Rightmove School Checker – review thread – find out what MNers think! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the MN testers putting the Rightmove School Checker to the test.

The team at Rightmove say “find the right home near the right school with Rightmove’s School Checker. School Checker gives you access to admissions criteria and academic inspection reports for primary and secondary schools across Great Britain. Now on every property, School Checker lets you discover previous admissions areas and Ofsted ratings to easily compare local schools. Visit www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html to learn more.
Once you’ve found the right home, simply click on the ‘School Checker’ tab to find the right school. Available on both desktop or mobile.”

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
How old are your children if you have any?
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Any other comments?

All selected testers who share feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice.

Thanks
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Tablet

How old are your children if you have any?

1 and 4

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Not a big concern for primary

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

maybe secondary

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Easy

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Easy

Did you find School Checker useful?

I liked that it showed recent oversubscribed or not, info on my local school was accurate. It was interesting to see which other local schools we would/would not have got into

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?

I'd probably have a look but it wouldn't be my main consideration

What did you find most useful about School Checker?

Liked that you can see more than one school. Like that you can see if house was in admissions area

Any improvements you’d like to see?

At first I didn't realise that there was a lot more information on the findaschool page- maybe make that more obvious. There was a lot of missing data for my local secondaries. School distancse seems to be as the crow flies which isn't always helpful,e.g. I'm close to one school but in practice it's a long drive round to it.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

Maybe it seems handy

Any other comments?

It was better than I expected. I do wonder if there are any problems with home owners missing sales etc if there is any inaccurate info?

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet? Laptop and mobile

How old are your children if you have any? 2 and 5

How important are schools to you when planning to move home? Fairly important

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school? Maybe before eldest was in reception

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find? Yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand? Quite straightforward

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
It would be good to have a way to easily separate private and state schools as in my area, especially at secondary level the first 5 results were private schools. It is easy to see on the list if they are state or not, but just looking on the map before scrolling down isn't that easy.
I liked the visual catchment areas, making it easy to see if the property was inside the catchment or not

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why? Yes

Any other comments? No

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Mobile
How old are your children if you have any?
13,18, 21
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
Yes

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes, pretty obvious
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Fairly easy. Was a bit confused that for some schools didn't say if they were in the admission area or not. It would be good if there was a symbol to highlight schools with religious entry requirements.
Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
The problem is that for some schools you need quite a bit of specialist knowledge to decide if a house is in a school admissions area. Some houses are in the admissions area but don't appear to be on this site because of the way SurreyCC decides priority admission, or because a school fills up with distance in area pupils and then takes a last few religious but outside priority area pupils. I think a big proceed with caution and talk to la/schools notice needs to be on each page. Because it would be easy to rule out houses which could get you into the chosen school, by mistake. Not so sure about the opposite issue.
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes as a good first guess, but to be very aware it isn't totally accurate.
Any other comments?
It's less misleading than it used to be, when it said children from my road went to one highly desirable school; they did but all got in on appeal or via a waiting list or sibling grounds.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
both desktop and mobile

How old are your children if you have any?
3 and 4 months

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
really important

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
no, but if I were moving house it would be an important consideration

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
yes, really easy to find

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
fairly easy to use, although some of my local schools aren't included

Did you find School Checker useful?
very - a really good feature

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
absolutely

What did you find most useful about School Checker?
the catchment map was really helpful

Any improvements you’d like to see?
a way to move the map in mobile devices- I couldn't find a way to do this and I think it's important to be able to see the surrounding area, transport etc.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
yes - all essential information in one place

Any other comments?
a really useful tool that helps make parents' decisions easier.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Mobile (iPhone)

How old are your children if you have any?

Stepson 10 and one on the way

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Very important for primary since becoming pregnant. We would be unlikely to move to an area far away from the secondary school we have already selected for DSS.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes for secondary

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Easy

Did you find School Checker useful?

I like that you can see the Ofsted ratings straight away and to see whether the schools are oversubscribed. The one school that I was interested in did not say whether the house was inside or outside of the catchment area though - so it could have been much more useful had it provided this info.

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?

I would look but would still check directly with the school website for most up to date info.

What did you find most useful about School Checker?

Quickly being able to see Ofsted rating.

Any improvements you’d like to see?

Maybe estimated travel time rather than distance in miles. Also if information is missing make this clear - so 'no catchment area info available' for example. It's confusing as some schools say inside area and some say outside are then others say nothing at all. Is this because you don't have the information or is there another reason? I think this could be clearer. The link to the 192 site looks like a spammy advert so it may be an idea to make it more obvious to users that this is a good link to click on for more in depth information. Perhaps 'last updated' with a date too would be useful. Some people may choose not to go for a house because of information that could be quite out of date. It would be good to know how out of date some of the info is.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

Yes if they were moving to a new area and weren't sure of the schools. I think most people would already research this but it's good to have it in one place.

Any other comments?

It's a good idea

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Computer (although this is unusual for me; I'm much more likely to use the others ordinarily).

How old are your children if you have any?

18 months.

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

It is important and I would be unlikely to move to an area where the catchment area primary schools weren't predominantly good or outstanding.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Yes.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

I found it very straightforward and easy to understand.

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?

I did find it really useful as we are currently house-hunting and schools are a consideration. I find it particularly useful to be able to see the catchment areas for local schools, OFSTED ratings and whether they were over-subscribed at the last school intake all on one screen when a new house comes onto the market. However, like a previous poster, I would like to see private and state schools more clearly marked.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

I would, because I think it gives a good indication of what kind of school your child might be able to get into. I don't know the local schools and my child is years away from starting school, but as I live in an area with lots of primary schools and a lot of discrepancy between OFSTED ratings, I would ideally move somewhere in the catchment area for several "good" schools rather than several "requiring improvement". I imagine friends in a similar position who don't know schools by reputation would want the same.

Any other comments?

N/A.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Mobile phone. Iphone.

How old are your children if you have any?

12,11, 3 and 9 months.

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Extremely important. My eldest child is autistic and attends main stream. So finding him the right school has often taken priority.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes, definitely.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Yes very easy.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Very easy to use and understand.

Did you find School Checker useful?

Yes. Very.

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?

I have used it for our current move and would use again yes.

What did you find most useful about School Checker?

I found the ofsted rating being shown most useful as some schools I could rule out straight away. I also found the distance from the property useful as I like to be able to walk to schools due to parking near schools often being poor.

Any improvements you’d like to see?

Although it shows distance for us a little note stating Walking/driving/public transport timing from the property would be helpful.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

Yes I would recommend it as it allows you to see straight away which schools are worth looking at and which are too far from potential new homes.

Any other comments?

Just that it helped us choose where to buy are first house. Our 3 year old (4 in May) starts school in September so we chose his school using school checker. We also wanted to keep our older children at their present schools so it helped us rule out properties out of catchment.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Mobile

How old are your children if you have any?

9 months and 4

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Very much so.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes definitely if we only had very poor performing schools at our current home.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Easy

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Easy

Did you find School Checker useful?

It was good to see where my son could get into, and which schools had been oversubscribed. The links to ofsted reports were also very useful. Some schools didn't show catchment areas though which was a bit frustrating.

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?

Yes definitely

What did you find most useful about School Checker?

Seeing the admissions area for most schools was useful. Also liked that you could see if they were oversubscribed or not. The extra info on the findaschool page was fab.

Any improvements you’d like to see?
Admissions areas for all schools would have been useful.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why? Yes - most parents in my town would definitely check before moving when a child is about to start school, because there are widely varying standards in both primary and secondary.

Any other comments? Very user-friendly part of the site.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Mobile
How old are your children if you have any?
2
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Really important (this time around)
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
No, but we considered the local schools in our most recent move (when son was 1)
From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Yes
Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
I liked how it made it clear that school catchments aren't catchments in the old sense, just that the School Checker provides information about previous years. When we moved last year I liked being about to click through and read ofsted reports (two schools we looked at both had "good" ratings, but if you looked at the actual report, one would not have been right for our family) but this could have been a bit quicker.
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes – it's good to know what the schools are like.
Any other comments?

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
iPad
How old are your children if you have any?
3 and 6
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very important.
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
No

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Very easy
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Really easy to use and explore and useful information about each school.
Did you find School Checker useful?
Yes
Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
Definitely
What did you find most useful about School Checker?
Map showing where schools were in relation to property and whether or not they were oversubscribed.
Any improvements you’d like to see?
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes, it's an easy to use and really helpful tool.

1. How did you use the school checker on your computer or tablet? I used on my computer
2. how old are your children if you have any? 2 years old
3. How important are schools when planning to move home? I find it very important because it will show how well the community is in that area I think. 4)Would you consider moving home to get into a better school? Yes I already am considering a move to get my son into a school I feel will offer him the best education.
4. How easy was the school checker tab to find? I found it was situated in the perfect location to be seen easily. 6)how useful did you find the school checker tab? would you use it when considering a move? what was most useful and could be improved on? This is a great idea as we all want the best for our kids. I found it very insightful and interesting to use. I would certainly use it when I am looking for a new home in order to get into a catchment that offered the best schools for my child. They is nothing I really improve because it offered the basic information i would be looking at when choosing a school.
5. would you recommend this to other parent s and why? Yes I would certainly recommend it. I would recommend on the grounds of it show how all the schools in the area have performed and which school is nearby and what are out the way.
6. other comments? I love this and will be using it on my next move for sure.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
I used an iPad
How old are your children if you have any?
I have a four year old and one year old
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Fairly important, I would prefer to send my child to a school rated Ofsted good or above.
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
No, I would not move just to get into a school catchment area.
From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes it was really easy to find.
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
I think it gives information in a really good format, which is easy to get a quick summary of information from.
Did you find School Checker useful?
Yes, I have used it before and found it useful.
Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
Yes I would use it.
What did you find most useful about School Checker?
It gives a comprehensive summary of important information on schools close to homes.
Any improvements you’d like to see?
No, I think if people need more information on schools they should contact the council or contact the school directly.
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes
Any other comments?
The school checker is good but schools are not the most important thing. Most of a child's learning takes place at home. Just because a child goes to an independent school or a school with an outstanding rating it doesn't guarantee success or happiness.
Lots of successful people come from less affluent backgrounds.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet? - Laptop

How old are your children if you have any? - 4

How important are schools to you when planning to move home? - I would avoid an area if there was no chance of getting into a reasonable school, however I think schools can end up with a reputation based on how they were years ago which do not reflect the reality now.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school? - Only if all other options were unacceptable

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find? - I went onto it directly from a property, it wasn't any different when I went through the school checker page.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand? - Very easy

Did you find School Checker useful? - Yes

Would you use School Checker when considering a move? - Yes

What did you find most useful about School Checker? - Listing if your child would have got a place on distance last year

Any improvements you’d like to see? - Links to the local authority website to get more information about allocation of places in other years and criteria for each school

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why? - Yes, useful to give realistic expectations especially in areas where schools are very oversubscribed

Any other comments? - The school checker has changed since I used it last year when moving house and the information is now more helpful

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet? computer

How old are your children if you have any? 15

How important are schools to you when planning to move home? It isn't important now DD is older and she's an independent school so not overly reliant; however when initially looking it would have been useful

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school? In the past, yes. Now dd is older - no.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find? yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand? very easy; good summary

Did you find School Checker useful? I can see how it would be useful if looking for a new house with children

Would you use School Checker when considering a move? yes

What did you find most useful about School Checker? quick overview of closest schools with general inspection rating and oversubscription details

Any improvements you’d like to see? a link to the LEA catchment places, with the likelihood of getting in based on last years numbers, admissions rules, etc. For independent schools - link to their inspection information where applicable.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why? yes - if they were in the position of moving and would be considering a school move

Any other comments?

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

• on my mobile via the app

How old are your children if you have any?

• aged 6 and 1

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

• very, it's part of a parents job to give their children the best start in life (although reviewing OFSTED rating is only one way to do this)

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

• if I was concerned about the school options otherwise, yes

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

• yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

• straightforward - although initially confusing when some schools are listed as in/out of catchment but some are not (I'm guessing that for some of the faith schools, proximity to the school is secondary to religious practice)

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
Yes it was useful and yes I'd use it when moving. The admissions/oversubscription information was helpful. I'm a bit wary as I think some of the properties local to me are incorrectly stated as being in some catchment areas - can this be verified somehow? Or make it simpler by linking to a map of the local areas with catchments on?

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes I would, it's a quick easy way to check school information. I'd get them to check catchment info with the education authority though.

Any other comments?
None - looks good, another tool for busy parents 🙂

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
On a PC

How old are your children if you have any?
3, 6, and 9.

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very important, it's one of the first things I look at.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
It would be one of the things to take into consideration.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Fairly straightforward, but lots of missing information about admissions, probably because faith schools and academies mean that proximity is only one factor.

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?
It's useful as a quick tool. I think I would still need further research to double check catchments as they change every year, and they aren't just based on distance. Also I would like to see attainment results not just the Ofsted grade.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Any other comments?
I'd recommend it as one of the many tools and factors to take into account when moving house.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

PC

How old are your children if you have any?

3.5 and 18 months

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Pretty important, not top priority but definitely up there.

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Very easy.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Very easy.

Did you find School Checker useful?

Yes, and I will definitely be using it when we move house.

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?

Yes.

What did you find most useful about School Checker?

It's easy to quickly see which schools were oversubscribed, and which schools we would be inside the admission area for.

Any improvements you’d like to see?

Maybe different colour marks for state/independent schools, or an option to toggle between showing just state/independent schools.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

Yes, if they weren't sure on what schools were in the area or were moving to a new area.

Any other comments?

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Mobile phone

How old are your children if you have any?
One child aged 2.

How important are schools to you when planning to move home? Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
Whilst we would not move to a specific area just for a set school, having schools of a good or outstanding Ofsted level in the house's catchment area and a choice that is not oversubscribed will be a factor in the final house decision.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes, very easy

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Very straightforward. Clear simple layout.

Did you find School Checker useful?
Yes, very useful.

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
Definitely will be using it. It's a simple quick view of what might be available.

What did you find most useful about School Checker?
Tapping on a specific school to see the pinned location in relativity to the pinned location of the house. Just seeing the distance often is just a straight line distance and doesn't take into account how to walk there e.g. Nowhere to cross a railway line. Seeing them pinned you can see if it's a viable option.

Any improvements you’d like to see?
I liked the link to 192 site for more info but would also like a direct link to the school to be able to check their prospectus, ethos and facilities. Just to save noting which ones to investigate later.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes, I would. It's a simple way to get an overview of the schools in the area. Simple and clear.

Any other comments?
A little trickier but one day adding nurseries would be great too!

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Mobile and tablet

How old are your children if you have any?

3.5 years and 5 months

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

It is very important and I would be unlikely to move to an area where the catchment area primary schools weren't predominantly good or outstanding. Secondary schools also of high importance

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

Yes. Currently moving for this very reason. We have good primary but terrible secondaries

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Yes.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

I found it very straightforward and easy to understand.

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?

I did find it really useful as we are currently house-hunting and schools are a consideration. I find it particularly useful to be able to see the catchment areas for local schools, OFSTED ratings and whether they were over-subscribed at the last school intake all on one screen when a new house comes onto the market. I think the catchment area seems a bit simplistic as not really a direct circle in real life.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?

Yes. Enables you to make the best decision to suit you

Any other comments?

I would like to see a feature added where you could search for houses based purely on catchment areas for schools. I know from talking to friends that they would find this an extra useful tool

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Tablet

How old are your children if you have any?
2, 5 and 7.

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
No

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Very easy to use, liked the extra info on the 192 site too. The school phone numbers are useful.

Did you find School Checker useful?
Yes

Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
Absolutely

What did you find most useful about School Checker?
Having the balloons on the map highlight the schools.

Any improvements you’d like to see?
Integrating with other important facilities, like nurseries, libraries, doctors etc.

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes, because it is easy to use. Rightmove has been improving for years, so keep up the good work!

Any other comments?
Not really Thanks for letting me take part.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?

Computer

How old are your children if you have any?

1 and 4

How important are schools to you when planning to move home?

Extremely important - probably the main factor. We moved from London to a grammar school area when our child was only 3!

Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?

We already have done and yes, would consider moving again if the local schools decline.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?

Yes - once you were in a property. It would be nice to have a link from the homepage and to be able to search by postcode.

How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?

Easy.

Did you find School Checker useful? Would you use School Checker when considering a move? What did you find most useful about School Checker? Any improvements you’d like to see?

Yes, useful to see Ofsted ratings and distances listed on a map. BUT I think I'm right in saying that it really only tells you if the school is "catchment", not necessarily how far away the last admitted child lived. This makes a really big difference in some areas; we are in catchment for one oversubscribed school, but we live too far away to realistically get a place.

If I am incorrect and the tool does account for this, it needs to be made clearer using the language councils use ("furthest admitted child").

Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Any other comments?

It's good for a quick overview, but worry about the accuracy as above.

A brand new school is currently being built where we live and this does not feature on the tool at all.

I used the school checker on my phone and my children are nine, six and three. Schools are pretty much the most important thing when moving house and are absolutely the reason we moved house to where we are now. I wouldn't probably consider moving house somewhere where there weren't good schools, however I wouldn't move house in a similar area just because of the school. It would probably need to be another reason for moving like a job move or that the house was too small combined with needing a new school.

The school checker was easy to find and very easy to use and understand. What I didn't find useful was that the catchment area didn't show if you were seens to be in catchment - seems like you wouldn't need to know however it would be nice to see where in catchment you were. Also the catchment appears to run on info from the last intake, rather than the official catchments which are shown on the local council webpages. That's a pretty important differential as the council catchments are official catchments and the information on catchment from the last intake can include people out of catchment with SEN or looked after children which would skew the results significantly. I tried on our house now and we were in dozens of catchments where as, officially, we are only actually in one. That could be really misleading. Getting official catchments might be worthwhile to superimpose on top? What I did like was the oversubscribed information which clearly shows you if the school was oversubscribed. Having the OFSTED rating on there was very useful as was having if the school was independent. The primary and secondary schools are on separate tabs which for me works fine. I think the school checker is a worthwhile tool for parents as it just gives you more info in one place. When we moved I had to dig around all over the place to find out all the information about catchments, OFSTED ratings, size etc. My main comment would be that websites like locrating turn it around to look at the schools by map instead of properties and then show you the properties once you've chosen the school. It's another way to look at it and I guess it depends a lot on if you are prioritising the school or the house in the move.

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Mobile
How old are your children if you have any?
9 months
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
If all of the local schools were terrible
From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find? Yes
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand? Very
Did you find School Checker useful? Yes
Would you use School Checker when considering a move? Definitely
What did you find most useful about School Checker? That it listed if you were in the school's area & if it was over subscribed
Any improvements you’d like to see? Can't think of any
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why? Yes, very useful to know which schools are available in your postcode
Any other comments? no

Did you use School Checker on your computer or on a mobile device or tablet?
Laptop computer
How old are your children if you have any?
8 and 2.5
How important are schools to you when planning to move home?
Very. A decent high school is the reason we're moving in the next couple of years.
Would you consider moving home to get into a good school?
See previous answer . I moved previously for a good primary school, unfortunately out of catchment for any reasonable high schools so time to move again.

From the Rightmove schools page (www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html) was School Checker tab easy to find?
Yes.
How easy did you find School Checker to use and understand?
Very easy
Did you find School Checker useful?
It is useful but you need to be careful with the schools being listed in distance order. If I search for local properties, we are out of catchment for the two nearest high schools (both within walking distance) and the actual local school is 5th on the list. This could be misleading for people who don't know the area.
Would you use School Checker when considering a move?
Absolutely. I managed to use it to narrow down some areas to move to.
What did you find most useful about School Checker?
The 'find a school' extra information link is really good. I like the fact you can get the catchment information and the OFSTED report of the school easily and a link to the school's website.
Any improvements you’d like to see?
Separate information for 6th form and independent schools. Suggested directions to the school from the property so that traffic can be checked. A direct link from Rightmove to the school's website / OFSTED report.
Would you recommend School Checker to other parents and why?
Yes, with a warning to check actual admission areas for the school that they are looking at. As a tool to give ideas as where to live for certain schools it is brilliant.
Any other comments?
I really like this tool and find it very useful in my current house search. A 'search for properties in catchment for this school' button would make my day!