Locrating catchment areas

[MamaTess]

Hi everyone,

Looking at local secondaries for my son and been looking at locrating for the catchment areas, our closest and preferred school we are just sitting on the edge of the yellow circle on locrating, where it starts to turn pink. I'm thinking this means we are unlikely to give a place. It is quite a small school in an area with alot of houses, so I get that the catchment would be quite small. I do see kids in the uniform walking down our road, but also kids in other uniforms too, so I think it's quite mixed where they end up. I know that's most likely because it changes year on year, grammars are a big thing here, so that probably also has an impact, as well as private schools

Are there any other guides I can use? Anyone been in a similar position? Im hopeful we might get a place on the waiting list, but don't know if I should be. 😬

I wouldn’t use commercial guides, I’d get the actual historical admissions information from the relevant local authority websites. They usually publish a “how places were allocated” booklet.

Best way is to read the admissions criteria,

Is there actually a catchment at all? If there is, the criteria will read along the lines of "in catchment siblings, other catchment, other siblings, all others" and there should be maps to tell you if you are in catchment.

But of course that might not be enough - if more DC live in catchment than there are places, or if there is no catchment (very common) then it's all by distance.

You need to look at which admissions category your DC would be placed in, then look at the greatest distance offered for that category (may well be online already, if not then should be available from school or LA) ideally over the last few years - because actual admissions footprint (as opposed to catchment) can change a lot.

Also check (likely to be buried in the fine print) if they use as the crow flies or safe walking route to calculate distance (if the latter, things like rivers that can only be crossed at certain points can really matter).

It's never really clear if third party sites are properly allowing for these factors (or indeed allowing for the differences with some faith schools) and I really wouldn't rely on them

Sorry it's not a catchment area as such it is distance from school, but we are likely outside the distance that was allocated last year, which is what I am (probably wrongly) calling a catchment. :-)

I can't find anything on our council site really. It's frustrating. I did speak to admissions at the school during the open day and they said we are in a bit of a grey area, but didn't offer stats or anything. They had a map out with a green circle and a red circle we were between them - so not a definite we won't get in, but we are on dodgy ground basically. 😆

If it is a make or break for you, it may be worth checking the year group size of the local primaries
My son is in a bumper year so the catchment area was much smaller in his year.

@KatyN Where can I find that info? I haven't even been able to find info on allocated places.

My local council publish the stats for each past year... like this n-somerset.gov.uk/my-services/schools-learning/school-admissions/oversubscribed-schools/previous-primary-allocations/primary-allocations-2020-21

That shows you how many children got their place through care provision and then how the catchment changes between years.
As for bumper years, I don't know I'm afraid. I didn't realised until someone told me births in 2011 were really high!!

It sounds very borderline. Depending on admission policies, you might get lucky (smaller year group, not many older siblings) but you might also get unlucky. Around here, a lot of catchments are shrinking as there is a lot of houses being built in some towns. In a grammar area, that will also obviously have a potentially variable impact.

Obviously, your options are to research plan B carefully and try to come up with something you are happy with, or try to move closer to the school so you're sure of getting in?

I don't think there's any way of being 100% sure you would get a place in your scenario?

The green is often 'safe' 1st round offers. The orange/in between bits often represents the areas where people for 2nd round offers or waiting list places which can really vary year on year.

Our council does an interactive admissions map which is great. We're on the border with a neighbouring borough who have less useful info but they're booklet about applying for schools does give a table of the furthest distance offered on 1st round. Just hard to get data on 2nd rounds.

Basically it's dependent on a lot of things: siblings, size of year group and amount of top priority places (SEN, looked after). Therefore you don't know until the offer comes in.

However you can put yourself straight on the waiting list if they don't get a place and eventually they will get in, even if it means starting elsewhere.

However don't waste your first place on a reasonable 2md choice.