"As the Crow flies" - did Barnet Council get it wrong?

[simonandsherry]

What a stressful 24 hours!

Sadly, my little girl didn't get her first choice. We live in London and know competition is fierce but given we live within 0.5miles, we thought we had a decent chance.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

I've checked with Barnet and they've taken the measurement from our house to the school to be 0.646miles.

However, using a variety of online mapping tools, my measurements come out at 0.569 miles/0.557 miles.

The discrepancy (0.089miles/143meters) which I know sounds small could just make all the difference.

I've emailed the admission team at the council and our 1st choice school to see what they say.

Am I clutching at straws?

I'm afraid you probably are.

Online mapping tools generally measure from the centre of your postcode to the school's postcode, although some will allow you to move the start and end points to the correct position. Barnet will use a computerised system that gives a very accurate measurement from your house to a particular point on the school's premises. Unless they have measured from the wrong house (which does happen sometimes) Barnet's distance will be correct.

Thanks for all your great advice.

I was told by the school that 8 children live closer to the school than we do.

We live within 0.5miles and a chunk of this distance is open ground and a railway line. It just doesn't add up.

Is is possible to ask the school / borough to reveal the distances from the school for those that received a place?

I know I sound nuerotic, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

They cannot give you info about all the other applicants, but they should tell you the greatest distance offered in your category.

Was she offered a place at one of your preferred schools at all?

I was told by the school that 8 children live closer to the school than we do.

How many children do they admit? Do you mean that they have a PAN of 30, but there were only 8 places left for distance applicants after the other priority categories? Did they say you are 9th (i.e. first person to miss out on distance)?

We live within 0.5miles and a chunk of this distance is open ground and a railway line. It just doesn't add up.

Not in all directions from the school surely? 8 children is really not very many within 0.5 of a mile. (And you don't live within 0.5 of a mile, do you? You live 0.56 miles by your own count and 0.66 by theirs. Even yours isn't within 0.5 miles).

I would check the administration criteria as ours is not as the crow flies but safest lit walking route from your door to the school main entrance.

Remember too that the circle goes out in all directions so although there might only be open ground and a railway on your side there could be blocks of flats in that circle on the other side. A radius of 0.56 is about 1 squ mile, 0.65 is about 1.3 squ miles, in a densely populated area that is a lot of potential children. If it is a small school/ lots of siblings then that will make a difference too.

Sorry you didn't get your choice but there could be movement between now and Sept, particularly if your school of choice has more than one class, plus some of those 8 people might have been given a different school which they preferred unless you have been told that there are 8 ahead of you on the waiting list.

You probably are clutching at straws, I'm afraid.

Barnet is teeming with 'bunfight to get into' schools and they are also very hot on this whole distance measuring thing (know from bitter experience...one of my DC got into our second choice school 0.4 miles away, but not our first choice school 0.5 miles away).

But take the place you were offered and go on the waiting list for the school of your choice, if youre really not happy with the school you are offered. Then ring them up regularly to check up on how the waiting list is moving along.

I live in Barnet. The movement between reception and year 1 in our schools can be quite high. Its a quite transient borough in some areas. Five children left my DC's reception class last year for various reasons, and thats just her class (in a three form entry school).

I feel your pain, we're in a similar situation, although we're in a small village in the East Midlands. The furthest child getting a place was 0.28 miles. We are 0.33 miles. It's the first year ever that any children living in the village haven't got a place. There are 4 children in the village this year without a place. It sucks.

There are school where we are that you need to be 100 metres from, 0.5 miles would be a dream in many areas!

There is no doubt that the computerised system used by the council is very accurate, it can when required literally go down to centimetres. It will be based on data from the Ordinance Survey organisation as are most of the other systems that are available on the internet. The difference in the accuracy comes down to the fact that there is a stated point on the school and a stated point on the residence in the system the council uses. Many of the freely available sites on the internet, use postcodes which is where the accuracy goes.
Having said that 143 metres is quite a big discrepancy, so I think you do need to go to appeal to make sure that they have done it right but accept that the probability is that the distance quoted by the council is right.

Ridiculously where I love it is bad to be too close to the school, the families that love closest to the school (eg. Gardens backing onto the playground) are the least likely to get in as they are also closest to the next nearest school which is the tie breaker here.

I'm in a neighbouring borough OP & there are very few primaries here with catchments of more than 0.5m. Most are 0.2-0.4m, apart from a few which have been expanded and a few which are seen as less desirable. By all means get them to check the measurement but I wouldn't be surprised to be on waiting list at just about 0.5-0.6m...

Also remember that it only takes a couple of sets of twins to bump up the number of children who need places...