Is it still possible to get into Westgate school in Winchester from out of catchment?

[SirBobblysock]

Hi. We live in a rural area north of Winchester, and our secondary school catchment is Henry Beaufort. It used to be however that kids from our school could normally get into Westgate and Kings if they preferred. For various reasons I think DD1 would be much better suited to Westgate, but have heard through the grapevine that the competition for places is much fiercer and we'd be unlikely to get in. No one from our small village school has tried in the last few years (although pretty much anyone who wants Kings seems to get a place). Does anyone have recent experience of apply to Westgate from out of catchment?

DO NOT trust the Winchester school grapevines : phone the school on Monday - they will know what their intake is looking like, and what is happening at the others

Thanks - will they give that sort of info over the phone? It's not for this September.

OP - the school should be able to tell you the stats for the 2015 admissions,
ie number admitted out of catchment without siblings, distance of last place offered.
They may also be able to tell you regarding 2014 admissions the same stats but also distance of last placed offered from waiting list by 1st Sept 2014.
If you then check this Sept you can get similar info for the 2015 intake.

fwiw I know people with kids at all 3 Winchester schools and they all seem happy, though I accept they have different ethoses (is that a word?).

About 60 'out of catchment with no siblings' got in last year and for the previous 3 years before that. Last year the final distance awarded was 7.8 miles. The data is all on the hantsweb website (look under 'education - apply for a school place - information and guidance'). However, that distance has shrunk over the last couple of years, so there's no telling what will happen this year or next year.

Many thanks for your help - I'll ring them about this years stats. I'm about 7.8 miles away (although about the same distance to HB ) so very aware that shrinking distances could affect us.

SirBobbly
My cynicism about the gossip is that there is an uber competitive attitude about some of the state schools round here to imply they are harder to get into than they are
and its bilge
I see the buses for each of of them dropping off in manky parts of Southampton that the orchestra / choir parents would rather did not exist

I live in one of the armpit areas and all the kids round here who have wanted to have got places in the decent schools / colleges in a ten mile radius : comps are an utter joy compared with selective schools IMHO

That's interesting talkin - and quite reassuring. I want the DDs to go to a well rounded school and one of my concerns was it was getting too up itself - glad it's still drawing from a wider catchment. I'm certainly not choosing westgate for reasons of snobbery over Henry B.

I live in Eastleigh and despite being told it was likely, I was unable to secure a place for DS1 at either Kings or Westgate. We remained on waiting lists for months and his position just got worse. This was to start in Sept last year. He was born in 2002, supposedly a low birth year. Don't assume.

Thanks Kenton, thats interesting to know. You'd probably be around the same distance as us as the crow flies.

Thanks Kenton. Sorry to hear you weren't successful. I certainly won't assume anything.

We got in last September from out of catchment and I do know of children who have places for Sept 2015 that live about 7.5/8 miles out. I have also heard of children who live further out and missed out for last September being contacted by the school in case they want late entry.

Do bear in mind though that the intake can change from year to year and what happened last year and this may not necessarily repeat itself next.

What is your Plan B? Have you considered Testbourne or Test Valley?

Hi Meery
Thanks very much for this. I agree it you can't plan on the basis of what's happened in the past. We don't have a plan B yet - we're visiting the schools this coming Autumn. I quite like the look of Test Valley but it's a long way for us in the wrong direction and would produce logistic difficulties. Plan B will probably be HB (which we haven't completely written off) or Perins.

Kenton, would you not be closer to Thornden then? Though that is notoriously hard to get into. Did you get into Toynbee? Eastleigh has decent comps too, doesn't it?

OP, I know people from all the way down in Upham and Bishops' Waltham that got into Westgate last year.

It is always worth a try, call school admissions and ask.

I have heard good things about Perins too, it is supposed to be a nice school as well.

if you didn't get in don't worry as i was extremely bullied at this school and the school didn't do anything about it. i didnt turn up for weeks at a time and they didnt note my absenses because they didnt want to get a bad record. when my mum went to complain they said they wouldn't do anything about me getting bullied. however the only teacher i liked is now the head so i dont want to say too much because of her but i got kick me signs written on my back, chewing gum put in my hair and people mucking up my presentations. i walked out of class and the teachers never told any of the kids off and never came to get me. i hate schools that have a good record because they hide problems under the carpet. i still have depression and anxiety as a result of what i went through and am trying to get through the hard times i had