Primary catchment areas & buying first home

[VanillaLatteAndCake]

Hi, I'm not sure if this topic or the property topic is the best place to post but here we go...
We're currently looking to buy our first home. My son will begin primary school in 2020 and so we will be applying for his place at the end of this year. We have seen a house we like (have booked to view it) and it is in the catchment area for a good school which I am happy for him to attend. That being said, I am aware that you don't necessarily get your first choice of school and the schools in the surrounding catchment areas are not good (in special measures etc.). I feel in a bit of a dilemma, the house is great & the current owner is not accepting anymore viewings as she has already had offers, therefore if we want it, we will have to make the decision quickly. On the other hand, I worry that if we don't get our first choice of primary school, I'm not giving my son the best education he could have.
Has anyone else had experience of something similar? Any words of wisdom?!

If this is a school in high demand, you may not get a place if you don't already live in the catchment area. You would need to show that your house purchase is imminent when you apply for a place, saying you're going to buy in the area won't count for anything.
My advice, don't be rushed into buying a house and possibly paying over the odds just to get into a particular school, because you may not get what you want!

We'd be putting an offer in over the next couple of days so it should all go through by the time we need to apply at the end of the year. But you're right, we may not get the school we want. Just typing this is really helping me make a decision!

Go onto your local authority site and do proper research. You should be able to find the criteria for the school and see what happened last year. I find typically with a 2 form entry school up to half the placed go to siblings. Then its distance. Where we used to live the school was "over subscribed" but all catchment children got a place. There were too few places in the wider area a nd parents would travel to it. Do some digging and you will probably find the answer

Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can find that extra detail.

How close is the house to the school? There should be records showing the furthest distance away from the school where they have offered places in the past, but err on the pessimistic side as it may well have become more popular. Some schools unfortunately fill very quickly with siblings and people in the neighbouring streets.

The LA website should have a list of all the schools and how places were allocated.
Check the last distance offered, check how they measure (is it straight line, or ‘safe walking route ‘ for example.

Check the school admissions policy carefully.

Check where your house is, and leave a margin for increased population, new flats etc being built close to the school.

If the house is virtually on top of the school and well inside the last distance you should be fine.

Check that the school did not take a bulge class 2 or 3 years ago: that can mean younger siblings from 3 forms fitting into a 2 form entry.

Could you manage to speak to parents coming out of the school? They are usually very vocal about admissions. Or even ask on here about a specific school?

I don't know how other LAs do it but when we looked for Ds1 each school had a map with where they took from and what criteria people got in on so X number in priority 1 (looked after) then X number in priority 2 etc. So you could see "closest school" and what priority that was and the number they took.

We downsized our house (relocating over 150 miles) to get into an outstanding primary and have absolutely no regrets. It was oversubscribed but we made damn sure we were close enough to the school that we should get in.

Check the LA for last distance offered and if its an academy you can contact the school directly who should usually be happy to provide this information.

You should note that last distance offer data is as of national offer day. The last distance off the waitlist was people accept and decline is often quite a bit wider. Therefore, if you are comfortably within last years distance offer (and there was no bulge that year) I'd confidently buy the house if that's the only concern you have about completing the purchase.

Thanks all. I've found the extra info mentioned. It doesn't list the last distance given but it seems to state that everyone who applied got a place. I'm going to call the school tomorrow. Thanks for the help, even writing it down has helped to clear my head!

That means it wasn’t oversubscribed so sounds like a safe bet

You also need to be clear if the school has formal catchment areas (i.e. a defined area within which DC get priority) or whether you are using "catchment" to mean "area from which DC generally get a place".

I live in an area with formal catchments which mean that in some places you can be outside catchment but closer to a school than someone in catchment ... therefore you would have lower priority for a school place.

Check the admissions criteria very carefully.
What criteria overrrides distance? Is it single form or double form entry? - it's not unknown for a single form entry class to be at least half full on siblings.