Buying - how to know what streets are in the catchment area?

[bobbyjones]

Trying to buy in london and it's a nightmare and the websites don't tell you much...

How do you figure out which properties are in the school catchment areas? help! :)

you don't.
there is no 'catchment' as such as places are allocated by the lea.
if you are lucky the school nearest to you is a good school and can take your dc at the time of admission. but you could be unlucky and many many children live even closer at this particular time and take up all the places.

As 'catchment areas' can vary year by year nowhere can guarantee your in the right place (except possibly living in the school itself but I bet these days that doesn't either )
Anything telling you it's in the 'catchment area' for a particular school should be taken with a huge pitch of salt.

You may need to look at the schools your interested in, find out what they have used as intake distances for the past few years and then take a punt from there.

Cachement areas only apply when you are moving with a three/four year old ie intend to go into the standard reception application with everyone else once you have moved in.
We spent ages being aware of cachements before we moved, and then realised our moving month would make our DDs "in-year admissions".... So we ended up being offered a place in the third nearest primary school from oir house and a second place three miles away....
Happy ending because DD2 loved her new school and now DD1 is there as well, but the cachement area was totally useless.... Also, if the school is good there may literally be dozens of kids already on the waiting list. There's an "outstanding" primary further across town, we looled a a few houses in its cachement but realised that buying within the cachement wouldn't give a hope of a place there unless we were literally on its doorstep because of the large existing waitlist and we didn't want to unsettle the DDs with multi

Ple school moves....

So it depends on the ages of your DC and how many other people want to go to those schools, not just where the house is.

Some of the London boroughs say the distance that the last offer was given in their brochure for reception or secondary or you can ring admissions and ask them, mind you you need to know where the distance is taken from in the school you are looking at, then get your ruler out!

They often show the last 3 years so you can see if a catchment is growing or shrinking.

Which borough are you trying to buy in?

Some bits of London (or rather some schools) have priority admissions areas (ie formal catchments) (and this may be a growing trend, in order to prioritise nearby children over siblings of those who have moved away).

But living within a priority admissions area does not guaranteed you a place at the school - you still have to be in the top 30 (60/90 or other PAN) of all applicants.

In my borough (wandsworth) the council website has a publication which tells you how far away the furthest non sibling who was offered a place last year lives. that is the furthest extent of the "catchment area" for that year.

However as everyone else says, it is not really a "catchment area" as there is no set area which guarantees you a place. it's done on siblings first then closest address. so the furthest address given a place will change year by year as it depends how many siblings there are (who get priority regardless of distance) and how many 3/4 year olds applying who live closer.

Also the rules may change - for example my local school has just changed from "closest walking distance" to "closest as the crow flies"

For my local primary you'd basically have to be able to throw your child through the school gate from your front door to be sure of getting a place.

it's a complete minefield.

if you're in an area like mine, where schools admit based on closest distance, and there is huge over subscription, I would suggest you rent very very close to the school and then buy somewhere further away once your first DC has got their place.

When we looked at our daughters school, we were shown a large map of the area showing catchment area 1 (where all local children come from and are likely to get in on appeal even if they don't get a space initially) and second catchment area where children are likely to use local transport to travel to - obviously it would depend how many had applied in the first catchment area, as to who would get spaces in this area - half of my daughter's tutor group come from the second catchment area. So for us, the school had a good idea which children were 100% likely to get in, and which ones had a 50/50% chance, so it's worth phoning and speaking to any school you are really interested in.

You also need to check the small print wrt renting - in my area they state that tiy had to be renting x years/months before you apply and continue to be x/y months after unless you buy in the catchment - so a good suggestion but be careful. House prices (and rents) go up nearer to the school - and if you are in London this can be significant -- there must be a tipping point when the house is so much more expensive than the equivalent out of catchment that private education would be an option?

This house for example...www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43939112.html

which the thread suggests is because of catchment:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43939112.html

Walthamstow is the area we are looking, i'm going to call each school and figure out what they have done in the last few years and the waiting lists.

Sounds like a compete roll of the dice, i'm surprised schools are this disorganised...

I would have expected simple clear criteria to get into schools, cie la vie.

Thanks everyone :)

Boris Johnson has created a website that does this. Have you not seen it? Google it. Worked for us in Essex. Gives rough idea better than blooming council site did anyway.

There's a tutorial which helps too.