Completely stuck re: catchment areas

[Bet01]

Right. This is the age-old problem of London primary school catchment areas, but I'm starting to not see the wood for the trees and could do with a bit of advice.
DS is 3 and will be starting nursery for his 15 hours a week in September. He's going to the nursery bit of our nearest primary school, which as the crow flies is 400 metres away from our house. He got into the nursery - great - but I've now realised there's no way on earth he'll get into reception. The furthest away last year was 235 metres and I sincerely doubt anything will change.
I then decided to look at other options and in doing so realised we're not going to make it into ANY of the local primaries based on this year's distances.
Bugger.
So, what do we do? Do we move house to be nearer the school he'll be going to nursery at? what happens if we don't move? will he get sent somewhere further away that we can't actually get him to in the mornings?
No-one tells you any of this shit before you have kids. Actually maybe they did, and I didn't listen.

Commiserations...

You have three choices:

1. Move nearer to a school you like, in or out of London (properly - if you own you'll have to actually sell, and be resident elsewhere by January);

1. Go private - get your skates on as many will be full already.

1. Keep your fingers crossed. You'll get allocated a school quite a distance away (up to 45 mins travel is deemed acceptable), you won't get any travel costs paid for (your child gets free travel anyway), and hope you eventually get a place off the waiting list.

There is also 4 (home school) and 5 (discover God) but you may want to discount these.

Good luck!

because local conditions in London vary so much its difficult to advise without knowing where you are, and then if your me anyway, I can only advise if its "my" bit. Can you say something about where you are?

Or if you prefer PM me?

Thanks for your help guys. We're in East Dulwich, SE22. I'm actually thinking of moving house. If we go private now, we'll spend more in fees than we would on a move, all things considered. I really don't want the stress of waiting lists, and I work FT so having somewhere his nanny can drop off/collect from will be really key (we share with another local family). Could always change nannies I suppose, but that's another world of pain! Think we need to start phoning estate agents.

Have you asked this on the ED Forum in the family section? There will be loads of people with similar experiences.

The experience for most seems to be that if you stick it out on the waiting list, you'll eventually get a school you're happy with. And there's always the last minute bulges which may mean you get into a school of your choice.

Another alternative is the new Harris ED Primary which I think has some sort of priority for people living in the current catchment black holes.

I live nearby and was lucky to get a place in our closest school last year. Had we not made it in we were too far from the six next closest schools or had a lack of religion. As it was one of the outstanding schools near us had a last minute bulge which freed up places all over the place when people migrated to it.

We are in a similar position (Bromley) and I would suggest, before moving or despairing, to check out any new free schools just in case. If you do move, you may have to move a longish way to be sure you've solved the problem, although at least you know the situation won't change that much in a year and a bit - we are looking for schools for 2017 and who knows what the position will be then. We have discovered that it is not that expensive to sign up for a private school and then change your mind (compared to the costs of moving and obviously dependent on which school). You might be lucky and find your preferred school has a bulge class for 2015.

Also ask the school what the distance was of the last family that was admitted after places were declined. If it is a 2 or 3 form entry school there will normally be a fair no of places declined and reoffered, whereas the figures quoted by the council in their stats will be for the distance from school of the last child offered in the initial round of offers. Worth getting both sets of info for last few years and asking admissions officer if there are any quirks in the data (eg a bulge class 2 years ago that means more than the normal number of applicants from siblings). Info on the no of first preferences versus the Permitted Admissions Number is also really useful to get a feel for how oversubscribed the school is normally.

Thanks all. Panicking less now, I think the Harris school could be an interesting option. Didn't kin about it. I'll have a look on the Forum too!

Know. Not kin. Obviously.

There is a bilingual (French/English) free school in central Bromley that starts this September, if that appeals.

www.bbs-cfbt.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bromley-Bilingual-Admissions-Policy1.pdf

Its site seems to be on Masons Hill - not very easy to discover from the website though - perhaps they will be in a temporary building for the first year. I see it's already oversubcribed though .

Phineyj, the Bromley Bilingual School (it has a new name now but I forget what) is going to be in a site at the bottom of the High Street I think, pretty much opposite Bromley South station. However, for the first year I understand it will be at a temporary site on Bromley Common (near Oakly Road) a couple of miles further up the A21. This would be a bus ride from Bromley South.

It also appears that the promised small class sizes are to be increased to 30 so I don't know whether it is oversubscribed on the basis of the original class sizes or also allowing for that. Bet01, you might have a pretty good chance for this year but I see that your DS won't be starting until Septemeber 2015 so I think by then it may be more of a case of how far you live from the school whereas at the moment, the applications are part lottery I think so open to all-comers.

Also, if bilingual appeals but you are not fussed about which language you are probably a lot closer to the Judith Kerr school in Herne Hill which is bilingual English-German.

Thanks mummypig that's interesting - that's more than you can tell easily from their website!

You're welcome, Phineyj. To be fair, I got a lot of that information from a meeting I went to last year and a letter I received from them last week rather than from the website.