Shortest disntace vs. walking distance when applying?

[Fiona2011231]

I read that home to school distance will be measured by the shortest route from the child?s home address to the nearest of the school?s gates.

Measured by this, our preferred school is only the second in the list. However, may I ask if this "shortest route" is also the same as "shortest walking distance". Because I feel that it is quicker to walk to our preferred school than to the first school in the council's list.

My sincere thanks,

I would ask your local authority. Our is distance as the crow flies

It should be on your local authority website and if it is walking route, it might be "walking route via recognised footpaths" or similar.

The admissions booklet on your LA's website will tell you how they measure distance. Some measure the straight line distance, i.e. as the crow flies. Some go for shortest walking route but they often put conditions around what is an acceptable route. They may, for example, only include footpaths if they are lit.

If they are measuring the shortest walking route it will be distance that matters. The fact that one route may be an easier walk will not be taken into account.

The shortest walking route from the children's home to the nearest school gate is in my opinion a disaster waiting to happen as far as the admission criteria is concerned. I hope that as others have said there are some more specific details on the admission pages of the LA, otherwise you need to be very careful to ensure that the LA have measured the correct distance.

The things that immediately come to mind are

1. what point on the home are they measuring from or is it the front gate of the home or what?
2. How are they measuring the shortest distance, is it down the centre of the road, on the path or what? All contribute to inaccuracies in the measurement.
3. the nearest school gate - are the gates defined for each school and if so where do they measure to, the middle of the gate ? the gate post or what?
4. how do you know that the LA have measured everybody to the nearest gate to each of the homes? On an average school site if they happen not to be checking each individual applicant, that could easily be adding a 100 metes to the distance.
5. if they are not specifying absolute gates for each school (and my guess would be that they are not) then are there are other gates in the school fence that would reduce the distance from your house? There have definitely been cases around gates at the the back of the school, which are a significant distance to the school building but actually are the nearest school gate to some houses.
6. I think I would argue that the shortest route to the school is actually a straight line distance measurement. If it does not say safest / shortest walking route then it is not saying it has to be a practical walking distance route, only the shortest distance measured, which is straight line.

As I say it is very easy to pick holes in this particular definition, hopefully the detail is more specific but OP if you want me to look at the detail please PM me with the school name and LA.

Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply to my query. It is very helpful.