How often do they change catchment areas please?

[whatsthecatch]

I wonder if anyone can tell me how often catchment areas get changed please?

I'm thinking of moving to the catchment area of a good secondary but have no idea if this is a risky/silly thing to do if the areas change regularly?

I know that there are various admission procedures in different parts of the country, but in my area the catchments changed once about 25 years ago and have remained the same since. The house I'm looking at is 5 mins walk from the school.

All the local secondaries (including my favoured school) are about to change to academies so I wonder if the govenors taking over admission criteria will affect catchment areas?

I would be so grateful if anyone who understands these matters could post me an answer as I'm in a real dilemma here. My current catchment secondary has a terrible reputation and I would love to save DCs from attending this school.

Thanks

I thought they changed every year although I readily admit I don't know much about it.

I would imagine that secondary catchments change less than primary ones, as they take in more children. However, I think some schools don't even operate a catchment, they just go on distance from the school.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I've heard of the "lottery" type admissions systems in some areas and the change every year catchment that stops people moving to popular catchment areas! So I know this kind of thing is risky with no guarentees.

I just wondered if anyone has actually experienced a change from one system to another? Or if anyone has been caught out doing what I'm thinking of doing?

Also will academies change catchment areas?

Check the school website to see what the current selection process is. Sometimes a catchment area can be a feeder from particular primary schools or particular parishes rather than just distance.

In the town near to us, there are 2 secondaries and one takes the town children, and the other takes children from the outlying villages, so you can live next door to the second school, but not be in their catchment.

I was caught out by a change in the admission priorities - DD1 got in with no trouble but DD2 didn't, and there's only one academic year between them!

What I would say is that the appeals panel were very sympathetic to the situation and ours was one of 12 (from 40) appeals that were upheld.

Incidentally, this year they were changed back and we'd have had no trouble!

Catchment is no3, below cared for children and siblings. This has been the case for 20/25 years as far as I can make out.

In our area catchments change every year as it is based on distance to the school (after siblings, etc) and so all depends on the number of siblings applying that year and the overall number of applicants.

Big changes in catchment are usually a result of significant change in relative size/organisation of local schools or building of a new housing estate. For either of those you should know in advance that there is likely to be a change.

Decisive factor is usually walking distance from school so if you are very close you will probably be all right whatever happens.

Where we are, the village we live in is in the catchment for a secondary school further away than other secondary schools. Really don't understand how that works (dc in year 2 and reception so a while for this to matter) but feel it might well chnage in the future.

In the county's admissions booklet it lists all the roads and villages in the catchment for different secondary schools - doesn't matter where you went to primary school but just on where you live.

Catchments tend not to change that much, it is the changes in the distance at which the last pupil was admitted that can become crucial.
Academies are their own admission authority so they can change their admission criteria if they wish, though most will always talk about local children attending, whether that is true or not. Any move to change the catchment zone will not be well received locally and could be illegal under the admission code if they were trying to skue the pupils admitted one way.
I suppose that it depends somewhat when your child moves to the secondary school. September 2012 you are probably OK for, given the time delay in getting any admission criteria changed, after that the longer the period the more it becomes a risk, albeit probably only a small risk.

My borough (Wokingham, in case that's where you're moving to!) has just finished consultation on a major change in catchments. One school has recently closed due to falling numbers, another is planned to move from it's current position on a floodplain, but not until the army vacate the nearby barracks so the council can take over the land, but there's no date set for that yet. What they have decided is that the four schools in the middle of town (including the one they want to move) will have a shared catchment area, and two other schools will have a partly shared area. It's complicated by the fact that two of the town centre schools are single-sex, and one of the other two has just become an academy, and can control its own admissions.
Basically it means that if you live in the rural parts of the borough, you're screwed until the floodplain school is relocated.

I am so glad my two are grown up.....

Thanks for the information.

I don't think there are school closures on the horizon as several secondaries in the area have just got the go ahead for building work. It would seem that they were given the go ahead under the last government, Dave said no, and then its all on again due to academy status? So the only local change is the academy situation for my three local secondaries.

Admission would be for after 2012. Yes, I think there are no guarentees as academies will find ways to be more selective? I might be saved by the walking distance criteria but I'm realisitic that nothing is for sure.