being assigned a secondary place in London?

[nickEcave]

My DD is year 3 so we're still a couple of years away from applying, but we are about to move house within London and we have the option of buying in any one of 4 boroughs so I am trying to get my head around what will happen for secondary. Am I right to think that schools don't use the borough you live in as an admissions criteria, so it doesn't matter if you prioritise a close school in a neighbouring borough over a school in your own borough? I am also trying to understand what happens if you do not get a place at any of the 6 schools on your application form. Does the local authority you live in have a legal duty to find you a place and does this have to be within the local authority area or can they place you outside? Is this even a problem? I haven't personally heard of anyone who hasn't been given any of their 6 schools but then I don't know many Year 6 parents. Thanks for your help.

Yes, you are right, you can apply out of borough.

However, it's worth remembering that schools have a range of criteria for admissions, of which distance to the school may come pretty high.

More and more schools are using 'fair banding' however, and this often means that the intake of highest achieving children can go out some distance from the school.

There are a small number of schools who select by lottery.

A good number who select on the basis of church attendance.

And some good comprehensives which can select some of their intake on the basis of academic/musical/sporting/art/languages ability.

Oh, and don't forget the super selective grammars...

Christ, it's a minefield. So glad I'm nearly done with all that (ds1 got his first choice for this September, and ds2 can hopefully get in as a sibling, phew!)

Good luck!

I suppose what I'm trying to find out is whether it makes any difference which borough we buy a house in. We are currently in Wandsworth but right on the border of Lambeth, Croydon and Merton. We can't afford to buy a larger house in Wandsworth or buy in catchment for any outstanding local schools (eg. Graveney or Dunraven) and will not be applying to religious schools. If we don't get into any of our 6 choices of schools does our LA have to find us a place in borough? So for, instance, Merton is quite a small borough with not many secondaries, most of which are good and all would be fairly easy to get to. Croydon is a huge borough and I have heard that it is facing a secondary places crisis over the next few years. However, I really don't know if I am over-thinking this!

Would you get in to a good secondary if you stayed where you are? If so, I'd wait & move after

I'm in Croydon and this year most children in my dc's class got their first choice. Apparently this is because the opening up of several new secondary schools has freed up quite a lot of space.

Croydon's school provision is dominated by the large academy chains - Oasis and Harris. If you don't want either of these then there isn't really much else.

My ds will be going to Kingsdale in Dulwich. They allocate spaces by lottery but they can select a number of students on the basis of ability in art, music or sports. Does your dd do well in any of these areas?

The LA has to find you a place. It does not have to be in borough but it does have to be within a reasonable distance of home. They will not want to send you out of borough unless there is really no alternative.

Since you are planning to move house, you might as well make sure you have what looks like one good sure-fire possibility and move within distance of a school which is currently good or on the up.

What sort of area were you thinking of? Some of the Dunraven catchment is in relatively less-expensive areas of Lambeth, as is some of the area for Elmgreen. (Tulse Hill / W Norwood) In Dunraven Catchment

Norwood School is improving fast, and Norbury Manor Girls would be worth a look. Norbury is much cheaper than Streatham.

You can visit schools Open Days before the year you need to apply, so you could go to the ones this summer.

Look at the schools, study their admissions criteria, and think about the area for all the areas you are interested in / could afford. You don't want to go to all the trouble and expense of moving house to find that you have moved into a schools black hole, (Streatham Vale for example) and are allocated an under-subscribed school a longish distance from where you live.

Your LA does have to find you a place, but the reality is if you are just too far away from a school you really like, you may be allocated a school which has places - i.e is unpopular.

If your current local secondary is good, is the suggestion to stay put until after transfer a possibility? Chestnut Grove on the Lambeth / Wandsworth border has a great reputation and is 'Outstanding'.

S London schools where you can get all or some places not dependent on distance include Kingsdale (lottery and scholarships in music and sport) Norwood (music), Harris Crystal Palace (not sure of the specialist places, complicated, some lottery places).

Thanks for the responses, they're really helpful. Where we are now on the edge of Wandsworth is not great for schools. Graveney is pretty close but we're definitely out of catchment. Children who don't manage to get Graveney or Chestnut Grove tend to get placed at Southfields College which is an hour away on 2 buses so our current location in Wandsworth doesn't help us much! The house is very small and we've extended as far as we can so really don't want to stay put any longer, especially as there is no guarantee of a good school from where we are now. My daughter likes art so we'd probably try and go for one of the art scholarship places at Chestnut Grove and a lottery place at Kingsdale as 2nd option.

Norbury is definitely a possibility but not very keen on single sex and Norbury Manor is probably the only Norbury school we could move into catchment for. Harris Academy Merton up near Pollards Hill is a possibility, but I don't want to move DC out of current primary and it would be difficult to get them there from the Thornton Heath end of Norbury as I don't drive. North Mitcham is the other area we're looking at as we can afford a bigger house and keep the kids at current primary but we wouldn't be in catchment for anything there. It seems to be the case that with the bandings the Academies use it is almost impossible to tell if you'll get a place in any given year unless you're literally on the doorstep.

God it's such a nightmare. I know quite a few people who have moved out of London altogether to get some certainty on secondaries. We don't want to do that (family are local and DH wants to continue cycling to work in central London). I think I need to just accept that it's a bit of a lottery but none of the schools are terrible and if the worst comes to the worst, DD will just have to get used to using public transport!