London - would you worry about catchment areas?

[lovelybunchofpinecones]

DH and I are looking to buy our first home in London. DD is only 2, but we are looking for somewhere we can stay long term. Is it bonkers to be thinking about secondary school catchment areas now? I don't mind about primaries because they mostly seem to be quite good, but the secondary schools in our area are very variable. Should we look for somewhere near a good secondary, or would you worry about this later (and perhaps have to move again in 8 years time)? How near do you have to be to a school to get in anyway?

As a general rule, London schools don’t use true defined catchment areas. Admissions done on distance vary year to year and could look very different in 8-9 years. I would be mindful of local schools but don’t dismiss an otherwise ideal house for them. Estate agents are absolute sods for using ‘catchment’ incorrectly so don’t believe any EA who assures you that a property is ‘in catchment’.

Also schools change hugely in 5 years, let alone 9. The school everyone is desperate to get into now could be the one they all want to avoid soon. And vice versa.

Within 1km of secondaries seems typical - I'm currently looking at them for application this autumn.

Time flies really fast. We thought our house was a house for 3-5 years then we would have moved out of London for garden / space etc. we have now been in our house 6 years and a move out to the ‘burbs is totally off the table as we love it. So now we MAY have to go private for secondary as although there are 3 outstanding primaries within a mile of our house, secondary is a different matter. However I only say MAY as there is a definite trend for the local secondaries improving as private education is now so much more expensive, people go to the secondaries and the demographic of the pupils changes, along with pushy middle class parents taking over the PTA but also bringing the standards up!

Schools actually don’t change that much. All the secondary schools we wanted to live near when DC1 was 3 are still as great as ever and even harder to get into! DC1 is 17 now.

If a school has a long-standing great reputation, it’s likely to continue to have one in ten years’ time. And ten years flies by. Definitely live in an area where the primaries feed into good secondaries. Find out about feeder schools OP. Good luck!

Not stupid to start considering catchment areas at all. We are fortunate to have a two good states locally and a wealth of privates too. If your looking to stay look at the secondary and also any grammars that you might be close too

Also, a number of schools now allocate places by lottery, so if you meet the admissions criteria, but school is oversubscribed then distance is irrelevant.

My DC attend an oversubscribed Catholic school. DS was in the 3rd cohort, we come in tier below looked after children. DD1 got in due to sibling priority. Child along our road did not get in as our tier was over subscribed.

If I were you I'd look around now. Houses don't come on the market so often close to really good secondaries, people tend to stay & put down roots. & I'd try to find a place well within a km as mentioned upthread. I was one house outside the catchment area & spent a year on the waiting list, after which we were bumped off as it starts afresh each year. I'd aim for no further than 3 streets length away.

I'd definitely consider secondaries. You'll move to an area, make friends etc and you might be reluctant to up sticks + move DD away from friends + fork out for another lot of stamp duty and go through the stress of moving. However, being years away from DD starting secondary school, I'd be looking at the type of families that send their children to the local school (to make sure your daughter doesn't end up in a bit of a ghetto) especially if you're in zones 1-3. Things like progress scores or Ofsted ratings can change very quickly whereas the intake takes a looot longer.

Thank you! This is so helpful! I mentioned it to a mum IRL and she seemed to think I was getting way ahead of myself, so it’s nice to see you don’t think I am being silly! I’m spending a lot of time on the ofsted pages these days...

You can use the proximity to schools feature on this property search website to help you find places that are close to good schools, and it'll show school ratings too. It's not perfect as others mentioned that London schools will vary catchment areas, but it should give you a good way to initially filter out places that won't work school-wise.

London schools don’t have catchment areas.

You can check the admission areas for previous years but they do not confer priority for future years’ admissions, especially nine years down the line.

I would be very mindful of this. We are stuck in a black hole for secondary which means one way or another (either moving house or going private) we are going to be obliged to fork out £££££s in the next year.

Yes, it's furthest distance, not catchment, but you can get a rough idea and park yourself ^well* inside that distance. If the furthest distance this year is 800m, and last year was 700m and the year before 900m, i'd get yourself about 500m from the school.

I would consider secondary schools, yes. You may stay longer than you think. But schools do change and completely new schools are created. We thought we’d move out of London when our children were small but we didn’t, and we stayed all the way through secondary (state) schooling. We like living in London and there’s so much on offer for children and teens.

I'd look into it, but focus more on primary.
I bought a house in London when my eldest was 16 months. She will b going to senior school in Sept.
There are 3 brand new senior schools she is close enough to get into - all opened in last 4 years. At least one that we would have been in catchment before that we are now too far away. One has closed down.
So things do change....