Dundonald primary: cutoff distances and waiting lists

[Timus]

Dear all lovely Mumsnetters,

Would greatly appreciate your advice and insights.

We are in the process of buying a property that is 425m from Dundonald school as per schoolcatchment.co.uk. We love the place but it is a bit beyond our budget, so we would like a high degree of probability of getting into Dundonald- else private school fees for two kids would be a challenge.

I have looked at the last few years' cutoff distances and some years we would not have made it. I wanted to check my understanding: these distances displayed on 192.com or schoolcatchment.com just show the initial offers as of April, and not the final position at the start of the school term right? Could someone pls confirm that? Are the final cutoff distances at the start of the school term shown anywhere?

Assuming that's correct, what are our chances of getting in at 425m? For example, this year it says the last distance was 355m, but I have read in various mumsnet forums about the fact that there are a lot of movements from April to Sep. In the absence of any official data on final cutoff distances, can anyone give any sense of how far the cutoff distance could be expected to go?

Any help or insight would be much appreciated. Fully appreciate that there are many families in much worse situations than we would end up being, so hate to appear greedy, but we just want to do all our research before we make such an important purchase.

many thanks.

What age are your children?

Hi Soontobe60! Our son is almost 3 and he will be starting Reception in September 2020. We also have a 4 month daughter. thanks.

Why is it that or private school? What about the next one along?

Hi Pooleschoolschoice.

The property is not in the catchment of any other schools. If we were ok with any other undersubscribed school in the borough that the council might offer us a place in, then we would not buy this property and instead just buy anywhere as per our convenience, and save the premium for being in the PAA for private school fees. Hence asking the question to know what our chances would be. Thanks.

That makes sense. We are only "catchment" for one school but can get into neighbouring schools which I'm okay with putting as 2nd and 3rd choices. Obviously thats different for you!

Schools can change so quickly though. I have children in various stages of their school life at the moment and have great experience of the same schools literally moving from Good to Special Measures back to Good again over the several years my children have been moving through them. They’ve changed heads, become academies, had big makeovers and many over the teachers are different. This can work in both directions, better or worse.

Pooleschoolschoice, thanks! I guess Wimbledon Chase is nearby but it is also a very oversubscribed school!

Hi GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat, you are right...but thankfully we have only one year to go for our 1st one, he starts Sep'20. In the absence of any forward looking intel, we are forced to make a decision based on the info we have now...

It’s October 2018, that’s almost two years.

I’m just saying that’s all, don’t be surprised if a school isn’t exactly as you hope in the future.

Thanks GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat.

Fair enough, though to repeat what I said, one can only make decisions based on the info one has currently, and in the absence of any indicator, I have to assume that the good schools remain good. The chances of a school that has been very good for many years worsening in 2 years is far low than the chance of a bad school improving in 2 years. Theres obviously a risk there, but it doesnt trump the rational decision of choosing based on the best ones today.

Anyone with info on Dundonald waiting lists??

Hi - if you email Merton school admissions, they will tell you how far they offered from the waiting list. Dundonald waiting list does move quite quickly. Just take sure that you are in the APA

Thank you very much Filthycop!

Hello Timus,

We are in the exact same situation. Do you mind share any update on your questions ? Are those cutoff distance for Dundonald changes at all in the end ?

Thanks a lot!

Hi Eva, I can’t answer your question but you make a FOI request to Merton council and ask for furthest distances. fOI requests are a bit of an art form, so do consider your wording carefully and you can probably get exactly the info you want, eg - “furthest distance from school for Reception children as of first day of school year” (which will include any waitlisted children).