WHat is the significance of being a feeder school?

[BagelDog]

My eldest is in year two so we are looking at junior school for next year. Three to chose between. One is a lovely Cof E one class per year set in the woods loads of forest school activities Place. One is three classes per year, busy, well structured, lots of sport and music. One is very popular locally as has excellent ofsted ratings but seems to be very homework focused, the office are awful on the phone, actively rude when I was asking about looking around, parking a nightmare...

However, we live in a bit of a secondary school hole - lots of lovely schools locally but all v competitive to get in, we sit nicely in the catchment of the one total dud...

The school I like least is a ‘feeeder’ school for three of the nice secondaries.

What does that actually signify in admission terms? If we are not going to get in on distance and don’t have any special circumstances would being in a feeder junior school make a difference? Just need to know if I should take it into account at all...

Schools have a list of criteria. When a school is oversubscribed, the “cut off” is usually about criterion 5. Being in a “feeder school “ generally puts your child in criterion 3 or 4 and more likely to get in.

You need to identify what they mean by 'feeder' school. Sometimes it just means that the vast majority of children from school A attended secondary school B. Other times (though more rarely) it means that children attending school A well be given preference for school B over other children.
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What you need to do is look at the admissions criteria for the secondary schools. If there is no mention of feeder schools there then where your child goes now, won't affect their admission later.

In y6 just now. The admissions bumf on our local process talks about which school is a “partner primary” for which secondary. Look in your council website. Language might vary but concept is same.

Find the actual admissions criteria for the schools you are interested in.The schools should have them on their website,and your LEA should have them too. Those are all that matter; "feeder" could mean all sorts of things, but if the criteria don't mention attendance at one of these schools in their criteria for admissions, it won't matter.

Agree with others - you need to check the admission criteria on the website. It's also worth checking the last category from which children are admitted, although obviously this may change from year to year.
I live in a town where, for some secondary schools, you need to be in catchment AND attending a feeder school to definitely get in.

(Although you may note that DC currently at primaries move into the school move Y5/6 if this is the case)

Feeder makes no difference to admission to our secondary school.

You need to ask the secondary school (or the schools admissions person at the council) if it makes a difference to them.

In our area if there are too many applications from in catchment children then priority will be given based on the number of years in a feeder primary.

You really need to check the individual school's admission criteria though.

Our school is a feeder for the local excellent high school. In reality it means the majority of children get in because they live in the catchment area, the primary school isn’t listed on the entry criteria at all.

Admissions criteria should be on the secondary school's website.

Yes definitely check. Feeder is used to mean all kinds of things.

Where it will matter is when there is a catchment area for a Secondary and children from certain primaries are given preference over those in others. It often occurs when schools are spread geographically in an odd way - for example 2 secondaries are actually quite near each other but cover a huge geographical area, much of which has no school - the area may be split into 2 catchments and one or both might have feeder schools - this is to ensure both schools get a good number of applicants and that children geographically furthest away from both schools still have a chance to get into a school.

It would make a difference in my area. The (oversubscribed) secondary in the nearby town has several named feeder schools, and attending one of them puts you in a higher admissions category. In fact you’re very unlikely to get a place if you’re not at a feeder school.

Also don't rely on what parents of older children tell you. Secondary schools can and do change their admissions policies.

Around here there used to be one secondary school that had named feeder schools (the catholic secondary; basically you only stood a chance to get in if you attended one of the named catholic primaries).

All other secondary schools worked on distance alone.

So if you sent your kids to the catholic primary, you had full choice of secondaries. Otherwise, you had full choice of secondaries except the catholic one.

Which clearly is unfair IMO.

But recently all the other local secondaries have adjusted their admissions policies, so they too now have named feeder primaries. And seeing as there is a lack of secondary school places, it basically means that when you choose your child's primary school, you are also choosing their secondary school (unless you move, or the schools change their admission policies again).

the catholic primary dd2 goes to is a feeder for the catholic secondry that dd1 goes to. It only makes a diffrence if you are catholic, because going to a feeder primary puts you under siblings in the catolic admissions band. If you are not catholic but christian of another donomination then going to a catholic primary even if it's not a feeder school puts you under siblings in that band.

Under those two band primary school makes no diffrence.

Every single school will mean somethign different by it, and the only way to be sure is to look att eh secondary school's own admission criteria.
2 examples:

1. feeder measn 'in roughly same catchment area' and they sometimes put on events eg science day for local primary schools and invite them along. Nothing else.
2. feeder means the children coming from this school are given priority in the admissions criteria over children who live closer, but go to a different school.

As it says feeder for 3 secondaries, I suspect it is more likely to me 1. than 2. But only looking at the specific admission criteria for that school will tell you.

Our primary is currently a feeder school for a secodnary on the other side of town. They both belong to the same academy, and the academy has chosen to give children from their own primaries priority over more local children in their admisions criteria.
Completely bonkers.

In our area going to a feeder school puts you at #2 behind children in care. #3 is distance+sibling and #4 is distance, #5 is everybody else.

Agree with check the admissions of the secondary.

The school I went to had a 'feeder' school in the next town.It was an RC school as was the feeder. This meant that a child living on the same street as the school attending a non 'feeder'had less chance of getting a place than a child 7 miles away in the feeder.

I believe they still operate this way.