To only apply to schools out of catchment?

[drpepperwhatstheworstthatcouldhappen]

The school in our catchment area is a requires improvement school and I'd rather not send my son there. We had a look round and I just really hated it. Am I being crazy only putting down out of catchment schools? One 0.8 miles away, one 1, one 2.5. Our catchment school is always under subscribed so he's likely to get a place even if we don't get any of our 3 choices. It's just such a huge decision to make and I can't imagine sending him to a school I'm not happy with. Moving house not an option sadly.

It might be hidden away in a pdf "admissions guide" or something. If you're willing to post what LA you are I could have a look for you.

Or you could FOI them for it! I'm pretty sure it's a requirement though.

Same. Schools were bursting with dd’s year. A couple of years down the line and everyone is getting first choice. We got catchment, which I put as last place.

You need to put the name of the borough, primary and "How places were allocated" into google and it should give you a list of all schools with furthest distance.

I guess it’s unfair really that not all schools are up to standard. If moving house to get into catchment isn’t an option then put your local school last. Perhaps if he doesn’t get into the others you can look at moving at some point if the school in your catchment is really that bad.

We live in London on borders of three local authorities. Two of those don’t have catchments, just admission criteria which usually end up turning on distance from school (unless faith schools, music places etc). The third local authority is mainly based on feeder primary schools. All the local authorities had secondary admission guides which gave detail of all the schools and, crucially, gave last distance of admitted child for last two years. However that distance is only from offers day. Children on the waiting list who are offered a place after offers day are likely to be much further out, however we found it impossible to obtain that information.

If you really hate your nearest school, one option is to be your favourite schools in first spots and then put an undersubscribed school (but one which you prefer to your nearest) as final choice. Then you will be guaranteed to get that school rather than your nearest, provided it remains undersubscribed. That’s what we did when we applied, but luckily we got our second choice on offers day and then our first choice via the waiting list shortly afterwards.

We didn't put our catchment school for secondary - for similar reasons to you. We had 6 options though. We put our next closest school as 1st choice 0.8 mile, religious school as 2nd and another school which took their primary as a feeder. We got 1st choice which just goes by straight line distance, no feeders or anything.

Is your child christened? If so you could say that you wanted him to go to a church based primary school instead. Our catchment school isn't a church school but the other slightly further away ones are, so if it's the same for you and child is christened I would try putting that on the form.

Agree that the catchment school should be down as third choice but hopefully you won't get it.

I wonder if you're in my area where they just don't show this info on the council website ...?!

Your reasons for not choosing it seem valid - although I don't think many primary schools will do a lot of music, it's one of those subjects that they seem to have on a one afternoon a week/fortnight cycle ...

There can be a weird baby boom some years - the year below my DS had a bulge class as they just had too many new starters in the area. So if you don't get your other choices, you do run the risk of having a school much further away.

I'm assuming you mean infant school, so do be aware that appeals for KS1 are rarely successful due to strict limits on infant class sizes.

Good luck!

No, we're an pretty atheist family. None of the ones we like are religious schools either. I'm going to have to have a think....

Our first choice has just emailed saying that they don't have details re the furthest away admission, but they have a lot of children who commute from further away and they admit children from a few miles away every year. We are 0.6 miles away as the crow flies. This is so stressful 😅

@namechange3394, I thought it was a requirement but my council don't do it. I've googled many times, it would probably need to be a FOI request if I needed it.

Though tbh I don't really rate admissions at our council, the rule for ours for in-year applications (at least, a few years ago when I was trying to move DD) was you could only submit one per school year, they collated all applications and allocated any spaces at half term, and even if you weren't successful you couldn't apply again. It was the most ridiculous system.

That's fine as long as you don't object to a school not on your list ten miles away.

Be sensible. Put one in the area as second choice.

Nobody can tell you if your child will be admitted to the school you want. Even the schools themselves because nobody knows who will apply this year.

Odd things can happen eg high or low birth rates, new estate etc

Your LA should either have on their website (or in a pdf document) info for parents about which schools are available, admissions criteria and data on previous years intake. You can request a copy from the admissions team (or at least they'll be able to point you in the right direction).

You could be absolutely right in that you could not use your catchment school as a safety net but get in anyway if your first choices fail, or you might not. It may be the worst school but what about a marginally better school that's a 15 minute drive or is a faff to park at?

Catchments are still in effect in many places (I know some schools in London don't) because it's an attempt to solve the issue of all homes not being equi-distant from schools.

I know some that still have feeder schools.

My point here being that admissions criteria can vary greatly so you need to know what the criteria are for the schools you are applying to and judge you chances of success from that.

What you cannot know from this is whether the children from further away fit different priority criteria to that you would meet ie. Looked After Children , EHCP , siblings etc. Such information should be available from LA.

We're in a similar position though more rural.

School 1 we like 5 miles away, last admission last year 1.5 miles
School 2, 4.5 miles, 3 miles
School 3, 3 miles, 2.9 miles (!)

Requires improvement School round the corner, filled 60% of places. One of the most undersubscribed in the county.

We will be putting the three good choices on the form and crossing our fingers, but knowing we are pretty much certain to get into the bad local school if all else fails.

I just can't in all good conscience deliberately put my child forward for a failing school.

We have also been told that often waiting lists move quite fast once term has started so we may have to consider whether starting with a view to transferring the moment a space comes up in our preferred schools is a good option.

Sounds very similar to our situation. It's so helpful that you have the distance of furthest admission. Wish all schools provided this! Good luck!! I feel exactly the same about sending my son to an awful school. They haven't been implementing the changes suggested either which is such a worry. They have a really high turnover of staff. I'd love to send him to a school I can practically see from my house! It's just yaknow, his education...

Yes I wouldn’t go on the information you’ve got from the school as the children who commute longer could have siblings at the school and have qualified under that criteria so it doesn’t really mean anything. The school should be able to tell you whether they were over/ under subscribed last year and the year before. If they were all oversubscribed for the last few years, then I think I’d be getting on the phone to the LEA or emailing them for the distance offered information as you really need to know how realistic it is that you’ll get a place. You should also definitely be able to get admissions criteria off the school’s own website, most go EHCP/ looked after, siblings, distance but some have specific exceptions (like a priority area, or feeder schools etc). Most church schools have requirements other than just being christened too. Last resort, see if you can find a contact amongst the parents at the schools you want in the lower years as they’ll usually know how far out admissions go.

There is no bulge year coming for entry to reception.

www.statista.com/statistics/281981/live-births-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

The birth rate has been declining over the last few years, and it's at the lowest rate for 15 years.

In my council over half the schools were under subscribed last year. One local school to me only had 19 out of 30 places filled. Its a good school. It hasn't the reputation as some others but it's certainly not bad.

My suspicion with budget cuts is that school is going to end up with a situation where they are forced to combine two years as there is enough capacity in other local schools within walking distance.

Its not ideal but schools who aren't at full capacity are disadvantaged financially.

Thats one of the areas where it starts to get complicated.

There is also a really high level of people from Hong Kong coming to my area. I know Trafford is bursting at the seams with applications in higher years. And that may put a spanner in the works.

But overall, next year looks favourable for people getting first or second choices even if they live a little further out because the birth rate is so low for that year's admissions.

I think putting it as your last choice would be a sensible idea - as long as it doesn’t take the place of a school you’d be happier with.

I do remember stories, from when my dses were moving to secondary school, of people who didn’t put their catchment school on their list at all, and ended up with a worse school, further away.

Look at how full the other schools are and ask. I applied to two out of catchment schools and when I asked at both open says they expected to be able to take all those that applied. They can also give you an idea of how competitive the year is.

@RedToothBrush can we really tell if a single school won't have a bulge year by national statistics? For us it was because of local housing developments with no new school, and only one of three or four local schools had to expand. A year with a higher birth rate doesn't automatically mean all schools will have to have an extra class.

Sorry for the tangent OP!

It's unlikely if there are lots of spaces across the council area even in situations like that given just how low the birthrate currently is.

Schools will be desperate to fill spaces and not likely to want the extra expenses that come with a bulge year.

Phone/email the school and the local authority and ask?

That's what people have been telling you. Very few areas have a catchment system, most schools simply have sibling and distance criteria. You don't need to phone them, the details will be published on their own or the local authority's website.