Silly question re: Nearest school

[MrsWhirling]

Apologies if this seems obvious, my brain is a bit fried with all this. So, saw a house we would like to buy today. It is 1.0miles from a school we would like our children to go to. 1.0mile is also the max proximity distance this school has reached. There is another school closer to the house. One we do not want. If we don't get the school we want, do they automatically give you the next closest with availability?

You name 3 or whatever schools in order of preference.
One should be one that you will pretty definitely get into even if you don't much like it.

1. Lovely school far away
2. Good school borderline chance
3. Closest school, bit rubbish

If instead you said

1. lovely school far away
2. Good school borderline chance
3. Nice school borderline chance

Then you run the risk that your catchment school 'Closest school, bit rubbish' will actually already be full by people who named it, and instead you end up with 'Far away school, bit rubbish' instead.

We have a long waiting list full of people doing ridiculous school runs because they did what Teen describes. You do need to name one school you can get into which will be acceptable

A couple of things to check: does the school measure the distance by straight line, or shortest safe walking route , for example, and are you using the same measurement ?
Is this distance the one at National Offer Day or start of term? In some areas (e.g London) it expands once the waiting lists move. But obviously this would be a risk .

Tween explains it well. Each school on your list of preferences tells the LA whether, based in their criteria and list of all applicants, they would be able to offer you a place. The LA then offers you the offer that is highest up your list. If no school on your list is able to offer you a place they find you a space 'somewhere' from the schools that are under-subscribed.

TeenandTween is describing the form I submitted for both my two
always put your catchment school on, no matter how dire it is in my case, bottom 50 in the UK for 18 years

I put the one I wanted first, my backup second and my catchment third
I was lucky
If I'd got my catchment I'd have HE'd while I went through appeals

Thank you all! I knew I 'didn't get it' !!! X

Also is the entry criteria just based on distance? Not religion or catchments or feeder schools or...

No other entry Crimea for both schools other than proximity. So both consider children in care, siblings and then distance from home to school, as the crow flies. Both schools 0.7miles from the house we like. But as said, the one we would like is an outstanding school with great success stories for pupils and the other a new academy with a bigger proximity and its of rough looking kids!

.3 of a mile seems a reasonable contingency , depending on when you apply: catchments tend to shrink year on year especially if there is a lot of house building going on in your area.

Is it an area where lots of people switch to private at secondary ? Or try for super-selectives? These are all factors that can create places that spread the distance after March 1st.

Sorry if this is obvious but you should also check the admissions rules for the schools really careful..... We're at a church school about a mile away from the church, but the catchment is measured from the church, not the school.

There are some schools in London which measure catchment as safest walking route distance..

So basically don't assume catchment is measured as the crow flies from the school

MrsWhirling,

You mention 1.0 miles in your OP, now 0.7 miles. Which is it?

1.0 - equal to the furthest admitted child (under which criterion? It might e.g. be that siblings went out to 1.0 miles, but 'other children in order of proximity' only got to 0.2) is high risk, as catchments do shrink year on year.

Also check the general trend on furthest distance, and anything that might affect any major variations.

So for our local school, furthest admitted distance, non-sibling, started off as very large [relatively unpopular], then shrank year on year down to about 0.3 miles. Next year was 0.7 [but what you don't know is that that was a bulge class year, as otherwise the catchment would have been down to less than 200 metres for non siblings], next year to around 0.3 again, the year after that (the year most bulge class children had siblings) almost zero.

What you might want to do, to avoid the closer school being the one you have to as default, s check whether there is another 'virtually guaranteed' school, which could be MUCH further away but which you might prefer.

The house were interested in is 0.7miles from both both the 'good' school and the 'not so good school'. I recently asked under the freedom of information act for the last five years of final proxy distance 'good' school and the lowest it went to as 1.0. I maxe the assumption this for those that didn't fall into the category of children in care or siblings. It's an area where there are many wealthy family's so a fair few I image go to private schools. It's a massive step for us financially, we are otherwise happy in our current home but there are no good secondary schools.

I think the assumption that it didn't include children in care is reasonable, but you might want to check that it didn't include siblings.

Asking for last distance admitted under 'Oversubscription Criterion x: Other children in order of distance' [quote exactly from the admissions policy] should help to clarify it.

Any changes in admissions criteria during the years you researched? How far in the future is this for? If it s for next year, that's easier - if it is a secondary school for a child not yet in Reception, a HUGE amount can change in that time ... our house, for example, over the 7 years we have lived in it has been out, in, out, in and out again of last admitted distances, purely because of tinkering, and in 1 case total rewriting, of oversubscription criteria, as well as genera changes in birth rate and admission of bulge classes.

that's good advice teacherwith2kids, thank you. Daughter currently in yr3 so we wanted to get the ball rolling, plus we're in London and house prices are rocketing all the time. I also have a son, but he's only 3!

Distances are relative

I live .6 miles from my half empty catchment school
.65 miles from the catchment boundary of my choice school
4 miles from the choice school
but its catchment is 11 miles across

the 6th form college catchment is 50 miles across

the number of houses in between is what matters

Ok, in London, Yr 3 you need to be closer ! Unless you are moving to E Dulwich, where the new Charter school will presumably ease up catchment areas.

But infill, conversions and new homes are developing very fast in London, and I think there has been a population boom (but not sure) so pressure could be rising.

On th

On the other hand, plenty of time for the new Academy to become the school de jour!

It's a bloody minefield!! It would be lovely if the academy did improve!

Sorry Blu, do you mean I need to be closer to the school than .7?

I think what Blu means is that as you still have 3 years to go before applying itis quite possible that London catchments will shrink to even less than 0.7miles due to population increase in that time. It is a long way ahead and there are no certainties.

Yes, yes, agreed. Thanks, most helpful x