Applying out of area

[GingerDoodle]

Our local (and only choice) school is not currently doing very well. With this in mind our options are to

• Apply out of catchment area
• Go private

Does anyone have any success stories of getting into (popular) out of catchment area state schools? Or is it pie in the sky hope?

Obviously in an idea world our local will improve but we're making plans in case.

Thanks

Are you in E/W?

Do you mean catchment as in formally defined priority area? If so, you need to look at where that features in the desirable school's criteria and whether it fill up with children within the area.

If you mean the footprint of the distance within which DC have been admitted in recent years, then this is more changeable and you might stand a chance.

It sounds as if you're planning a few years ahead. So you need to keep an eye out for consultations on changes to admissions criteria.

Hi Meditrina

Not sure what E/W is but we are in West Sussex.

By catchment I guess I mean foot print - I emailed the council to asked what schools I was in the area for and they came back with just the 1 (I live on its doorstep so its a pain its not doing so well)! The others are all walkable or a short drive but I believe they are popular.

We about a year away from applying to nursery. DD is 15 months and i'd like her to go at 3.

Hi Ginger,
Admissions to nursery schools tend to work differently than admissions to schools. So there are three things you need to find out:

1. admissions process for the nursery schools you are interested in
2. admissions process for the schools you are interested in, and
3. if there is a link between the nursery school and the school, e.g. children who go to the nursery school have priority in being admitted to the school, that happens sometimes but in our experience is quite exceptional.

So if you find a nursery/school combination where children who are at the nursery are prioritised for the school, then that would be a good strategy for getting your child into that school. The main hurdle would then be getting into nursery. Nursery schools frequently have waiting lists, so it would be good to find out about these things soon and get your name down!

If there are no such links between nurseries and schools, then it is all down to the schools admissions. Now, popular does not have to mean oversubscribed. In our neighbouring village, which is very upper-class, lots of children go to private schools, so the local state schools, despite being excellent, outstanding Ofsteds and results, and despite being very popular, frequently don't fill all their places. What I'm saying is, you need to find out your facts rather than working on supposition! However, bear in mind that things might well change between now and your child's school admission. In our area, some schools have recently increased their admission number (PAN) so whereas they used to be oversubscribed, they aren't anymore. Others have changed their admissions criteria. And there might be a new free school opening at any time.

If you want to work out now which schools you would have a chance of getting into, given there are no changes, you need to look at each school separately and determine which admissions category you would fall into. Frequently for non-faith state schools, this works something like this:

1. Looked after children
2. Children who have a sibling currently enrolled at this school
3. Children for whom this school is the nearest school to home (sometimes by straight line, sometimes by walking pathway, make sure you know which one)
4. any other children. (The link between nursery school and school I mentioned above might express itself by there being a category between e.g. 2 and 3 that went 'children who attended the linked nursery school'.)

For faith schools, it might be something like this:

1. Looked after children
2. Children of the particular faith whose parents are regular churchgoers/have been for x years/go to a particular church
3. Other children of that faith
4. Children of any other similar faith whose parents are actively involved in their church
5. Other children of any other similar faith
6. Any other children

THESE ARE JUST EXAMPLES! You really need to find out the admissions criteria for YOUR schools, they are the only ones that count!

So, once you have worked out for each school, which category you would fit into, you can find out how many children from which category applied to that school in the last admissions round, and how many were admitted. So for the state school example above, you might find that there were
1 application under category one, 1 admitted
11 applications under category 2, 11 admitted
24 applications under category 3, 18 admitted, max. distance 0.8km
17 applications under category 4, 0 admitted

In this case, if that school is not your nearest school, you would have not had any chance at all of being admitted. If it was your nearest school, but you lived more than 0.8km away, you wouldn't have been admitted either.
However, if it looks more like this
1 application category 1, 1 admitted
11 applications category 2, 11 admitted
12 applications category 3, 12 admitted
17 applications category 4, 6 admitted, max. distance 1.4km

Then you would have a chance of being admitted despite being in category four. The max. distance figure tends to change from year to year, so there would always be hope.

You can find these figures for each school through your LEA. Then you can work out for each school, a) which category YOU are in, b) which categories had chances of being admitted last year, and thus you can work out if you would have realistic chances.

E/W meant England/Wales. In Scotland there's a totally different system for catchment schools and placing requests if you want a school other than your catchment one.

Melta is right. You need to look at the exact entrance criteria of all the schools you are interested in, and try to work out if you would have qualified for a place (the school or LEA should be able to tell you the greatest distance that a place was offered in recent years). Then you use your preferences to list the schools that you want, and if you qualify for a place you will be offered it, even if it is not your nearest school. But there's always an element of guesswork if your preferences are oversubscribed and some distance from you, as it will all come down to how many apply and whether they fit the criteria better than you.

That is why you see advice to put a school you are as sure as you can be that you'll get into as your final preference, on the grounds that if you don't get your higher preferences it is usually better to go to the school you don't fancy much but is logistically easy, rather than just be allocated the nearest school with a vacant place which you probably won't like much either and might be a pain to get to.