Being totally nosy re: school admissions

[DriverDan]

Will find out what school DD is going to in April and quite nervous as the lovely school that we live very close to (0.4 miles) is the most oversubscribed school in my city!

I know it isn't necessarily relevant, and the catchment changes year on year based on oversubscription, older sibling priority blah blah blah but...I would still be interested in how far you live from your DC's school and whether they are your first at that school (ie. not sibling priority) and if it is an over subscribed school.

Again I know it doesn't apply to my own situation but I don't know anyone with primary aged kids so this will give me an idea of real life scenarios. Gotta pass the time til April somehow

Can I put my 'two pennorth' in for the other side of the story?
I work in a small village primary and we usually worry that we won't have 'enough' intake to make a full reception class!
Last September was a 'biggie' with 17 but the year before was only 7 - we always welcome news of any Mum's pregnancy and pray for twins!

DD1 got into a school 15 miles away that is over subscribed but she did go to one of the feeder school that wasn't oversubscribed for her year group.
DD2 got into the same feeder school after DD1 had left but I don't know if the feeder school was over subscribed that year or not.
Some years the feeder school is and some it isn't. It's not oversubscribed all the time.
The school DD1 got into is always oversubscribed.

Aound here it seems that 'boom' years go in cycles.

For instance DD's year group (Y5) is completely full everywhere around here but the year below has classes of below 25 children...

It seems every third year is a bulge year - maybe the average gap between babies (or siblings?).

Not so good for me as DS1's year group is also quite full. I hear rumours that DS2's year group is a baby boom year too. . He hasn't started nursery yet, but I hear there is a waiting list for nursery for his age group! Unheard of!

lemonmousse, I live in an area where you can pretty much choose your school as they're all desperate to up their intakes to avoid closure. We've picked one 4 miles away as the two most local ones just aren't right for dd. Reading this I feel very privileged tbh.

We live just under 1km away and based on the previous 5 years or so, we would only have got in one year, the usual distance cut off being around 0.8km. We applied anyway and were lucky that they unexpectedly took on an extra class.

I am still nervous about my DS2 getting a place though!

It all depends on the schools criteria. Our school is CoE but you just have to tick the box to say that you are applying as it is a church school IYSWIM.

The school is on the corner of my road and we are at number 8. So the school is 4 doors away. One family at number 14 didn't tick the box in error and they didn't get in. We only have a PAN of 45 though. Apparently the distance was 494.94 metres so that must be round the corner to the main school door! One school had a distance of 384.65 metres for a PAN of 30!

I think allot depends on where you live. We are rural, live in the same village as the school, it is a CofE (as the vast majority of rural village schools are) but as they are the only school serving the area there are no church hoops to jump through the admissions criteria go 1) Statements 2)looked after 3) in catchments siblings 4) in catchment 5)out of catchment siblings 6) out of catchment (there are things about religion after these but it never comes to that).
It is a very over subscribed school as it is a fantastic school, great results, best Ofsted in the county but also a warm, caring and supportive school family there are only 20 places on offer every year.
It is a set catchment of our village and surrounding villages due to the rural nature, dd started in September 2009 and her year was a high birth year (about 60 applicants for the 20 places), one child living in catchment failed to get a place on the first round (not dd thankfully) and out of catchment siblings didn't stand a chance however it wasn't a hopeless situation as planning and funding had just been secured to build a new reception classroom which would put an end to split year classes until year 4. 6 families went to appeal (made up of the catchment child and out of catchment siblings) and all were admitted in the first stage of appeal as the school as the school had no issues with the larger class size due to the new classroom.
There is not much movement in the school (people tend to hang on to a place once they have it) but unusually two families relocated at the end of reception and then another child left due to a house move at the start of this year putting us down to 23, as the PAN is still 20 those places have not been filled (although a new child has just started as got in on appeal, they are out of catchment).
The current reception class was a lower birthrate year and all siblings, catchment and out of catchment siblings got a place however it seems it was just out little area that was a lower birthrate as there was a shortage of places in the nearest town and the school took an extra 3 (making a class size of 23) children who live out of catchment and had no existing ties to the school.
I guess it goes to show that a school can be massively oversubscribed but depending on location and other factors yet still have years when even if you fall low down on the criteria you still stand a chance, also shows that if it is not an infant class size case it is worth appealing!

For an oversubscribed school you should be able to get hold of the data for the distance that you have to live from the school (usually in km not miles) to get a place and the number of siblings. We live 0.5km from 2 primary schools one with a 2 class intake (60 pupils) where usually 30 places are siblings and one with a 90 pupil intake (3 classes). We put the larger school as first choice and had no problems getting in. Don't believe the stories about people living very close to the school and not getting places as some parents do not apply on time so are placed at the bottom of the list. However in our city there are some schools with shortest distance of 0.3km so you cannot be sure of a place if you live further away from that.
The other thing you can do is measure the distance from your home to the school using google maps. You may have grounds for appeal if you can prove your house is a closer distance than the LEA figures!

Do they not tell you the distances in previous years? All the Barnet schools list the distances on their website.

We live about 0.3 away and got in. But many about a mile away within catchment didn't. Do you see any of your neighbours going to the school? That's a good indication.

No over subscribed schools here just make your choice and you're in. Dd goes to a school two miles away but there are seven others within that distance that she could have gone to if we chose.

When we were looking we asked the Heads concerned. For two of the three nearest schools (one 0.4 miles, one 0.32 away) we clearly had no chance-only 12 places between them after religion and siblings. On the other hand, schools 3 miles away we were liked had taken from further than us previously. Well worth ringing the Head-they'll obviously be cagey but you'll get an indication.

For those not waiting, this form of asking proved invaluable: meant we didn't visit hopeless cases, and that we were able to identify an 'insurance' school-one that had never been oversubscribed and, whilst not perfect, was clearly better than other undersubscribed schools in the area. Am obviously hoping that DS gets into the school I really liked, but knowing that he won't be going to one I hated is really comforting.

I'm at another rural church school, basically if you want to come, welcome! Our PAN is 15, we rarely make it over 10 but have quite a few incomers in succeeding years, I teach yr5/6 and have 29! Once we had 17 entering in Reception, the school raised the PAN that year as there was no way we would turn them down!