Admissions policies for schools with two entrances?

[yeshappily]

If walking distance is used in the school's admissions policy, but they have two entrances a significant distance apart (e.g. on opposite sides of the school, with a 20 minute walk around a housing estate from one to the other) how do they usually manage it, assuming the kids are allowed to use the nearest? For example, do they measure distance from applicants' homes to both entrances, and use the shortest? Can anyone point me to examples of schools that have this sort of policy?

(This is relevant to a new school proposal in my area. I'm thinking abead and wondering if my kids will be in catchment, and I expect they will be consulting at some point).

The admissions criteria for distance is generally based on your front door to the school entrance door - if there are 2 entrance doors at the school, I believe they use a central point on the school site. It is measured as the crow flies rather than the actual route a student has to take to get there.

No expert, but from what I have seen here it depends very much on how they define things!
Also regardless of what point they measure to, some use safest walking distance and some use 'as crow flies'.

I was looking at a couple of schools yesterday and both measured in a straight line, one from the main gates and the other from the nearest gate. Schools are 2 miles apart

1. Once the above rules have been applied, then any further places will be offered in distance order, using the distance between the family’s normal home address, from their front door, and the school using the straight line distance between the family’s normal home address and the nearest of the school’s three main entrances, using the Local Authority’s measurements.

Or

places will be allocated by reference to the distance between the applicant home address (as defined by this policy) and the middle of the school's main entrance gate on XXX Road in a straight line,

Thanks Freddofan. Useful examples.

I think when reviewing proposed admission requirements you should consider what seems fair and reasonable, and doesn't 'accidentally' disadvantage the kids in the council flats on one side compared with those in the executive housing on the other.

The admission arrangements should be clear as to how distance will be measured. It may be from the address point (which is a point somewhere on the schools land), the centre of the school, the nearest gate or a particular gate. There are no hard and fast rules on this.

Agree totally with PRH, you need to establish exactly what was the criteria used as it can vary a lot from school to school. It will be tucked away somewhere on the admission site of the school or LA.
If you want to send me a PM with the school name and the LA then i can try and find exactly what it does say for the school.

One of our schools has 2 sites and we had to clearly define the point to which the distance was measured. The wording in the policy is:

'Distances are measured from the entrance to the child’s home to the entrance of the school’s principal administrative building on XXXXXXX (address) by XXXXXX's (LA's)computerised measuring software'.

We have previously confirmed in the policy that in the event of oversubscription priority will be given to distance 'as the crow flies'.