Distance criteria and "open school gates"

It's definitely a tricky one. Obviously there is no way for me to know if there are many people who might be affected by this as I don't know who applied (in my general direction, given it is that particular gate - am I right in thinking this?) slightly further out. I'd hope, given the distance is about 70m or so, not many. And the chances of them appealing lower again.

I may go draw some circles and lines and have a think.

It's simply because they say "open gate available to pupils" and there is a second gate that could possibly be used that I'm thinking there might be some wriggle room.

If there were disabled spaces behind that gate that were available for sixth form drivers with mobility issues, would that count as "pupils"? It's really pedantic, but..

Thank you tiggy - that's all food for thought. I have to see if I can find out if any pupils, whether in a car or not, are permitted to use that gate. I did some measurements using various mapping tools to our house, and the difference comes out with us 0.05 miles closer. We missed out on a space by 0.04 miles. The pedestrian gate measurement also corresponded exactly with the measurement given by the LA. So you can see why I'm interested in this!

Alas, we do not have a mansion in acres of land, it's a bog standard house in suburbia. Probably not many metres to play with there, unless they took it from the back of the plot of land versus the front which clearly they don't!

Wow, they'd really recalculate everything and potentially withdraw offers? Or would it just mean if through some miracle it did work out in our favour that she would be admitted?

Apparently they define their "gate" term elsewhere on their site, and they sent me a link. It is this:

"We use straight line distance for admission purposes. This is the distance from your child’s Normal Home Address, as set out by Ordnance Survey, to the nearest open school gate available for pupils to use. We use a computerised system to measure straight line distance.

The point we measure to at your child’s address is determined by the Ordnance Survey Address Base which is an Ordnance Survey data product that provides a National Grid coordinate and a unique reference for each postal address in Great Britain that is on the Royal Mail’s Post Office Address File."

However, despite me asking, they didn't tell me which gate they would have used. I'm trying to decide whether to be "that parent" and ask again, or just accept the chances of success down this particular route are close to zero!

Hmm, I've just realised it's not even "open" school gate, that's me misreading. I'm definitely going to ask them which gate they used.

There's a couple of gates on the school property so I think it could be worth looking into. The distance is 64m, so it's reasonably high given the small distances concerned, but I guess you never know.

I'm assuming "open school gate" would mean pedestrian access. Because we save over 64m by looking at the vehicle gate.. then again, if they don't actually specify?

However, then everyone else roughly in our area would be moved slightly closer in proportionally too - although obviously not in all directions.

Talk about splitting hairs!