meeting a higher criteria.

[P1kachoo]

No children accepted on distance - that must be depressing to know for people who want that school under distance criteria :-(

I was actually thinking of 'distance of last child admitted' - wasn't sure that formal catchment areas were still used?

11 miles, wow!

:-)

[krisskross]

0.17 miles Near us for a two form entry school...three years ago. We're in v suburban London,.

[redskybynight]

We still have formal catchment areas here. they are true catchment areas too - in most cases it's pretty hard to get into a school where you are not in the catchment areas - and several schools where it's hard to get into a school even if you are!!

[MumTryingHerBest]

My DC will be competing against a few hundred children for one of 19 academic or one of 10 music places at our nearest school which is 385 meters from our house. He does not qualify under any other criteria - SEN, LAC, child of staff, silbing, cross sibling or distance (19 places with this years cut off being 289 meters, 224 meters last year). This is a secondary school with an intake of 190.

[thankgoditsover]

Blimey MumTrying, where's that? Herts? It must be so frustrating for you as presumably you want your children to go there not for its stellar exam results (which presumably it has because it's semi selective), but because it's your nearest school.

[nowirehangers]

There's a school in fulham, i think, we a 0 metres catchment as all places went to siblings

[MumTryingHerBest]

thankgoditsover yes it is Herts.

To be honest I'm happy with all the local schools so I'm not too worried.

However, It's not great that some local children have to travel 45 minutes to an hour on public transport when there is a school within easy walking distance.

It is even more annoying that siblings living approx. 3 miles from the school are given places but children living 300 meters away don't.

[SomedayMyPrinceWillCome]

There's one near me with a catchment of 0.08 miles

[TheSecondOfHerName]

The schools my children attend go out as far as about 250m. 350m in a 'good' year. By the time they've offered academic places, music places and sibling places, there are fewer than 20 places left for distance.

I can imagine that in highly populated areas, the distances are even smaller.

[TheSecondOfHerName]

Just realised that MumTryingHerBest is probably talking about the same school that mine attend.

[CruCru]

I think Gillespie (Islington) had a cut off distance of 0.068 miles for September 2015's intake.