SchoolGuide.co.uk spreading wrong information!

[SophiaWright]

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 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.

AtomicDog - I can see the site in Chrome, no problems.

I have my home on the market with RightMove and I just saw this, I am moving to a larger house about a mile up the road and my DD won't have a problem getting in to the secondary which is listed as "Unlikely" as my DS already attends. This information is awful and shouldn't be published without a lot of disclaimers, I am also telling my estate agent to remove the listing from RightMove, I don't want to lose a sale because of this.

I keep seeing posters for this service and it annoys me each time. My nearest school selects on distance only. It is not a popular school and I would very easily get in, but because people where I live choose to go to a different school and get in there no problem, it says I would be unlikely to get into the unpopular nearest school and the heat spot doesn't cover us. Absolute rubbish

Hmm - two secondary schools in our town and we come up as "very likely" for our non catchment school and "less likely" for the catchment one that DD1 attends. You would have thought they could get something as simple as that right.

Looked up data for my mums address. Sheltered housing but in an ordinary residential area. She is 'less likely' to get into a church school and a grammar. No chance elsewhere. Just as well she is beyond school age. I would be pretty p'ed off if I were trying to sell a family house in her street.

Hula it same here. We are for sale on Rightmove & it says unlikely to get into any school but that's bunkum. The catchment village primary school has not been full to catchment children ever. Same with the catchment secondaries which are single sex and if you want to go to the mixed comp they'll happily have you.