Catchment confusion - "nearest school" is Catholic

[Lowkeyloopy]

Hi all, DH and I are currently house-hunting and trying to get our heads around catchment areas and admissions policies for the primary schools in the areas that we like. We're looking ahead a bit as am currently PG with DC1, but we're trying to future proof the house!

I broadly understand the admissions policies and the fact that a lot of places are allocated by "nearest school" and "distance from school" after LAC, SEN, siblings etc. Where I am confused is the meaning of "nearest school". Technically the two nearest schools to one of the houses we're looking at are an independent school and a Catholic school. We're not Catholic and don't want to go private. So even though our nearest state and non-faith school is the primary school we like, would we get bounced down to the "distance from school" criterion for having essentially rejected a closer independent school and a closer Catholic school?

My instinct is that surely that can't be right - it shouldn't be held against you for state school admission that you (1) aren't Catholic or (2) won't or can't pay private school fees...! But I don't want to make an assumption about this, get it wrong and end up kicking myself (from my hopefully lovely and otherwise well-located house...) in a few years' time! Can't find any guidance on this particular issue online.

Wise words from more seasoned mumsnetters and parents would be very welcome! Thanks in advance!

I know in my county nearest school doesn't include faith schools, only ones that admit based on distance. If a faith school is closer it wouldn't be classed as nearest school in their definition.
Probably worth checking with your local authority. Ours has a tool to check what the nearest school for any address is under their definitions.

Private school do not count at all in state admissions so don't worry about that one.

What does the admissions criteria actually say about nearest school? There are a few who prioritise applicants to the nearest school but they're quite unusual. It's normally simply done on how far you are away from the schools you want.

If you are prioritised for your nearest school though it won't include private schools.

Private schools definitely don't count. The guidance from your LEA should clearly specify what it means by "nearest" and whether or not that includes Faith schools. This may vary by area so don't rely on advice on here! If you are happy to tell us the LEA, someone may be able to provide said local advice!

Obviously varies by area but as others have said, it’s usually a question of how close you are to the schools you rank, not your closest school. But if you don’t get offered a place at one of your choices, you are usually offered a place at the school nearest to you that still has spaces. You would need to check if faith schools are included in that exercise. They are in my area.

You need a booklet called 'Starting primary school in X' (X being the name of your town/Borough/county) which you shouldbe able to download from your local authority website. All the admissions info will be on there. When you've read it, post any further questions in the primary education thread.

Non religious parents are indeed slightly disadvantaged in the school application system because some schools give priority to parents following a particular religion, but it depends a lot on the area and school applications have fallen a bit due to Brexit etc so that's helped.

Phone the non faith school you want to go to and see then likelihood of being in catchment or accepted if out of catchment - I can't abide faith schools personally - no place in society for these

Schools aren’t allocated on the nearest to your house OP. Once LAC, siblings, SEN are taken into account, generally places remaining on the basis of distance from home to school out of all the remaining applicants. So the applicants who live nearest the school get a place, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that that is your nearest school. With church schools there’s the added layer of church attendance.
If you look on the LEAs websites you will find documents that tell you how schools were allocated in the last academic year, so for pupils starting in Reception (or Year 7) in Sept 2022, they look at the 2021 allocations.

There might be a map on the council website. On our local one there is also a list of every street saying which Primary and Secondary (and sixth form!) That street is in the catchment of.

For some schools applicants for whom the school is the nearest school are prioritised over applicant who live closer to the school but have another nearer school. For example, community and voluntary controlled schools in Surrey.

It depends on the LA and school as to whether faith schools count. Sticking with Surrey as an example, faith schools that have admitted non-faith applicants in the preceding few years are included when calculating an applicants nearest school.

Independent schools are not considered.

Take a closer look at your LEA criteria for admissions. Our LEA only handles state school applications, but they do liaise with Faith schools to make sure that children are only offered one place (place hording until the last minute used to be rife causing all sorts of domino problems). They don't engage with the independent schools at all.

Basically your nearest school for admission purposes is the nearest state school unless you've made a Faith school application. That's how our LEA manages the process. It's all clearly laid out in the admissions guidance. Your LEA will have similar.

It's worth remembering though that they can change admission criteria to flex with the needs of the area so what constitutes the rules now, isn't necessarily going to be the case in 4 years time. That includes catchments areas and mapping.

Is this the schools finder or right
Move?

If you aren't sure, PM me details of where you are moving to and I will take a look for you.

Not being Catholic doesn't usually mean your child can't go to the Catholic school, by the way. Sometimes children who are from Catholic families are prioritised in the admissions criteria, but except in some urban areas, there are usually spaces left over for other children.

You may, however, not want your child to go to a Catholic school - that's a matter of choice. Church schools vary on how much the ethos affects the day-to-day routine - some have a prayer every lesson, but some have little more than a Christian flavour to assemblies. So if you're not overly fussed, you might want to visit the school and find out a bit more.

Faith schools don't have distance as their first criteria, so unless you qualify on faith grounds you won't even be in the running.
They operate their own admissions, so you'd need to apply directly if you actually wanted a place.

@GreyhoundG1rl

Faith schools don't have distance as their first criteria, so unless you qualify on faith grounds you won't even be in the running. They operate their own admissions, so you'd need to apply directly if you actually wanted a place.

This is wrong. You do NOT apply directly to a Catholic school to get a place. They may have a Supplementary Information Form, although this is generally for faith applicants. You apply for a place at a Catholic school through the LA in the normal way. They must consider your application regardless of whether you have completed an SIF.

Whilst it is true that some Catholic schools regularly fill up with faith applicants, others don't have enough faith applicants to fill all the places so some non-faith applicants get in.

Which authority are you? Most have a catchment checker on their website which tells you of the catchment school, if there is one.

Our local faith schools count in admissions. So, at our old house, the catchment CofE school was our default school. We could have chosen another non faith school but we’d have been in the lower down priority of ‘out of catchment’. And all the schools in that area were heavily oversubscribed by catchment kids so I would never have risked it. I don’t have a problem with CofE schools although I completely disagree religion should have anything to do with education. It’s nonsense.

Faith schools have an added layer of priority. Ours is children in care etc > children who attend the local church > siblings in catchment > catchment > out of catch siblings > out of catchment

You do NOT apply to faith schools directly at all but some have strict criteria about baptism etc to bump you up to the top priority spots.

Not everywhere has catchments, a lot do though. You aren’t guarenteed that school but you are higher up the priority so you’d be unlucky in most places (London excluded, London school admissions seem bonkers!).

My advice, pour over local school admission data on the council website. How full are other schools? How far did the furthest child live that was admitted in the last few years etc! We spent weeks looking at data before we moved house as we loved the house but did nottt like the local school. We’ve got into a fab out of catch school that we had worked out we had a vey good shot at!

You cannot guarantee that the same rules apply across England. Get hold of the admission booklet for the LA and see specifically what it says about nearest school. It definitely does not include independent schools but after that more or less anything is possible.
Having looked what it says in the document I would be tempted to actually send an email to the admission team at the LA and say I believe that this means X is the nearest school to our home. Can you confirm this and get this in writing. If it subsequently all goes wrong then you will need that confirmation on which school the LA thinks is nearest.

You are thinking of it the wrong way round.
Each school has criteria to follow.
If they have 60 places they'll allocate according to that.
If a faith school has faith criteria you need to look at that.
You put 3 schools down.
If you qualify for more than one you wrote down, the LA will look at what is your preference.
A school could be 200m from your house with 30 places and you not get in.
Another school could be 5 miles away with less people qualifying or putting down and you get in

The number of choices depends on area. It's 5 or 6 here.

We actually have 6 but it's 3 initially and you can put 6 if you tick a box to add more

In England, a C of E school may be the school you are in the catchment for but a Roman Catholic school would not be.

Hello everyone, thank you so much for the really helpful replies and so sorry for my silence!

To clarify for those who queried it, for the primary school we like in the area we're looking, its admissions criteria include "nearest school" before "distance from school", so I read that as children who have it as their nearest school get priority, then they look at overall distance from school (regardless of whether it's your nearest school). That's what prompted the concern about private and Catholic schools being counted as "nearest".

Looks like private schools definitely aren't counted, but Catholic schools might be counted in some places. Our search has now shifted area a little bit, but I'll make sure to check all the admissions criteria carefully wherever we end up, because there are clearly different approaches from area to area and school to school.

Thanks again all!