On the border of 2 boroughs...what to do with schools?

[BobbysBeardOfWonder]

DD is only 2 so we're a little way away from school yet but I'm starting to worry think about it now.
We live on the boundary of 2 London boroughs. The nearest school is in our borough but is crap (Ofsted report worse this year than previous). The ideal school is in neighbouring borough although further away.
How do I go about applying, when the time comes? Would I have to put all my choices from the same borough? Or can I mix & match?

You can apply for schools in different boroughs, but the school's admissions criteria will probably prioritise all pupils from it's own borough first.

In my London Borough, you have to apply for all the schools you want with your own Borough - who you pay your council tax to. And they will inform the other borough if you want a place in one of their schools.

It will probably all be set out in the admissions leaflets for both boroughs. Suggest you give them a call to clarify, and keep a record of what you've been told.

Good luck!

You apply to the borough you live in.

Some boroughs now operate catchment systems so, as Golden says, they will prioritise children from within catchment. Others assess by distance. Most schools in London admit children from a very small area- the more popular the school, the smaller the area.

Can you say which boroughs?

It's not legal to prioritise by borough, though unless you are very close to the borough boundary you will probably miss out because of distance.

Yes, you apply on the one form to your own LA. How to do this should be laid out in admissions booklet. Follow this to the letter. Also check you have email receipts/acknowledgement and keep all reference numbers. If hard copy consider hand delivering and asking for delivery signature or using recorded delivery.

In Enfield borough but close to Barnet. In fact much closer to lots of Barnet services, children's stuff etc.
A neighbour's DC was accepted at a Barnet school a few years ago, not sure if policy has changed now though.

It seems as if Barnet has catchment areas- some info here.

More here.

You apply through the borough you live in, but for any schools. So if an out of Borough school is nearer than an in Borough school you can apply for that. in reality you don't really get a choice as such. Look on line for all the schools in both Boroughs and it will tell you the cut off distance for admissions for the last few years. You can use this data to work out which schools you may and will not get into!

London operates a pan london common application form - but you enter this system through your own local borough. But then each school you apply to uses it's own admissions criteria to determine who gets a place or not. So if you apply to a faith school they will apply any faith-based criteria as well as other priorities. Most 'community schools' will have list of priorities such as looked after children, SEN needs and siblings, and then distance.

As EdithWestn says it is not legal for schools or boroughs to prioritise applicants form one borough over another.

Tehersend - as far as I can see that info from Barnet is a (very helpful) guide as to the distances within which places were able to be allocated this year, rather than catchment areas. It will change from year to year, but it is useful in guaging whether or not you stand a chance from a particular address if you are applying under the distance criteria. But this isn't the same as a fixed catchment.

Bobby: go and see the schools you like the sound of and which are nearby, and then read up on their admissions criteria.

Blu, they do have catchment areas; in addition to this, they use distance as a tiebreaker, which is why it seems confusing.

From Barnet's admission criteria:

4. children living within the individual school?s
   defined area, with priority given to those who live
   closest to the school when measuring distance in
   a straight line

5. children living outside the individual school?s
   defined area, with priority given to those who live
   closest to the school when measuring distance in
   a straight line

And from findaschool:

Admissions for community schools in Barnet are determined using real catchment areas in addition to home to school distances. Each school has a ?defined area? with priority given to those who live in the area. This creates two non-comparable cut-off distances: those where pupils were only admitted from within the defined area, and those where pupils came from outside the area.

Thanks will read up. Still am a bit by it all though