Help! Furthest distance schools calculation....

Bear in mind too that, whatever computer program the school/LEA uses, it will measure from a data point on your home to a data point on the school. A diy measurement on a map will give you a rough estimate, but it’s the school’s/LEA’s measurement of home-school distance which will carry weight.

Re grammar...thinking prep from yr 5...that seems to be when most people start?

It’s impossible to say as it does seem to vary so much between areas, and whether you are in a fully selective LA or have a mixture of comprehensives and super-selectives. It is not quite as mad around here as some of the London and fringe areas but a friend of DD’s started tutoring in the summer of y4 and was warned it might be a bit late. Remember that you also need to account for the children in local prep schools, who have one eye on 11+ from the beginning but often start explicit preparation (NVR etc) in year 4.

People don’t like to give the impression that they are hothousing their child and will often (not always, but often) downplay the amount of preparation they are really doing. It’s worth bearing this in mind when comparing with peers.

As pp have said you need to check straight line distances with the local authority but remember too that there is a bulge in the birth rate from 2010-12 which is currently placing additional pressure on secondary school places. The birth rate started to decline from 2013 so you might find it eases off a bit if your child is due to start in Sep 25 or thereafter.

I also hate to be that person but if ‘a couple of years away’ means year 4 or year 5 you would need to start thinking about grammar school prep fairly soon.

The ‘last distance’ shown also refers to the last distance offered on National Offer Day. Once the waiting list has moved a bit the distance may be a little wider.

Don’t be too disheartened by the siblings numbers: they are also highly likely to be ‘in distance’ kids.

Have you visited the schools? Liked specifically at provision for and progress of children of your DC’s ability band?

It is also worth mentioning birth rates. Around 2010/2011 was apparently a peak of babies being born. If you still have a few years, there may be slightly less pressure on places. Although of course other factors influence and some areas are having lots of people move in to the area.

When you say you have a couple of years - don't forget that applications for secondary school have to be in by end of October in yr6 and that if you do decide to move you'll need to be in that new address before submitting the application for it to count!

Where we are it's all crow flies. So due to river and roads a good chunk of the kids have a 20 min car ride or two buses whereas kids on a ten min fast train line wouldn't get in. There's some free mapping tools around - failing that print off a map and get ruler out

Yes, “as the crow flies” is the colloquial expression for straight line distance.

That will be as the crow flies/straight line distance then, which is the one most commonly used. I think it is usual for all schools in each LA to use the same method of measuring distance (whether that is straight line or shortest walking route), so that probably means that your LA uses straight line distance, but I'm prepared to be corrected here!

Ah, but OP different councils have different definitions of “distance” - some are “crow flies”, sone are walking route, and what routes they count as being a possible walking route could vary, and with big secondaries and close margins re entry distances it might make a difference where specifically on the school site they manage the distance to. So you can’t necessarily rely on another council’s calculator. I’d definitely check with the council where you live about how best to calculate your distances accurately.

Our council has a calculator on their schools admissions page where you can put in your address and it tells you how many meters away you are from the closest 10 schools, according to their definition of distance. Does your council have anything similar? It’s under “find a school” on the admissions pages.

Don't make my mistake and think it's all about distance. I live 1.4 miles from school I wanted BUT DS went to a primary that fed into a different school. THIS was much more important for the school we wanted.

As an only child it was hard too and because circumstances so likely I did my best and that was that...but I do wish I'd realised sooner.

Check individual school criteria.

It's kids in care, siblings, catchment/feeder school....then a free for all on distance after all other criteria here.

Most LAs (including mine) use straight line distance, so I've just googled a straight line distance calculator and put the postcodes in to get an approximate measurement (though obviously the official distance would be more accurate!). Some use shortest walking route, however, which can be more complicated as to whether certain footpaths count, etc. If you give the name of the LA I'm sure some on here can tell you which method they use

Ring them and ask. We had this issue and they were very helpful.