Are primary schools allotted based on distance from the house?

[estebancolberto]

There are two schools near our house in London. A "good" one that is 0.3 miles from our house and "outstanding" one that is 0.7 miles from our house. Our house is in the catchment area for both. So, will we be able to get a space in the "outstanding" one?

I know they aren’t. I wasn’t referring to them
as a randomer. It was the additional person who felt the need to comment without bothering to read two pages and seeing it had already been addressed.

That said, you need to be aware they are a
randomer to me. Ultimately they are just a randomer on mumsnet.

@TeenDivided I was just about to defend @prh47bridge and her amazing advice which she provides to complete strangers (such as me) year after year. Referring to her as a “randomer” shows that this OP is new to the education section. Trust me OP, prh47bridge is incredibly knowledgeable and very generous with their time and expertise.

Again, I did NOT call them a randomer. It was the new poster.

But even if I had they are a randomer to me. 🤷‍♀️

You may be referring to me? I was responding to the conversation still going on this afternoon about distance measurement . And yes i had read the full thread.

The best thing to do on admissions questions is to not state things as fact, nor tell other posters they are wrong unless you are 100% certain.

My knowledge is only based on reading loads of threads on this, so I try to always couch my comments in terms of 'I understand that' or 'generally' or 'I have read'.

The best advice is to read the admissions criteria for each school you are considering very carefully. They can vary but hopefully all are legal. Then look at criteria used for placing applicants each year. This gives info on who gets in and under which criteria for each school. LAs often publish this for all schools, even ones that don’t use central admissions. You then build up a picture on whether an application is likely to succeed or not. Whether straight line or walking route is used only matters if one or the other applies to the school you want.

Please view the schools. Outstanding does not mean a school is better than a good one.

We walk past an outstanding school to attend a requires improvement one. And staff who work at the former chose to send their kids to the latter.

That’s because the staff don’t get priority where they work and “choice” will be down to where they live. You simply don’t always get free choice unless no one else wants a school and it takes all applicants. I doubt all staff have chosen a RI school at the time the ofsted report was published. Seems odd to me.

RI might well become good pretty quickly or it could take a long time. It’s a gamble if you don’t know how good SLT are at turning a school around.