Catchment areas primary school

[Rockinboppin]

Hi guys. Ok am I the only one who is struggling to understand how this all works??!! I'm baffled! I am booked into all sorts of open days but no idea if I'm being realistic. I'm not to thrilled about many of our local options so wondering how do I find out if it's realistic to apply to a school further away.. I am on the border of three boroughs- can I apply for schools in every borough?? Thanks for any help anyone can offer!!

Agree exactly tiggy. Especially no6. Exactly my view. Loads of people don't seem to thi k that way though!

Thanks so much. Fantastic advice.

I agree,we live very close (0.3miles) to an excellent school but we're not in catchment area :-(.The only school we're certain to get a place is everybody's worst nightmare(despite of a good Ofsted and rumours it's slowly improving it has a bad reputation).It is still a walking distance (about 15min).I was determined not to list this school but I've changed my mind since I read that some children didn't get a place at any of the chosen schools and had to wait to be allocated a place elsewhere(often far away).
There are other very good schools in our area (within 1mile distance)but there's a very little chance of getting a place(either church schools and/or oversubscribed).I applied for couple of schools a little further away after looking at the statistics from the previous years.We seem to have a better chance of getting into a school that's 2 miles away than the one that's 0.3miles away.It's crazy really.

I'd also suggest you look at the previous years admissions data and consider the distance from the schools and how realistic it is to get a place(how far out are you).

We only get three choices. Well, preferences not choices.

I've put my catchment school first then the next two nearest schools. All three are routinely over subscribed in catchment so i don't know what will actually happen and where we will end up. I can't see us getting into the second or third choice schools even though they are next nearest to us. Hoping we get the catchment one.

No they are all very good schools. Hence why oversubscribed. Hoping we get it in to our first choice on catchment basis, hopefully there won't be too many in catchment siblings bumping us further down the queue