Catchment area!

[LisaLouise73]

I would like my daughter to go to a certain school which I think is slightly out of a catchment area from where we live.

The school would be beneficial for my daughter as it is a specialist technology school which she is interested in and is good at. There is a school nearer but she doesn't want to go there and I don't particularly want her to go there either, plus it's a specialist sports school which she is not interested in.

How do I get her into the school that would be most beneficial for her?!!

It wouldn't be easy to just up and move or is that the only option?

How strict are the catchments? Around here (rural Norfolk) you take what you get when you first apply, but they you can just keep asking thru the school year and you might get lucky and get in where you want on an unexpected vacancy.

Hi Ragged, thanks for replying :)

I'm not 100% sure how strict the catchement area is but when I joined 'The Good Schools Guide' it stated that 1 child was accepted from the road we live in but is that accurate? it doesn't seem very likely that she will get in if it's down to catchment.

I don't understand how a vacancy can come up when the school is already full... why would a vacancy come up? :)
x

Hi,

First you need to read and understand the admissions criteria for the school in question (look on school and local authority websites). Then work out which criteria you could apply under, it may only be distance.

Then ring your local authority to find out what your official distance from the school is, and also what the furthest distance from the school they were a ble to offer a place to both on Allocation Day in March and by the start of the academic year in September.

If you can apply under other criteria, eg aptitude for technology (test) or religion then do your homework and find out what you need to do (ask on here if necesssary!).

Ignore the Good Schools Guide map, could be SEN, sibling etc.

Good Luck

Vacancies can come up during the year because people move to other areas. I also wouldn't get too hung up on the fact that your closest school is a specialist sports college rather than technology. DS1's school is specialist maths and languages and it certainly hasn't precluded him from doing a whole range of other subjects, taking part in rugby, athletics etc.

Thank you Gypsy and Ann :) x

Lisa, I don't know which road you live in, but I do now the general area based upon your other threads. Have you been to the open days at the schools in question? have you spoken to the staff and pupils rather than reading the web site? You can get a very different view of a school when you actually visit it!

IME, locally, specialist status doesn't make a great deal of difference as most subjects are still on offer. it tends to just mean that the school will insist that the 'specialism' is taken as a GCSE subject.

It might also be worth finding out whether any of DDs friends have siblings at the schools and talking to their parents.

Hiya!

I'm probably being too efficient but my daughter is still in year 4 but I like to be organised and know what I am about to face! So no I haven't been to any open days with the schools

I've tried to get in touch with people that I know of, that go to the school (not many). Short of being a stalker by actually going to the school and randomly picking pupils out and asking them what they think of the school, I don't know how else to go about it !! :o

agree with others that specialist status is not the only way of getting good teaching in an area

dd's school is a specialist business and technology college: all it means is that they have to do one tech subject (out of a wide range) for their GCSEs;

but tech subjects include cookery, resistant materials, graphics, textiles- all of those are also on offer at other colleges with different specialisms

what it does not mean is that they do not also offer excellent teaching in maths, the humanities, drama etc

Phone the schools and see if they will give you a tour. Try to look on a normal day not just open day.

My son goes to a specialist Arts school which is just as good at Science as local specialist Science schools (it just has to offer community activities based on Art).

Lisa, two of the schools you mentioned are currently inviting parents of prospective pupils to pay them a visit during the day to see the school in action. I would contact them and see if you can tag along on one of the group tours they offer. When my children were in year 5 we did this and the schools we looked at were very happy to accommodate us on these tours. although I did not visit either of the schools you mention, as we are in a slightly different part of the borough, I do know that both EP and HM are very keen for people to visit and see them at work.

Can't answer for the other one you mentioned as things have changed there over the past few years but when we were looking for our children, they did not encourage parents to look around the school and in fact did not even have an open evening! but, as I say, with changes at the top, things may have changed.

Thanks for your help everyone :)

I guess there is no real way of knowing if she will get into the one she really wants.. we shall see, time will tell!! :)