London - can you apply out of your borough and get a place?

[lovelypair]

I read that you can, but does it actually happen?

We are in Hackney but would like to apply for schools in Islington that happen to be closer than our Hackney school of choice?

Is it possible, will I also have to apply for Hackney schools too as a back up when applying for Islington schools?

Thanks!

You can apply for out of Borough schools but I don't think you will be a priority. So it depends on how popular the school is as to whether you would get a place.

Not sure whether you have to fill in the out of borough's form or you put the request on your own borough's application form iyswim.

I would call the other borough or schools you want to apply to ask them what the process is.

I'm in Hackney (by one street) and didn't apply to any of their schools - my girls go to a church school in Islington - but all of the other schools we applied to were in Islington too, which are closer to us.

We used to live in Islington (by one street) and sent the dc to a Hackney primary school.

It's done purely on distance, borough doesn't come into it. The only thing you need to factor in is how over-subscribed the school is -- some of the more popular islington schools have v. small catchment areas.

Check the primary admissions booklet for both boroughs, should give you a rough idea of what the cut-off area for reception entry was for the previous year.

Yes, you can apply to other boroughs but - as has already been said - distance is usually the first criterion for admissions (after looked-after children and siblings). Each borough normally requires you to complete its application form, although the allocation of places is then co-ordinated between boroughs.

It's worth pointing out that for primary (not secondary) the allocation of places isn't co-ordinated between boroughs - you just apply to both, separately. The application processes often happen at different times, so you need to check. We're on the border between two boroughs, applied to both, were offered a place by each, and then had to choose which option to take. Neither side knew nor cared about the other - they just needed to know whether we were going to accept the place they'd offered or not. In other words, you don't have to apply to both, but it increases your options if you do. (Though, as frogs says, watch out for over-subscribedness and therefore small catchment areas.) All the information about the application process should be available online.

There is legal case history on this called, I think, the Greenwich ruling which means that different boroughs cannot give priority to "their" children in school applications. Most schools will award places on distance and siblings, as others have pointed out.