our la boasts it doesn't have catchment areas

[nappyaddict]

but unless you are in care or have a sibling already at the school, they decide who gets in by how close you live to the school. surely that's the same?

Not really. A catchment area used to be geographically definite. If you lived in certain roads, you were in the catchment area.

Now, after siblings, it's down to distance and that changes according to number of applications. When people say they live in a catchment area ofa school, they mean they live close enough that it's likely they'll get in. Not guaranteed as it was before.

NA, NKF is correct. For example, last year DS got into reception, this year 3 doors up (nearer) did not, purely because a large number of reception places went to siblings, and they therefore had to tighten their distance criteria. A lot of unhappy parents, but with a large number of siblings in the year group, not much else could be done.

When I was little, there used to be a specific catchment area for a school - so one road on the borders was 'in' and the next one was 'out'. I guess within the catchment area it was still done on distance to the school.

Where we are now, anyone could get in, no matter where they live, as long as they are within the 60 nearest to the school that year (taking account of siblings etc).