Why you can't always assume you've moved into the catchment area of your chosen school

[faintpinkline]

I feel a bit sorry for her but it just shows how the boundaries change and you can't assume you've paid for a school place with your house

Exactly. It's not so much where the boundary falls but how many children live closer than you and that part of the equation varies.

Agree with lionheart, it doesn't sound like its a catchment problem rather just a 30 chilldren live closer to the school than she does.

It is a catchment problem - the way English catchments work mean that some people live in educational black holes where they will always be a long way away from the nearest school and other people will always live closer.

There are other ways of deciding on catchments!

It doesn't sound as if there was a catchment (ie defined priority admissions area) for any of the schools she applied to. The size of admissions footprint, in a 'distance from school' system always varies. It's very hard when you miss by such a narrow margin , though. And cold comfort that even when there is a defined priority admissions catchment it is still possible to miss a place if there are just too many children in the catchment.