Alexandra Park School-No Catchment for Admissions?

[Wander39]

So as I thought I would have enough time and opportunity to re consider Secondary Schools and take my time listing them for DD-deadline 31st October..
I had an interest in the School and thought it would be good to call APS in regards to find out what their Catchment was until I found out they didn't have one?! As for last year catchment was 0.4miles and I was told they accepted a few students from out of Borough like Barnet and Enfield!
Don't know what the chances would be if we had APS as first choice and not been accepted.
Would appreciate if anybody has an interest in the School itself and about the Admissions?

Like most schools in north London boroughs it doesn’t have a defined catchment - but it is very popular and you should expect it to be significantly oversubscribed.

Oversubscription criteria are published on the website:

www.alexandrapark.school/about/other-information/admissions

Without knowing more about your child’s circumstances nobody on here will be able to assess the prospects of a place, but I would say that if categories 1-4 are not applicable and you are down to distance (category 5) you need to live very close indeed.

If, as you say, the last child offered last year lived 0.4 miles away, then that gives you an idea of the proximity required to qualify under category 5. A child I know living at about that distance from the school didn’t get a place last year. He must have just missed out. Obviously the distance can vary from year to year depending on birthrates, the availability of places in other schools, the numbers qualifying in higher categories etc.

No school in Haringey has a catchment. There is an admissions criteria that the LEA go through when allocating spaces and spaces go down the criteria. Distance is the last criteria so whatever is left over goes to children that are applying under distance.
There are a lot of different reasons why a child from out of borough would get a space.

Here's the secondary school admission booklet for Haringey. That has information about how places are allocated.

Distance criteria use 'as the crow flies' measurements, not borough boundaries. Lots of children go to school in a different borough to that which they live in.

www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/secondary_admissions_booklet.pdf

Sorry - forgot the link!

I don't know the geography of Muswell Hill very well as I'm on the other side of the borough, but the area borders with Barnet (to the west) and Enfield (to the north) and it may be that some families are very close while being in a neighbouring borough.

We don't have catchments where I live. If there are enough places for everyone who applies, everyone gets in. If the school is oversubscribed then it goes off the listed criteria of categories. For most with no siblings it goes off closest school and after that the everyone else.

If you put your first choice as APS and don't get in, it just looks at your second choice school and again the admissions criteria is applied for that school. It has no impact putting your nearest school second. You list the schools in the order you want them and it is advised to put the one closest to you on the list to make sure you get into that if you don't get into the others otherwise you could be allocated a school some distance from where you are.

I believe that for secondary school they consider 75 minutes an acceptable commute so list your closest on your list. Siblings can skew data, for us we moved when Ds1 was in the primary but just before Ds2 got in. There were no siblings in catchment as there are no catchments so for a school with a usual 1 mile intake boundary we are over 3 mile away so there is a weird point on the map!

What time of year do they let you know the results of your application? Anyone know if it’s going to be delayed this year thanks to COVID?

Sorry.. found it in the booklet:
1 March 2021- Offer day/online outcome
Online applicants will receive notification of their offer in an email.Paper applicants will be sent an offer letter
15 March 2021-Acceptance deadline - online applicants should accept their offer online
2 April 2021 - Appeal deadline

Does not mention any change due to COVID

National offer day for secondary is 1st March or nearest working day.

No reason why that would be different in 2021 to be honest.

Some LAs have put the application deadline back until January 2020. Whether that’s for parents benefit or to allow the LA themselves more breathing space, presumably resource related due to COVID.

Don't know what the chances would be if we had APS as first choice and not been accepted

Not getting accepted from your first choice has no impact on your chances of any other school offering you a place. The schools offer places strictly in order of how applicants meet the admissions criteria, whether the school was first or last on the applicant’s list.

Also which borough you live in makes no difference. Only the distance or whatever the admissions criteria says.

So list the schools in the exact order that you prefer them, but make sure you include one school that you are certain will be able to offer you a place.

While some people do travel a lnog way to school in London, eg for private or selective schools in other areas, I don't think that any school in Haringey is more than an hour's journey from Muswell Hill - for that matter nor are most Camden or Islington secondary schools or most in Barnet or Enfield! So being offered one 75 minutes commute from home isn't a problem you have to worry about.

Have you looked at other schools close to you and particularly ones where you're likely to meet distance criteria?