'Furthest offered on distance' number -- is this the final number?

[sanserif]

I'll be applying for a primary school in Southwark. Not sure if this varies by borough, but I'm wondering if the 'furthest offered on distance' number listed next to all the schools in the school app'n brochure is a) the farthest distance of the initial round of offers or b) the distance of the child who lives the farthest away as of the school start date or c) something else entirely?

Presumably if it's a) then the real number could be quite a bit higher?

I think it's (a) but someone else will come along who may know for sure. The child who lives farthest away could be a sibling or a looked after child, after all - I think the aim of publishing this information is to allow parents (of children who aren't siblings of a child already in the school, even!) to have at least a small amount of predictive ability when it comes to school "choice".

Hello
I live in Southwark and my eldest daughter, who has just started year 3, initially didn't get a school place. We lived 512m from our favourite school and did get a place there a few weeks into term. The next years booklet showed the furthest distance being 388m (or something like that) so at that time it was definitely only based on first round offers.

Also in Southwark...

I downloaded last year's and this year's booklets to compare the distances - and spoke to the council. We are only just in catchment for 1 school and way outside for all the others in the area so I wanted to make sure that the distance was initial acceptances and not waiting-list distances for example.

They are the furthest distances for initial applications. I tried ringing the schools to find out furthest distances accepted on waiting list and also what the movement was at various schools and no-one seemed to have/want to have a clue which is suprising since that is how they are supposed to allocate said places...

You also have to ring Academies and CofE etc schools individually as the council don't have that information for most of them.

It is supposed to help you decide how likely you are to get a place at the school in the initial round. It should therefore be a.

Pretty sure it's a). After all, the movement from waiting lists happens ongoing. It is a good indicator, but does change year-on-year, of course.

Thanks for all the replies and glad to hear it's option a. I do know I shouldn't count on anything, and I'm not, I just want to decide how much hope to give myself. We do have a backup private option but would prefer to go the state route if we can get into a good state school and it's slim pickings where I am. I called up Southwark's 'education hotline' about this question but the woman there was extremely unhelpful, to say the least.

I was under the impression that the school handled the waiting list, is this not true then?

If it is a community school or VC school the waiting list is run by the LA. If it is an academy, foundation school, free school or VA school it runs its own waiting list but the offer should still come from the LA.

OK, thanks prh47bridge.

Hi sanserif, just wanted to add a further caveat:

We just missed a place at DD's preferred school and were originally 2nd on the waiting list. By the time of the second round of allocations, we were about 8th as new people had moved into catchment. If you are looking at a school that you live say 310m from and the catchment is 300m I think you have a better chance of getting in off the waiting list than if you live 810m from a school with a catchment of 800m.