School admissions - catchment area

[Rainatnight]

Wondering if any wise folk can advise me on school admissions. I know the admissions code is that schools should give priority to formerly looked after children. But I'm having trouble figuring out the relationship to catchment area.

Is it that they should give priority to formerly LAC within the area? Or from anywhere?

And how does it work across local authority boundaries?

The schools in our area are fine. But the schools in our neighbouring LA are great so we'd like to have that option if we could.

Thanks very much

We haven't been through this yet, but looking at the entry criteria (we're next time) I've not seen any indication of geographic restriction- within the same LA it should be any school.

Speculating now: that's probably true of other LAs; I'd guess you just fill in the application with the LA you want. I think the biggest problems would be trying to have first and second choices in different LAs. Phone the LA and ask.

Formerly looked after from any area.

Then catchment.

You can cross LA's if you wish but would still apply to your LA. They will pass any cross border requests to neighbouring LA themselves.

It's from any area here.

Depends where you are, in Scotland you can apply to any school but I know education is very different in the rest of the uk.

@rainatnight my advice was for England

Yeah no geographical restrictions. You choose the school which best fits your child's needs. It's one of the few bonuses of adoption vs birth children. When all my friends were panicking about school places we could sit back, secure in the knowledge we'd get in where we wanted.

Yeah no geographical restrictions. You choose the school which best fits your child's needs. It's one of the few bonuses of adoption vs birth children. When all my friends were panicking about school places we could sit back, secure in the knowledge we'd get in where we wanted.

This.

England: You apply to your LA, even if your preferred school is in a neighbouring authority.

The only time you might not get priority is if a faith school puts non-faith LAC below faith general. (Or grammar schools).

Just watch out that an 'outstanding' school may not actually be best fit for a newly placed child. A school that understands their emotional needs and any potential behaviour issues is very important.

Great, thanks, all. I had previously thought this was the case but now DD is here, I began to think it was too good to be true!

She's only 1 at the moment. But we're doing a bit of life planning and thinking about whether we might live somewhere else in the future. So thinking ahead!

Teen, yes, I know. I meant 'great schools' in the sense of right for us. For example, there's a school in the neighbouring borough with a much more diverse intake than many in this area. So she wouldn't be the only adopted child of same sex parents, which is important to us.