Redland Green Bristol - How close do you really have to live to get in ?

[2pointzero]

We are planning to move to be in catchment for a half decent Bristol school but the 2012 Redland Green allocation statement shows "The furthest distance offered a place in this category was 1.271 km". Would we get away with being further away once people have given up their place to go private/emigrate ? Anybody got in from further away than this on appeal ?
any thoughts appreciated.

Hard to say, depends on the number of children your dcs age who live in the area. The secondary intake for September 2012 was for a low birth rate year - September 2011 was higher birth-rate so distance may have been lower then so would recommend checking the data for several years.

I thought Redland had a defined catchment area meaning that if you're within their boundaries then they have to offer you a place? I know they moved the boundaries a couple of years ago which meant that many parents who had specifically paid ££££ extra for their houses purely to use the school were suddenly not eligible. The boundary (I believe) is very close to the school on one side but stretches further out on the other.

Cotham is also a good secondary.

Last distance September 2011 intake was 0.883km so the difference between year groups can be quite large.

Schlock - I think rather than a formal catchment area, what they have is an 'area of first priority', but living within it doesn't guarantee you a place - it gives you priority over people from outside the area, but it still depends on how close you are, so in a high birth-rate year, or one with lots of siblings, people living on the outer edges of the area still won't get in.

I think the intended effect of that is to ensure that children from areas like Westbury Park, Henleaze, Bishopston etc (where there is no other secondary school) get a fair chance of places, rather than people living in the southern half of Redland and Cotham, who may be well under 1km from Redland Green, but are even closer to Cotham School.

I am panicking and we live (according to them) 0.7km away. I know last year there were kids 4-5 roads further away than us who got in but the year before we would have been borderline getting in. We are applying this year for DD but we would also be happy with Cotham or Colston Girls. We are very lucky with our local schools :)

This year the furthest initial intake was 750m. However I know of a couple of children that have since joined - I don't think they where within 750m, but were within area of 1st priority.

Bonkers isn't it. And I don't suppose the council have even started planning what will happen when all this year's extra primary school kids reach secondary age.

It was 1.27 km last year for first round of allocations. The catchment areas seem to have widened for primary and secondary last year.

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