Did you get into primary school outside of catchment ?

[Burrrrows]

Just curiosity. Starting to look at school applications for our eldest and there’s not a dilemma but a minor one.

we want our forever home to be in an area not far from us, it’s just slightly better and closer to family. We’ve viewed 2 houses there in the past but none have been what we want when we went to view. It’s an area with older houses so most need a bit of work however the odd gem comes up where someone’s done work! But people offer sooo much over asking for it we’re never in competition

Now this area has. Nice primary school which feeds into a nice secondary. I just looked at yhe map and where we are currently we are just outside the line for catchment :( and we won’t be moving anytime soon?

Did you get in outside of catchment? I heard people say there’s a chance and I hope so as I’d like both kids to go there and us to get our forever home there

It is so area dependent OP, you won't get a feel from responses that is helpful in a practical sense. What does the admission stats tell you about your likelihood?

One size does not fit all with school admissions. It entirely depends on the admission policy and how many applications they get. Look at the council website to see who got places last year and at what distance. That’ll give you more of an indication than asking randoms who will have a completely different school/intake/catchment etc.

Yes. But locally there is genuine choice. We’d have got any of our top three.

Yes, we did but the year's intake was fewer than usual, school was undersubscribed so there were lots of places. The next year was back to full capacity.

If your preferred school is always oversubscribed and there are more pupils wanting places than there is space for, you'd obviously be unlikely to be offered a place there by the LA. We were just very lucky!

If I were you I'd be prepared to accept an older house that needs a bit of work on it, to be in the area that I prefer. It takes time and money to bring a house up to scratch with renovations, but at least you can do it how you want it. I'd rather have a bit of inconvenience of refurbishing and redecorating and be in the location that I want, than not being able to afford the location. Maybe it's not a priority for you, but you'd stand a better chance of getting your dc into the schools you like. (Not what you were asking I know, sorry!)