A-level years "catchment"?

[Lndndad]

The catchment areas for Secondary Schools for the years 7 to 11 (up to GCSE) can be easily found from Council websites or other websites specialised in displaying information on schools. But what about years 12 and 13 (A-Levels)? I understand places are assigned on the basis of GCSE results, but I presume distance criteria apply as well? Is there anything like a "catchment area" showing all A-Level pupils taken in by a school, and where can I find it? Might be a silly question but coming from abroad and still getting to grips with the UK schooling system. Any advice is welcome. Thank you!

You’d need to look at schools’/colleges’ admissions criteria and ask whether they are oversubscribed for sixth form. We just moved into a new area with a very popular, Ofsted outstanding comprehensive but ds was still offered a sixth form place based on our old address (45 miles away) as they don’t get full up for sixth form. However dd did sixth form in our old city and although she was offered a place at a similar comp, when I read the admissions details and instructions for results day, it was clear that current students were given priority and then it was first come first served for others. There doesn’t seem to be a common approach across schools.

There's no catchment areas for 6th form where I live.

It depends on the individual schools to be honest. There should be information on the school websites about sixth form admissions.
The school dd attended for Y7-11 had very different admissions criteria for sixth form. If a particular subject is oversubscribed, it was possible to change subjects to obtain a place.
The sixth form criteria were:

• obtaining the minimum grade needed to take this subject
• having attended the school between Y7 and 11 or another named partner school that did not have a sixth form
• having siblings currently at the school in Y7-11 if above was not applicable
• having siblings currently attending the sixth form or who had attended previously
• distance of home to the school sixth form centre

This was for an oversubscribed inner city school outside London.

Thanks, so each school has different criteria - I will investigate further with the schools themselves. I also looked at a website which listed the feeder schools for A-Levels and as much as 30-50% of pupils come from different schools, some being miles away, so there seems to be less pressure on entry compared to GSCE?

Yes it's common for pupils to switch for sixth form.
The other thing to watch is that there isn't a common admissions deadline for sixth form either. Each sixth form sets its own deadline.
There are also sixth form colleges that offer a wider range of subjects than many school sixth forms.

Schools that have sixth forms have to prioritise their own year 11 students, so long as they meet the academic criteria. It's therefore difficult to predict how many places will be available for externals. Most year 12 admissions policies in my area specify a minimum number of externals, but often admit far more.

It's also important to understand that even if a school's policy is based on distance, and you live nearby, that won't guarantee a place on your chosen course if it is full. The most popular courses fill up most quickly, and may already be oversubscribed by internals. This means that the distance catchment for e.g. art or music may be far wider than for e.g. maths or biology. Our local oversubscribed sixth form tells people e.g. "you can only have a place if you do Chemistry or Physics instead of Geography", which some students are happy agree to and others not.