No catchment area?

[lifecouldbeadream]

Anyone any suggestions for what is the best thing to do if you are not in the catchment area for any school for admissions( all are in control of their own boundaries and we aren’t in any). Thanks !

That's awkward, OP.

First of all contact your council's school admissions department.and ask for advice.

They are obliged to give your DC a school place and it has to be within a reasonable travelling time, which I think is 75 minutes for secondary children and less for primary children.

Obviously you could end up with the sink school nobody wants to go to

Many places - for example nearly all of London, has no catchment areas, and it is all down to distance from school.

You might be able to challenge admissions arrangements if it puts nearly all addresses in your town/borough in to catchments, but omits some, as those sorts of arrangements couid well be unfair. I am not sure if there is time to do this before this year's round, and probably needed to have been done as each school consulted about its arrangements

But unless you are in Scotland, having a catchment school is not a guarantee of getting a place, you also need to live closer than all other in-catchment applicants (and hope it's not a bumper year for in-catchment siblings).

You will need to research 'banker' schools carefully, if you are looking for the one you hate least/at least can reach, amongst typically undersubscbed schools.

Also, think about transport - LA only has to pay if it's the nearest school with a place. So if you'll do anything to avoid St Bastard's 4 miles away, so go instead for the 8 mile away Iffy Community High you won't get free transport if St B's had a vacancy at your distance, as you 'chose' a more distant school when t had a place.

Theoretically we’re in a catchment from the LA, but the schools take another view. We’re v. v. rural and transport is a real issue.

The LA weren’t overly helpful- they suggested we apply for the 3 local schools and then appeal if we don’t get one....

Likely ‘allocated’ school would not be accessible by public transport due to times and distance to be walked.... assume that they’d have to them provide transport? Which would travel past multiple nearer schools?

Yes, they'd probably have to provide a (probably shared) taxi in those circumstances.

Some areas do tie-break by 'next alternative school' distance (which I always find terribly confusing!) and which might not make any difference to you anyhow

I hope you do get a suitable school? Which school do other nearby DC attend? Is it OK?

@meditrina even in Scotland you aren't guaranteed a place at your catchment school. If it's full then it's full ....

Out of interest, did you know this would happen when you moved there or have you only just discovered this?

Would you consider moving to be closer to a school?

Do you like living so rurally?

You need to read the admissions criteria for each school. Just because your DC wouldn't get in under "catchment" they could still be allocated on distance. Look at the previous years' allocations. They have to pay for transport if your school is the closest one & more than 3 miles away (or if you applied to a school less than 3 miles away but were allocated one further away).

We won’t get into any of them on criteria (too far) and as not catchment for them, come further down in the list of priorities than we would have had we been in catchment, so therefore won’t get a place though would have if we were in the school defined catchment. Think 3 schools, three points of a triangle, circle around each school, we live in the middle of the triangle and none of the circles over the middle of the triangle.... They have changed the criteria since we bought the house. There isn’t enough data to tell us whether we will/won’t get a place this year as the criteria for this year are different to last, but on the face of it, the LA say unlikely.

Our bus only runs to two of the possible three schools, there is no transport to the third. If we put one of the schools but a place is available at the nearer school they won’t provide transport (even if we pay) it’s not physically possible to get to it by public transport. They can’t forecast whether we would get a place at any of the schools as they are all significantly oversubscribed, and they can’t forecast transport as they don’t know whether a place would have been available at other school.

So think:

School A, nearest (public transport) - we are 1.5 miles outside distance criteria
School B, 1.5 miles further than school A, no transport available, we are 1 mile outside distance criteria.
School C, furthest distance. Has public transport to the door, we are 4 miles outside distance criteria, but this would be our theoretical catchment school. (If they still used the LA catchment).

We live here for a specific reason, and moving closer to town isn’t an option at the moment. We are rural and over 3 miles from any secondary school, the lack of public transport is an issue as is the predictability. I’m not actually that fussy about schools as they are all fairly good where we live, but there is no way for me to know where we will get a place or if we get a place whether they will provide transport. (Mostly an issue for school B) I’d seen advice on AIBU about schools about the order to put them in, and so was hoping for advice here about that, but it seems you all agree with what I have previously deduced..... I was hoping for a MN gem of knowledge I’d not spotted.....

The LA acknowledge that it is an issue but there is nothing they can do.

I do intend to write to the governors of the schools involved as anyone who lives here will be affected unless they can afford to privately educate, their change of policy has directly impacted (probably a max of 2/3 children per year- if that....)

When you say the schools are not using the LA catchment, do you mean they are academies and they have changed their catchment areas since conversion (in which case the old LA catchments are irrelevant), or are you referring to the fact that they don't necessarily admit all the children living within catchment (which is perfectly normal and doesn't mean the school is using a different catchment to that set by the LA)?

If you're more than 3 miles away the LEA has a statutory responsibility to pay for transport. If no public transport exists then they have to provide some, or agree to reimburse petrol costs.

@prh47bridge they are academies and no longer use the LA catchment, so the LA would still say that we are in catchment for school C.

@titchy. They say they only provide transport to nearest school as that is the only govt. requirement, I think most LA’s are like this now?

Local to us specific primary school pupils are given priority for places at a specific secondary over others on distance to overcome the void.

Transport is to the nearest school which could have offered you a place. So if you apply to your nearest but don't get a place, instead are offered another place, they have to provide transport.

Similarly if you don't apply to the undersubscribed school over the road, but are offered a place 4 miles away, they don't have to offer free transport as you would have qualified for your nearest.

@titchy. What if we choose the second and get it- if the first couldn’t offer a place, would that mean we get transport? There are many schools geographically nearer than school C, but we couldn’t get to them via public transport in time due to walking distance from bus stop, if we choose school b, there is no way we could get DC there unless LA provides transport, but does that apply if it s a choice, or only if it’s an allocation by the LA? Though I don’t think LA could allocate as they are an academy?

We are semi rural and had problems last year. The one thing to remember is that allocations are completely separate to transport. Which makes everything really difficult.
I Can’t get my head round your situation with the catchment areas but We found our council really unhelpful regards transport. They’ve ended up paying our petrol.

It is my understanding that you should choose them in order of distance, so the closest to the furthest. This way they will have to provide transport to whichever school you are allocated.
However all LA are different so would be worth running it past them again.

so the LA would still say that we are in catchment for school C

I sincerely hope they wouldn't. If the school is an academy the catchments it sets are final. The LA cannot sensibly regard you as in catchment if you are outside that school's current catchment, even if you would have been in catchment on the LA's previous catchment areas.

What if we choose the second and get it- if the first couldn’t offer a place, would that mean we get transport

You would get transport in that situation. The LA has been unable to offer you a place at a nearer school so you are entitled to free transport.

Though I don’t think LA could allocate as they are an academy

Yes they can. Academies are required to participate in the LA's co-ordinated admissions scheme. If the LA has people who need places and the academy has places available the LA can allocate them to the academy. The academy has no choice in the matter.

What @titchy says is right, I think. Here is the government statutory guidance in transport to school.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance

My council lied to me about this and told me that assistance with travel was only for special needs kids or those that lived more than 3 miles from their nearest school. Not true!

Anyway, as for getting a school place...... in academies, it is the head and governing body that decide on the admission criteria. They will be on the point of having their first governor meeting of the year, so consider writing to the head of your chosen school(S) today asking them to adjust their admission criteria so your child would have a chance. It probably won't work but it's worth a shot. You will find each school's admission criteria is their website.

Other than that, you just have to apply and prepare yourself for an appeal. The attached image is from the government document linked above and is the page that talks about journey times and complexity.

Thank you all, and thank you @avocadochocolate , I will have a look at that.

That is incredibly helpful @avocadochocolate.

To all of you who have commented and offered advice, thank you- it means a great deal that you took time out of your day to help someone you don’t know. I will investigate all the points you have made.

I was worried that by writing to Governors I might affect our chances of acceptance, but perhaps I might affect them positively. Thank you all.

Pleasure OP. Governors would be happy to receive your email or letter. Get writing ASAP. Good luck!

I was worried that by writing to Governors I might affect our chances of acceptance

They can't make subjective judgements about who they do or don't want. Even in the unlikely event you thoroughly upset them it wouldn't make any difference.

Thank you avocado and prh, I’ll give it a go!

As the deadline for admissions applications for secondary is next month, and many applications could already be in, I think it is highly unlikely that any change can be effected for this round. Because parents need to be able to rely on the published information when applications open.

It would still be a good thing to do for the benefit of future years

Sorry, I hadn't spotted the suggestion that the OP ask for the admission criteria be changed. It is indeed too late for that. They must now use the published criteria. They can change them for 2021 admissions but not for 2020.