What is going on with catchments and primary school choices?

[Tambatamba]

I'm applying for dd4's primary school and everything seems to have gone weird in regards to catchment areas. At one time, the advice was to ask for your catchment school.

I went to visit our catchment school and they said that only 30% of their intake comes from catchment. This is a big school which isn't usually over subscribed. When I spoke to our neighbour, whose dd is in year 1 atm, he said that they listed this school as first choice but were given their 3rd choice. Which, incidentally is widely considered to be a better school than their 1st choice anyway.

Surely this is confusing? Is it to do with families whose children have grown up not moving house so that a school no longer serves its community in the same way any more?

To make things more complicated, I don't actually like our catchment school anyway! So I probably won't list it.

You need to read the admissions criteria for each school to see how the allocate places. Lots use a local authority standard but some make their own adjustments. Distance will normally be in the criteria somewhere after LAC and SEND.

You can apply to any school and places will be given in order according to the published criteria. You will get in if they still have a place when they reach you. You won't get in if they have already allocated all their places by the time they get to you on the list.

Just be careful if you don't list your 'catchment' (closest?) As if you don't and you don't get in on your other choices you could end up being miles from the school they allocate you. You should be able to see the breakdown of who has priority on your county's education website. It will likely prioritise looked after children, siblings, armed forces, religion etc etc . You should also be able to see the pan for each school, distance travelled etc which will give you assistance in choices. Rule of thumb is use all your choices if you can and include your least worst school as well so you don't end up having to travel miles to take DC to school.

Do they mean from the category ‘catchment’?
So 70% are looked after or siblings, who may or may not live in catchment?

The nearest school to us, five minutes walk away, has complaints every year because people who also live in catchment and a few minutes walk away, can’t get a place. If 50 people are applying for 30 places, even if they are in catchment, some aren’t going to get a place. There may be a ( relatively)/high number of SEN, LAC or siblings, even if they don’t live as close.

It's possible that you live in an area where changes in population density (fewer secondary school age children in some areas; new housing with more secondary school aged children in other areas) haven't yet been factored into catchments.

Historically I live in an area where you were pretty much guaranteed a place at your catchment school if you also attended a feeder school; it was a toss up if you didn't attend the feeder, and you had little to no chance if out of catchment. Now there are some schools where that still applies and some where they take from out of catchment from quite a way away.

That said, only 30% of intake coming from catchment sounds like parents choosing others schools, not the school not having places. Althought that doesn't tally with your neighbour saying she didn't get catchment school. I'm wondering if someting is lost in translation here ...?

In our area, there aren’t catchments. But the third criteria for places is distance (after certain categories of children and siblings).

As you say in your post it’s a big school which isn’t usually oversubscribed. If places are allocated as I mention above, then if the school is not oversubscribed there is no limit on the distance children could live from school.

In this way there might be a closer school which is oversubscribed where you don’t get a place.

Scotland has catchments. England generaly doesn't and has their own admission criteria. Check your la / close la if you are v near the border.
Generally priority goes
Ehcp / lac / adopted
Sibling at school
Teacher at school for 2 years child
Distance

There may be church attendance as a criteria.

Oh sometimes but not often attending the attached pre school might give you priority. Or in the same mat.

They just said that a lot of their intake comes from the other side of the river which makes no sense when someone who lives 5 minutes walk away (my neighbour) didn't get in.

Where do you live OP (broadly speaking)? Lots of people in England use the word catchment when it doesn't mean anything, it's just a reference to distance which is one the admission criteria and the distance changes every year depending on the other intake. The admissions document on the council website should explain it.

I live in Worcester. We are not applying to any church schools. Generally, it was always historically the case here that distance from a school was the main consideration after special circumstances like those listed on thf thread. I have 3 older children you see.

Oh, I have no idea then!

I think your neighbour is lying or applied wrong. If a school isn't oversubscribed, literally anyone who wants a place can get one. If the other school that he did end up getting was actually a better school, perhaps he just doesn't want to appear snobby towards the local catchment school.

Schools in Worcester are not generally hugely over subscribed and you can check it here

https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-04/first_primary_schools_allocation_day_statistics_2023_0.pdf

As @user134276 points out, most schools in Worcester were undersubscribed. If the school your neighbour claims to have put as first choice was undersubscribed, either something went very badly wrong in the admissions process, or she didn't put it as first choice.

The fact that the school only got 30% of its intake from catchment may simply mean that everyone from catchment was admitted, but there weren't anything like enough applicants from catchment to fill all the places. Again, looking at the document @user134276 has linked, there were only three schools in Worcester that did not have enough places for everyone in catchment - North Worcester Primary Academy, St Clements CE Primary and Whittington CE Primary.

Are you actually sure that your neighbour didn't put the 'better' school first but is now pretending she didn't to be polite as you are applying to catchment?

I’m in the midlands and our area still has catchments. Priority is

lac/ehcp
catchment children with siblings in school
cathchment children without siblings
non catchment with siblings in school

I don't know 😂😂 maybe he got it wrong? I don't want the catchment school tbh.

Thank you :)

We have catchments in Derbyshire. My son got into a school that we are just out of catchment for but which now has a high proportion of retired/older people living nearby. Falling birth rates also helped. What I cannot understand is why our catchment secondary doesn't align with our primary - if we'd sent him to the catchment primary school, it wasn't a feeder for our catchment secondary.

In Cornwall we have designated schools rather than catchment areas - in and around our town there are approximately 11 primary schools; we have the designated school for our part of town the time there are 6-7 others that, in the past 5 years, we would have got into purely based on furthest distance from school of last admitted child not covered by LAC/ECHP/Sibling already in school.

All schools in the area apart from 1 were undersubscribed for 2023 admissions and, that 1 school had more 1st place applications than places so 3 children did not get their 1st choice school while the other schools all have at least 10 spaces - I know of the 4 schools we viewed, 2 have a PAN of 30 and have 18 in YR, 1 has a PAN of 30 and 16 children on the roll and the 4th is the oversubscribed school with a PAN of 30 and 30 on the roll (and, incidentally, is the school we have put 1st). It doesn’t make sense when the town we lived in before only had 1 primary school unless you’re prepared to travel to outlying villages.

It can also vary greatly year by year. Our 1st choice was our nearest school. The PAN was 60. 31 of those 60 places was allocated to a sibling. A friend who arguably lives within "catchment" didn't get in as the final places were allocated on tiebreaker distances. DD is now in Year 1. This year's reception intake was undersubscribed with only 58 of the 60 places being allocated!