School catchment , how does it work ?

[fedup078]

So I'm divorcing toxic h who is a teacher and wants dc when old enough to go to his school which is about 40mins away from me
I want dc to go to what I consider better schools nearer to me
Although we have 50:50 custody dc is registered for doctors / health visitors and so on at my address so the school letter will come here
What I'm asking is when it comes down to it if neither of us will back down on our choice then what happens? Does he get any say in this?

A school catchment is a fixed area, which will be specified in the schools admission arrangements (typically by giving a map). Those within the area have priority for admission (and in sScotland, guaranteed admission) to the school.

the entrance criteria will read something like

• LAC/SEN


• siblings in catchment


• other catchment children


• other siblings


• other children

BUT there will be a tiebreaker in whichever category is reached and that is by distance, so living within the catchment may not be enough, you may also need to be close enough that the offers reach you.

Many parts of England (including nearly all of London) do not have catchments, and it is all down to distance.

You can find out if you are close enough that you would have received offers in previous years (whether by there are catchments or not) by looking on your council website, or enquiring of the school. They will be able to tell you which admissions category the offers reached, and what was the greatest distance offered

I think most places use the address where the child spends the most nights Sunday to Thursday (i.e nights before a school day). If that’s genuinely 50:50, they might use the address which is registered which the GP, or whichever parent gets child benefit.

The admission policy for the school in question will be in their website, Google “admission policy XYZ school” and you’ll find it.

Some schools including my kids school have places for staff kids, which comes above the other criteria - except children from care etc so it won't necessarily be down to catchment, also a lot of schools will be under subscribed at the moment, depending where you live, some areas have much smaller numbers of young kids since brexit / covid etc, a few areas have got more popular. You will need to agree on kids schooling or go to court to sort it out.

Yes, if he has PR, he has equal say to you.

When it’s 50/50 then things like which address the DC wakes up at most school mornings, and things like where registered with officialdom may also matter.

You can apply from one address - the child’s - only. So if her DDad applies using his address, then you need to think about what other schools to put on the form. Because it’s really quite unlikely, unless quite rural, that schools 40 mins away will have so few applicants that they are making offers to that distance, so even if you put your hearty schools as middle preferences, you need a ‘banker’ from the father’s address (one that you can be as near as dammit sure s/he’ll get in to) otherwise you’ll be allocated the one nearest his address which has spaces. And that might be inconvenient for you both.

You say he’s a teacher. Does the school he works at have an entrance criterion for children of staff? Does he fulfil the requirements for being in that category (eg being employed there for long enough?)

Before you start a battle - think carefully about your reasoning. Which is the better school for your dc? Not just results but extra curricular etc. what does your dc want? How will they travel to school if their father isn't taking them? Can they get to your preferred school from their fathers?

You are very angry, bitter etc so just take a breath and ensure decisions you disagree on aren't because you are both deliberately disagreeing on principle. Many decisions on schools are pretty marginal, good kids do well at any school ... is this worth the fight?

We can't advise if it is, don't know the full facts but I've seen couples where every decision they take opposing stances and it's very damaging for the kids. Talk to your ex, explain your genuine concerns but do it for good reasons not because you hate your ex