Godalming Primary Schools Help

[marriedyounglawyermum]

Hello - does anyone live in Godalming and could please help me understand the (state) primary school system?

We are looking to move to the area with our 2 year old and schools are really important to us so I want to make sure I understand what we might expect.

I’ve spent a long time researching and can see the town is split into some primary schools (from reception to year 6) and some infant and junior schools. It appears as though the schools don’t have catchment areas but instead have priority allocation based on things like siblings and children of staff before then moving to simply straight line distance to the school.

However, I’ve read lots of Facebook posts where people are talking about school catchments so I can’t work out if I’ve misunderstood or if perhaps the allocation system has changed recently?

I would love to understand what tends to happen if you go down the infant/junior school route - do all children from any given infant school end up mostly going to the same junior school? For example, Moss Lane and Farncombe Infants to Godalming Junior.

What I also don’t really understand is how there’s enough capacity for all of the children given the number of children in each year group. For example, Busbridge Infants accepts 60 children a year and so does Busbridge Juniors, so how would any children that didn’t go to Busbridge Infants ever get a place at the junior school? Similarly, for Godalming Junior School, the number of pupils in a year at Moss Lane and Farncombe Infants combined is 90 whereas the Junior school only accepts 60 pupils, so where do all of the other children go? I don’t want to be in a position where our daughter ends up having to go to school in another town or village as part of Godalming’s appeal to us is the walkability.

Finally any views on how competitive intakes have been over recent years would be super helpful!

This is all very new to me and we don’t know anyone in the area to discuss with so I’d be really grateful for any insight from a local!

Thank you so much in advance

Hi @marriedyounglawyermum I don't know the area but to comment in general:

Some primary schools do have catchment or normal areas, many do not. If the schoolsl local to where you are moving don't, then that's fine, they will use distance from the school as a decider.

If local parents talk about catchment areas, that's just shorthand for "living near enough to the school to typically get a place" IME.

My DC went to an infant school and while you need to apply for a place at the juniors, I don't think i ever heard of anyone not getting one. This was a specifically linked junior school but there usually is one for most infants, again IME. It's not super likely that a child not already at the infant school would need to progress to the junior, though of course there will be people moving into the area. Junior schools can go above ICS numbers anyway.

In the case of the infant/junior school disparity, is there another junior school that may take the other children? I would think there must be, but as I say, I don't know the area. The LA wil probably be able to tell you.

I do know the area fairly well and I think what is confusing you is that parents refer to the likely distance from a school you need to live in order to get a space as a 'catchment' area, when in fact it isn't! So Busbridge infants this year had 60 spaces and the last space offered was 2.247 km away from the school. So you needed to live this close or closer to have been allocated a space. There is not an automatic entry to Busbridge Junior School from Busbridge infants school. The latest distance admitted was 2.006km this year. So in reality, almost all children from Busbridge infants will get in, but you could get in if you hadn't gone to the infant school as long as you lived close enough/ met the church criteria. Some pupils will also go private for year 3. I don't know the town schools as well but the latest distance admitted to godalming junior school this year was 0.892km so you need to live pretty close by. The Chandler is another junior school children go to put it isn't in central godalming. They were under subscribed this year. Hope that helps.

Most Surrey schools do not have fixed catchments but allocate on distance after those meeting priority admissions criteria (Looked After children, SEN, possibly faith and siblings etc). You can see which schools were oversubscribed and the last distance offered at Reception here : https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/521398/FINAL-Waverley-Primary-allocation-figures-September-2026-V1.pdf and for junior school transfers https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/521388/FINAL-Junior-allocation-figures-September-2026-V1.pdf