I am very worried about the judgement of the primary school catchment area

[orecheukbcc]

Recently we found a lovely perfect house, we would like to buy but found that the catchment area is a bit far from my son's school which is now attending. I'm really worry about that does Council will force us to change the school even it is stand in the same council but not the school catchment area?

My elder son is now going to year 2, he has many good friends, we do not want to change the school and hopefully my little one can study in the same school too.

But we really love that house, this problem make us very struggle.

Anyone have good suggestion and help? Many Thanks for your reply!!

Your elder son’s place is secure. Your little one’s isn’t. His application will probably fall under ‘out of Catchment // sibling in school’. (You need to check the admissions policy but they all appear the same to me).

I may be wrong and will be corrected hopefully if I’m mistaken.

I’m also looking to buy, and move a bit away from the immediate village but remain in the catchment for the secondary school - but both my children are already in the primary school so their places are secure in the current school even if we move house now.

Catchment areas are only relevant when you're applying for a school place.
Lots of people move house while their children are at school and if the school run is still doable, then they keep their children at the same school.
Nobody will check whether you are still within the catchment area or not. Nobody will care.

In our local authority, a sibling link comes after 1) looked after children and 2) catchment, followed by 4) distance. As the catchment area is actually very small, siblings get in.

There is a school nearby though that always fills up the places from catchment alone - so a sibling wouldn’t automatically get a place.

You can check the website for the admissions policy, and there should be a breakdown of how it all works

it really depends on the school place criteria in your local area. Where I live if you move out of catchment you have to reapply for the school place and if there are children in catchment on the waiting list you are likely to lose the place.

There was a real problem with school place fraud and people buying small flats and pretending was their main address or using grandparents addresses so this was brought in to combat that.

As has been said, no issue with your older son but you should check how likely it is that your younger will get into the school at that distance.

Worst case scenario is you end up having to do school drop off/pickup at two different schools at the same time - this will be seen as your problem to solve and won't push you up any waiting list.

Sorry. Didn't read the op carefully and missed that you had a younger dc.
Pp is correct that the place for your ds currently at the school is secure but that it could be trickier for your younger dc.

Whether the younger ds gets a place will depend on factors like whether the school is oversubscribed and how close you are to the catchment area cut off point. Having a sibling often pushes children up a waiting list but individual LEAs set their own admission policies.

Ds currently attending the school is no issue- he will continue to do so.
Younger ds may not get a space. Certainly won't be top of the list in terms of criteria despite having a sibling attending.
Where you live is much more important than sibling- link.

In our school siblings are above proximity in the admissions criteria. You need to check the order for your school. In ours it is looked after children, then siblings then closest distance.

As others have said, oldest place is secure.

You need to read the admissions criteria regarding your youngest. Round here, sibling link comes above catchment, so it would be likely he would get in.
Others are saying their area puts catchment above sibling, so that would reduce your chances unless it's an under subscribed school.

Thank you so much for all of your reply!! It's really help!

Then my worry on my elder son can be solved.

I checked the council page it mentioned the sibling is over than the distance. However, I checked the house catchment area cannot be reached to the school (I.e. school catchment area is 1.28miles, but the distance of the house is about 1.8miles...) should I assume that the younger cannot be waiting list as well?

Many Thanks for your help!!

Copy the exact wording in the council admissions page here so we can be certain. If sibling is higher than distance though it sounds like it will be fine for your youngest as well.

My DC got into his school on the waiting list - we weren’t in the catchment area, but a place came up on the waiting list 2 weeks into Reception which we took. We have a younger DC who also got a place at this school 4 years later.

There should be some information on the council website (ours is a downloadable PDF) with all the information about admissions - how many applied, what criteria etc. For example, I suspected my second child would be given a place because out of the 60 places available, 20-25 seemed to be filled by LAC and those in the catchment area - this left the rest for siblings and then those closest by distance. These statistics were consistent over the previous few years so we were fairly confident DC2 would get a place, and they did.

Are you mixing up "catchment" area - which is a defined area in which children get priority and "area from which we normally take children" which is based solely on distance to the school as distance is a tie breaker. I think it would be unusual for a catchment area to be a perfect circle around the school!
If siblings have priority over distance, then the distance you live from the school is immaterial, as you will be considered under the "sibling" criteria.
But, as a PP said, you might want to summarise the exact criteria here so others can advise.

As others have said, you need to check the school’s oversubscription criteria. Some schools treat all siblings the same. Some don’t. They divide siblings into in catchment and out of catchment, and place out of catchment siblings in a lower priority group for admission. You’ll then be able to judge whether moving out of the catchment area will make it more difficult (or impossible) for your younger child to get a place.

@orecheukbcc

Thank you so much for all of your reply!! It's really help!

Then my worry on my elder son can be solved.

I checked the council page it mentioned the sibling is over than the distance. However, I checked the house catchment area cannot be reached to the school (I.e. school catchment area is 1.28miles, but the distance of the house is about 1.8miles...) should I assume that the younger cannot be waiting list as well?

Many Thanks for your help!!

Your eldest will keep his place, even if you mover 20 miles away! Once a child is registered at a school their place cannot be taken away. If the admissions criteria for this school places siblings over distance, then your younger child will also get a place.

On our area Siblings come before catchment children, whether they are catchment siblings or not.

I know it's not the same in some areas and depending on the age of your DC2, their Policy may change before you apply.

Our nearest High School had a change in who they were prioritising recently and a lot of people were suddenly selling up and moving colder to the school.

Apologies. I missed your second message.

Are you sure this is a fixed catchment area? It sounds to me as if this isn’t a catchment area and what the website gives is the distance at which the last place was awarded (which can change from year to year, especially if the number of siblings fluctuates). You say that the website says that siblings take priority over distance. In that case, your younger child should get a place as a sibling (without regard to distance) before the school fills the remaining places with the non-siblings who live nearest the school.

If you’re concerned, seek clarification from the school (if they are their own admission authority) or the local education authority.

In our current area its Looked after children, priority admissions area, siblings, staff, distance. Where we lived before there was no priority admissions areas, so it was Looked after, siblings, distance.

You need to clarify if your area has priority admissions areas.

Ours is:

1. Catholic looked after Children and previously looked after Catholic children or looked after/previously looked after children from catholic families.
2. Baptised Catholic children with a sibling(s) who attends and lives in the defined area
3. Baptised Catholic children who live in the defined area
4. Other baptised Catholic children.
5. Other looked after and previously looked after children with a sibling who attends
6. Other looked after and previously looked after children
7. Baptised Catholic children with a sibling(s) who attends and lives in the defined area
8. Members of an Eastern Christian Church
9. Other children with a sibling(s) who attend

10. Other children.

We generally have at the most 1/2 category 1, most admissions are under 2 & 3 with a couple of 4’s in low sibling years. For the sake of argument let’s assume you meet the faith criteria, DC2 would go from a category 2 to a category 7. It’s not a risk I’d take.

To be sure you need your admissions criteria for your school for your admissions year.

Obviously 7 is outside the defined area, I was trying to remove the school name and changed it to in

Just be careful to check whether the sibling link can be broken. In our area, if you move more than a certain distance away from the school after your first child has already got a place, then your younger child will no longer be treated as a sibling for admissions purposes. If this is the case, it should say so in the admissions criteria.

@Rainbowshit

it really depends on the school place criteria in your local area. Where I live if you move out of catchment you have to reapply for the school place and if there are children in catchment on the waiting list you are likely to lose the place.

There was a real problem with school place fraud and people buying small flats and pretending was their main address or using grandparents addresses so this was brought in to combat that.

Does this apply for all years throughout primary? That really sounds a bit dodgy. I can understand in the first term or even year that they might investigate people who move away to see if they potentially committed fraud in applying, but to assume that they did and make everyone reapply seems harsh and potentially outwith the code of practice.

good luck OP, hope you are in a situation where siblings of any sort (in or out of catchment) come ahead of the other categories, and in that case, you should be sorted. Even if not, it might depend on the area to see how likely you are to get a place - can you check what has happened in previous years, to see how oversubscribed it is, and what the last distance offered was? If you aren't in a really popular area and it's a school that has fluctuating numbers/siblings/distance, maybe your youngest would still get in on distance anyway.

Does this apply for all years throughout primary? That really sounds a bit dodgy. I can understand in the first term or even year that they might investigate people who move away to see if they potentially committed fraud in applying, but to assume that they did and make everyone reapply seems harsh and potentially outwith the code of practice.

www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/media/4895/Placing-request-guidelines/pdf/Placing_request_guidelines.pdf

It applies through all school years. Read the document. If you move out of catchment you have to make a placing request to remain and if there are other children waiting then your request may be denied.

A placing request to remain in a school is required if:
• the family are or become resident within the catchment area of the school which the child
attends, and at a later date move out of the catchment area.
2.2.1 Where a placing request to remain relates to a school’s year stage which is full, and
which already has a redirected child as a consequence, the request to remain will be
refused. Exceptionally, if the request to remain is submitted for an East Renfrewshire
catchment pupil, and the year stage at the child’s new East Renfrewshire catchment
school is also full, the application to remain will be granted
2.2.2 In all cases where a request to remain cannot be granted parents/carers should make
arrangements for their child to attend an alternative school as quickly as possible. The
Council expects parents/carers to remove their child from the school register within 4
weeks of receipt of the Request to Remain Refusal Letter.
2.2.3 A child’s parent(s) is/are responsible for submitting a placing request to remain for a child
in the event that they no longer reside within the delineated catchment area of the school
and wish for the child to continue to attend the school. Where it is found that a child is
no longer entitled to a place in a school (whether that be before or after school enrolment)
due to no longer residing in a property in the delineated catchment area associated with
the school, and a placing request to remain has not been submitted and approved, the
Council will seek to exclude that child from the school in question.

In practice I doubt requests to remain are refused, but everyone saying that the OP's elder child will be fine is giving terrible advice as it very very much depends on the local authorities school admission policies.