Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

SchoolGuide.co.uk spreading wrong information!

56 replies

SophiaWright · 28/05/2015 10:10

Having finally got through the School admissions stress and securing a place, I came across SchoolGuide.co.uk which apparently gives you information based on where you live the likelihood of getting into certain schools.

Looking at the website it seems very official and filled with information, however the information is wrong. I have shared it with other parents and am shocked that almost all of them say that their ‘heat maps’ are in no way accurate. For example we are outside the “less likely” area and didn’t have a problem getting in, whilst I know others who are in the “very likely” area and the school was massively oversubscribed.

I think them giving out wrong information Angry is worse than them giving out no information at all. I am glad I didn’t find the website before we submitted preferences it could have made us change our mind and we could have been in a much worse position because of it.

OP posts:
malefridgeblindness · 31/05/2015 10:41

provided completely wrong results for us at secondary. Primary was more accurate.

Nutmeg44 · 31/05/2015 10:58

You would think Mumsnet and Rightmove would have checked whether it was at all accurate before endorsing it. Obviously not!

AtomicDog · 31/05/2015 13:13

C'mon- MN endorse the Labour Party. One could hardly argue that Labour have got everything correct for the last 15 years, now could you?

Nutmeg44 · 31/05/2015 14:21

Mumsnet Towers are in a partnership with Schoolguide

www.schoolguide.co.uk/blog/school-guide-joins-forces-with-mumsnet

Can you show me where you've read that mumsnet towers have got a partnership with the Labour party?

HmmAnOxfordComma · 31/05/2015 16:16

Completely inaccurate in my postcode too. One of the secondary schools that it says "very likely" for has a very complicated admissions system of aptitude tests, feeder primaries etc making it impossible to know if you would ever get a place.

It also has a private primary school down as a state one...

Hoppinggreen · 31/05/2015 21:03

Well according to that my children are very unlikely to get into the school where they currently go!!
I suppose it varies from year to year but even so

TalkinPeace · 31/05/2015 21:10

The map for here says no kids in my area go to DSs school.
Must be 90 holograms getting that bus each day then.
Let alone the 150 cars
and the kids who cycle.

StandoutMop · 31/05/2015 21:12

I looked at this. The data comes from individual schools census returns and uses the postcodes of actual students in the school. It also states you need to check individual schools' admission criteria to see if you meet it.

It is quite possibly a flawed system though, 2 sought after schools near me have city wide random allocation of places so a lot of the city shows as "quite likely" as students are evenly spread. In reality, application to places ratio means you have about a 1 in 25 chance.

AtomicDog · 31/05/2015 21:28

Nutmeg- they guests of honour at the MN 10th birthday party were Gordon Brown (PM at the time), Sarah Brown, and Ed Miliband.

And their shite site doesn't even work in safari/MAC!

AtomicDog · 31/05/2015 21:29

Or chrome Hmm

AtomicDog · 31/05/2015 21:30

Unless, of course, there are no schools at all in my city...

GreenEggsAndNaiceHam · 31/05/2015 22:48

He he. We are very likely to get into the massively oversubscribed local primary school. In rea lity our address wouldn't have had a chance in the last 10 years. What's happened is that children that go to the school DO live on our street, but moved here AFTER allocation- typical rent next door to the school, get a place for youngest and future siblings, move house.

The schools we wouldn't get according to the website are the ones we would most likely get- just most people that live here would move or go private rather than send their children there.

Mopmay · 01/06/2015 14:17

It's useless in our area. Inaccurate and ignores the fact that 2 / 4 are faith schools and one private. The one left has tiny catchment that moves each year.

prettybird · 01/06/2015 14:44

Looked at it out of interest for my own postcode, to see how it copes with Scotland.

Said I was unlikely to get a place at our catchment secondary - remember, in Scotland we have fixed catchments Confused. Also said it was unlikely to get a place at the catchment Catholic school, which is untrue.

Ironically, it said it was very likely that there would be a place at the school ds is at - which was a placing request and not a foregone conclusion - but I'll accept that as accurate as he did get a place. However, it also said Very Likely for a place at the Gaelic School - when I know that places are difficult to get.

Unexpected · 01/06/2015 15:20

Maybe MNHQ could come on this thread and clarify if they really do have a relationship with School Guide - which I agree seems to be ridiculously inaccurate in many areas. It lists the two most likely secondary schools for us to get into from our postcode, both of which are very oversubscribed Faith schools. Given that they base this information on postcode only, there is no way this information is accurate. If you aren't Catholic, you haven't a snowballs chance in hell of getting a place in those schools! I hope no-one is genuinely relying on this pile of poo for school information.

Essexmum69 · 01/06/2015 15:57

Whats worrying is rightmove are using their data linked to your house, so you could be losing viewings/ a potential sale because of inacurate school information.

HmmAnOxfordComma · 01/06/2015 16:39

That's true. And just as worrying would be buying a house next door to a very popular school to find out it has a complicated admissions procedure meaning you are not necessarily likely to get a place at all.

I mean, caveat emptor and all that, but it's not very good to knowingly give out false information of this sort...

bruffin · 01/06/2015 18:27

I didnt realise it wasnt working properly and now looked again with the heatmap and it really is very wrong.
A lot of dcs friends are over 3 miles away and there because its the closest school and the heat map goes nowhere near where they live, and miles from where my dc and local friends are, so dont even come into the unlikely zone.

MustangSally1983 · 03/06/2015 09:17

After seeing an advert for this on TV I just went online to check my postcode, the information is totally wrong. I am just thinking the effect it could have on house prices or your ability to sell a home if this information is out there. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this on Watchdog in the near future.

PyjamasLlamas · 03/06/2015 09:25

Oh god. Just seen this thread. We are looking to buy a house and specifically need to be near a school for DS for sept 2016. I am using the school admissions cut off distance info as a guide but also the rightmove 'hotspots' which is from this website. It's so bloody hard because the cut off distance may change again and now it seems this schools guide info is inaccurate as well. I just don't know how the hell we are supposed to buy confidently! SadSad

SocksRock · 03/06/2015 09:28

It is right for my postcode, even showing the further away secondary school (which we are catchment for) as a better possibility that a nearer one (which we would get into on a low year).

But we are rural, not many schools and there isn't much of an oversubscription problem.

OpalQuartz · 03/06/2015 09:34

Glad the guide wasn't around when my kids were little. Apparently from where I live there is no primary school they would have been very likely to get into. Doesn't seem to have stopped either of them getting into our local school!

SomethingFunny · 03/06/2015 09:38

Oh dear- according to their site (I had already come across it through Right Move too) my children are unlikely to get into ANY secondary school. (We don't live in the country either, but in a built up area).

That cannot be right!!

What a shame as this would be a really useful tool if it only (vaguely) represented actual data. Children living here do go to secondary school!

dajen · 03/06/2015 18:24

Do not base any decision on the information on school checker as it is dangerously inaccurate. It may be a guide when schools only admit on distance but is worse than useless for a school with a defined catchment area. For my school, roads in the catchment area where admission would be certain are not even included in the heat map where as roads out of the catchment area where you would NOT be admitted from are shown as highly likely.
Definitely a good one for Watchdog!

Hulababy · 03/06/2015 18:35

Useless for part of Sheffield.

Says not likely for 19 secondary schools in the region, including the catchment one where all the neighbours' children go (if in state sector). It is the catchment school and though over subscribed - not for our area. Says less likely for 1 other but takes no account that it is a church school and doesn't have a catchment as such.

Again primary is exactly the same. All say not likely even though I don't know anyone in our estate who haven't had places for their primary aged children starting at the local catchment primary, over several years.

And no data at all for any of the independents.

Based on the guide, you wouldn't bother buying a house round here!

Swipe left for the next trending thread