top rated school 5 mins away but do not live in catchment!?

[sophnchaz]

I was thinking about my DS school choices. Our next door neighbour's children go to an "Excellent" primary school, however, we do not live within the catchment. Are we likely to get a place? Just out of curiosity has anyone experienced anything similar? Thanks :)

Contact your LEA- they should tell you how many applications were received last year and where the last place admitted was i;e sibling, distance etc

Drives you nuts doesn't it? Especially when you find out about all the children who do not actually live in the catchment but are there for some strange reason or other.

What do you mean by you don't live within the catchment?

Thanks for the replies. It is so frustrating looking at the boundaries for these schools. You wonder about the future of your children's education because of the postcode lottery! Funnily enough were near lovely schools but are allocated ones on the other side of town confused! Will definitely call LEA :)

I'm not within the right council boundary for the school I would like to send my child to. I'm on the other side of the road which is the cut off point. If that makes any sense?

I didn't think local authorities were allowed to restrict places to their own council area. Have you checked the school's admission criteria.

The term "catchment" is frequently misused these days.

Some schools have a formal catchment area and give priority to applicants within that area. The boundary of the catchment area can follow the LA's boundary. That is allowed.

Most schools do not have a formal catchment area. However, parents often refer to the distance for the last child admitted as the catchment area. All that means is that no child living further than that from the school was admitted last year. The distance can go up or down every year, sometimes quite dramatically.

If the school does not have a formal catchment area applicants living outside the LA must be treated the same as applicants living within the LA. So if you live closer to the school than another applicant you will get priority over that applicant even if they are within the school's LA and you are in another LA.

Sophnchaz - have you looked at the admissions criteria for the school? What does it say?

maples - I respond to most things!

The short answer is that the same rules apply to academies. The longer answer is that both academies and LAs break the rules sometimes. I know there is at least one LA giving priority to applicants living within the LA in a way which I think may break the law.

As it is now an academy it is allowed to change its admission criteria. So they could, for example, abandon the priority area and go purely on distance. They could even use a lottery to decide who gets in. However, any changes they make must comply with the admissions code.

The Admissions Code sets out the rules that everyone must follow for admissions. You can find the new code which will be used for next year's admissions here.

Hi Soph,
Our second closest school has an 'official' catchment known officially as an Area of Preferred Admission - it's marked on a map and available online.

We live 400m south of said school. The catchment boundary finishes roughly 350m south of the school, (or ten houses down from ours ) but extends 1.5kms north and about 800m east and west.

Several of our neighbours, including those living marginally further away attend. Can't find out from last year's admissions if any children were admitted out of the APA, or if so, how far away they lived. It only tells you that the child attending who lived furthest away live 1.5kms away, but was within the APA.

Thus I have no idea what our chances are...

Gin, anyone?

db
xx

And to make it even more annoying, our house was within the APA when we bought it, but they'd shifted it ten houses north by the time we moved in.

db
xx

As prh47bridge says, where the 'catchment area' isn't actually a catchment area but is simply the distance within which children live close enough to get a place, this can change from year to year, as population density changes and depending on whether or not it is a bumper year for siblings.

Some good advice here!! :) got to get the required information packs have a look through and talk with the school!!

Designerbaby.. i know the pain!! We were planning everything out for where we were going to live and they do shift the areas around from time to time, but just because we are so close and know children that go there I'm hoping we wont have problems! ...mm gin

Thanks for the low down on all this prh and tiggyhat great stuff!