Help with Chingford/Waltham Forest catchment rules

[AaronJaunty]

Hi everyone. I hope. you're coping well with recent changes regarding COVID. It's certainly been a challenge for us.

Hoping someone can help. Now that we have a newborn child, our family is planning a move from south London to be near my mum-in-law in Chingford. We've been looking around Chingford Mount and North Chingford but we're concerned that we have to be very specific about the road, due to school catchment area rules. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thinking ahead (and looking at league tables), we'd like our daughter to eventually attend Chingford CofE Primary School. The majority of the places we're interested are closer to Parkside and Lime Academy. Will this invalidate our ability to apply for the school of our choice?

Hope this post makes sense. Please let me know if I need to add some detail.

The cut off distance for Chingford CofE this year was 0.98 miles, and historically it hasn't been especially difficult to get into. If you look at the "Starting Primary School in Waltham Forest" booklets for the last few years you can see the cut off distance for each school, although of course things could change by the time your baby is ready for school.

Most schools don't have catchment areas - anyone can apply, and if it's oversubscribed it goes on distance. As a CofE school you would probably get priority based on being baptised etc anyway - you can look at the school's admission policy on their website I'm sure.

This is the table I mean

Thank you @TheYearOfSmallThings, really helpful. Actually I've been corrected, the school we're interested in is Yardley. I expect the same info applies?

@TheYearOfSmallThings

Ah that makes more sense to me - Yardley is outstanding and oversubscribed, but because it is far out of Chingford (and even further from Chingford Mount) it is not convenient for everyone and so the cut off is still over half a mile. Anyone can apply and it will just come down to distance.

One thing I would say is keep an open mind - my DS started reception in 2019, and the schools around us changed greatly between the time he was born and last year.

Thank you!