London primary. If you are too far from the catchment area do you still apply?

[cheapandchic]

I am not from the UK and getting my child into school is so stressful. We live basically too far (0.5 mile) from all the decent primary schools. The only school close to us is the lowest in the whole borough. I go to stay and play there and the parent feedback is horrible.

We do go to church, but the school connected to our church is oversubscribed. What happens if we don't get in there?
Should I apply to the good church schools in my borough even though I am too far or should I apply to the state schools even if I am too far? What happens if you don't get in any?

You need to look at how many choices you get to put down on your application. Make sure that at least one of these is a school that you have a chance of getting into: even if the local school is the "worst" in the borough (and how exactly are you measuring that?), it may still be a better match than being allocated the "2nd worst" school at the other end of the borough.

Have a search on your Council's website, in particular the council meeting minutes as you will probably have a number of schools preparing to take bulge classes. See if you can work out which these will be for your year and whether that will increase your chances at particular schools. Make sure that you understand the admission criteria for each school. Phone the school secretaries and see if they have a rough idea as to how many siblings will be applying for places. This is especially important if the school has recently had a bulge intake: siblings are often 2 school years apart.

With church schools, again make sure that you know how the admissions work, and what proof is needed to get into each category. Again school secretaries are a wonderful source of information.

You can go to the council offices and view the admissions maps for each school by year, so for any given year you can see who applied from where (not siblings as these will have got in on a higher criteria) and see how far the offers went out in distance.

If you fail to get any school of your choice, you will eventually be offered one, but possible not until quite late in the day. But I would urge you to try and put the closest school on your list in 6th place say so that you do at least get a local offer. You can still go on the waiting list for all of the other schools that you want.

As you are in London you will be able to nominate 6 preferences for schools, which do not have to be in your borough. Whilst previous years are a guide to what will happen, things are very fluid at present with an increasing pupil population and considerable change in the number of children going to different schools so I would not discount the schools you consider too far away.
From your post it would seem that your first preference is the school connected to the church you attend. I would also as a fall back position in case you do not get any of your preferences put down the closest school. The way the system works, it is called equal preference, you should have a reasonable chance of getting a place at this school, if you are not offered one of your higher preferences. The other thing to point out is given the current emphasis on standards, it would be no surprise to see the poorly performing local school become far better over the next couple of years, so do not discount the school.

Ok I have spoken to the schools and I understand that I am too far from ALL of the non faith schools. There is literally only one school that I can get into and it doesn't seem fair that I have no choice. I do not want to send my child to this school closest to me. I have visited. I have read the ofsted. I have spoken to parents, many times and I do not want to send my child there. I do not care if it improves slightly, it is not the place for us.

What I am trying to figure out is if it is better to apply to faith schools farther away or non faith schools closer but still too far...in other words do I have a better chance because I want them to go to a Christian school?

I understand that things change, siblings and what not...but all the schools I am interested in have an encatchment of 0.1 up to 0.3
I am located 0.6 from all 4 of these schools...so Should I not even put them on the list??

I may be wrong (I haven't done school applications yet), but being out of the catchment area means that the school is oversubscribed, and the places will all go to closer children first. If they do it by distance, then really you have no chance of getting in. If you have a chance of getting into a faith school that is further away, then I would think it makes sense to put down those. Can you talk to the faith schools in question and find out what the chances of getting in are? But if you have no chance of getting into them, honestly, I'd move.

I currently have three friends with 3 year olds who are in the process of moving for schools. It is a rubbish system, but I honestly can't think of a way they could make it fair. They just need all schools to be good!?!

It depends on the admissions criteria. If the christian schools prioritise those with faith and you can provide the proof they need (such as church attendance, baptism etc) you may stand a chance of getting in if not in the first round then off the waiting list over time. You need to confirm you can meet their criteria though; just wanting a Christian education won't be enough.

If you don't put your local school down, you run the very real risk of being allocated none of the schools you put down. In that case, you will be given the nearest school with spaces (which may of course be your local school if it isn't popular, but may be an unpopular school a long way away).

Yes the faith schools put you up higher on the list if you are regular worshippers and we are. Obviously the best chance is at the school attached to our church, but if I don't get that one... well the other faith schools give priority to worshippers but even more priority to those belonging to their own church. It seems these schools fill up with siblings and worshippers of their own church and never even get down to places for those who belong to a different church.

We cannot move. We are staying in a family members house very cheaply and just getting by.

If the worst happens and we get no offers, can you wait? keep kids at home? this is soooo stressful. it really makes me hate london.

A lot of parents in London are in the same position as you. What have you heard about the school to make you think it is so bad? Are the stay and play people parents actually at the school or ones who will be sending their children elsewhere and dissing it through ignorance. Believe me I heard so much gossip when my kids were that age and most of it was completely untrue. It could just bit a couple of people with issues who are the mouthy ones and the ones who think it is OK keep quiet or don't go to stay and play. Please don't judge on Ofsted results - often the worst schools are the ones that end up being outstanding a couple of years down the line. Is there an opportunity for you to visit the school and speak to the Head? I would put the faith schools down, but also include schools like this one which are near to you and which you have a reasonable chance of getting into. You can educate your kids at home but would have to actually educate and not just stop them going to school. I would advise to at least try the school if nothing else. Are you able to name the school or the Borough? Perhaps others could then give more specific advice?

"There is literally only one school that I can get into and it doesn't seem fair that I have no choice. "

The thing is, school choice is, in very many areas (not just London) a myth - and it is a very painful myth because the illusion of choice makes people unhappy with the only school they have any possibility of getting a place at. They feel that 'everyone else has a choice' and make statements like the one quoted above.

OP, IME it is quite uncommon to have a genuine choice of schools. In the rural area I used to live in, everyone's only option was the village school. Schools in neighbouring villages were filled with children from their own community, so a child from a different village had no chance of getting in. Similarly at secondary, the rural secondaries had non-overlapping areas in practice even if no catchments in theory - if you lived in villages A, B or C you went to school X, in villages D, E or F you were closer to school Y so that was your only available choice.

Equally in the large town I now live in, I can 'choose' to send my children to my nearest primary and secondary.... or have no school place within the town.

Parents where I work equally have no choice - we fill up from our catchment, neighboruring schools fill up from their catchments [we do have formal catchments still, though being in the catchment does not guarantee a place] so we have no space for children from other catchments.

Think of it not as a 'choice', but as an ability for you to state a preference between schools IF they have a place for you. There are very many other parents who do not have a genuine choice through having several schools where they have a genuine chance of a place.

I'm in the same situation and also in central London - except we're atheists so our VERY close faith school is unlikely to give us a place. Am less than thrilled with the only option we have.

I'm putting that option low down the list to avoid something potentially worse further away and will apply for waiting list for other schools where we just miss the catchment.

I agree with previous post you should absolutely put your most local school, could be in position six, but if you only put down schools that are further away and are refused all of them, you could end up with a school at the other end of the borough. This is not a myth! So put down 5 schools, starting with your closest good school (I would take out the religious factor at this point, if you do go to church you might be accepted in any of them, they all have different admission criteria). And put your local school in 6th position, if you get in, accept the place and put your child on waiting list straight away for your number 1 school. People move, circumstances change, etc and you might get the school of your choice, but not easily and maybe not right away.