In a school catchment blind spot

[Jazzybeat]

We moved to our home whilst it was within the distance criteria for the nearby secondary (0.7 miles away). Over the years though the distance criteria has shortened and in the last 2-3 years we would not have got in. Last year the max distance was 0.5 miles.

I’m now getting quite worried as we need to apply for Secondary next year and there are no other schools nearby that we’d get in on distance. They are all over subscribed with tiny distance criteria last year. None more than a mile. We are on average 1.5 miles from any of them.

The only possibility is an undersubscribed needs improvement school 5 miles away on the other side of the borough! And it is very bad.

Aside from moving, what can I do? What do other parents do when there are literally no good schools that will admit you on distance nearby?

11+ is an option as there is a grammar in the next borough we just make the distance cut in. But that’s going to be very difficult.

Private is very expensive and not realistic.

Any other ideas?

I think people move realistically. You could hope for a low birth year, but its risky.

These blind spots seem to popping up with all the house building etc.

I think I'd move rather then bus my child off to a sink school.

Read the admissions policies for 25/26 - any changes from 24/25? Look at the allocations for September 2024. If you are prepared to travel, look wider and over the county border, schools will not always highlight when they are struggling to recruit through demographic changes in case parents worry the educational offer has declined when it hasn’t. Check Ofsted reports, previously struggling schools may have been taken over by a trust and improved. Think outside the box, if you are in a two tier area, you may find vacancies in Yr. 7 in good / outstanding middle schools nearby, e.g. children may leave early for grammar schools nearby.

Good news is the currently yr7and 8 were the height of the baby boom. This years admission distance might be more hopeful.

Visit the undersubscribed school during the day if you can and make up your own mind. We’ve had this in our local area and in recent years the less desirable schools have become excellent with more money for facilities, very involved ptas etc. go with an open mind and if you get it you might be very happy with it?

@Jazzybeat if it's a borough beginning with R and the school you want to avoid begins with TS, give it another look. The reality is far better than it's reputation.

Check if that's offer day distance - if it is the reality may be further out due to waiting list places.

I hadn’t realised that was a thing. Would explain why last couple years have shrunk down. That does make me feel a little better.

We have this at the other end of the village. Bus ride past the school the DC don’t make it into to a school 15 miles away. Lots of appeals.

It’s crazy right? There are huge swathes of houses near me out of any catchment. Sadly most of the other parents are talking about moving out of the borough to be nearer schools.

That’s awful. The system doesn’t work sometimes but I don’t know how it can be better.

Its why some areas have fixed priority areas. Ours goes out 5 miles in one direction, but less than a mile in another. Without it, the furthest village wouldn't be close enough to any schools, whereas the town children would be able to pick and chose. Theres still grumbling from those just outside the catchment, but its fairer.

The Local Authority has, I think, a duty to review this. One school seems to need more space and revised catchment to go with it. When housing is large estates, they should plan for new schools. Now schools are academies, it’s more complex though.

Our option were either to move (approx 150K) or go private (approx 70K). We chose private.

This is a good way to look at it. Moving would cost us (for a house the same size) about 350k.

private is 25k per child per year. We have 2. So 250k-ish.

either is outrageous cost.

hummmmmmmm

Yes and then you get penalised for trying to do the best for your child by being potentially hit with VAT on school fees 🙄.

Just a tiny thought.
IIRC the 'distance of last child' is published twice- once on offers day, and then again later in the year once everyone has worked out where they are going. Have you looked at the offers day stat for Sep 24 to see if it is further distance than the offers day stat for Sep 23? That would tell you if it's generally growing or shrinking (round here in London they are mainly growing due to demographic shifts).

It's not quite as stark as that. With a house move, aside from the moving costs element, you are building capital with a more expensive property. With school fees there is no direct financial return.

The local authority in question clearly has one school that is not fully subscribed so, technically, they don't need to do anything.

If the undersubscribed school gains the confidence of local families, and fills up with children living closer, that will increase the pressure on the council to provide more places.

However, my borough meets the OP's description and, if that's the case, the council is trying to open a new school, but is being blocked by objections from local campaigners. Part of the campaigners' argument is that the places aren't needed.

In our area they have defined catchments, not just distance, to prevent this blackspot issue. Could you contact your LA and ask/lobby for that?

Anyone looking at private schools now needs to factor into their calculations future VAT on fees . It seems pretty certain that is the way things are going.

What happens if there are more children in the defined catchment than there are places at the school? If that's the case, the same situation arises.

In our area, people would simply move into the defined catchment of the most popular schools, and the schools would soon be oversubscribed again.

What happens if there are more children in the defined catchment than there are places at the school?

Then if the lowest criterion ynder which places are going to be allocated is 'living within the defined priority admissions (catchment) area', the applicants within that criterion are further ranked, usually by distance from school (but not always just that). So if that school was, say, first preference for a child not ranking high enough on the sub-ranking, their ranking against the admissions criteria for theirr second preference would be looked, to see whether a place coukd be offered to them there, and so on, as far down their ranked preferences as necessary. Just.like if a school's criteria went 1) LAC/PLAC, 2) Distance, and the school got to PAN before reaching that child's home address, distance-wise.

In my daughters year, there were 10 more children living in catchment than PAN... the school was allowed to take them all. (Or asked to). However it is complicated by the furthest extent of the catchment is the county boundary... and the next nearest school is 6 miles in the other direction.

The official criteria are..

1. ECHP etc
2. Living in catchment
3. Staff children not in catchment
4. Siblings not in catchment
5. Feeder school not on catchment
6. Others not in catchment.

@trikofdalite Yes. That can happen. We have defined catchments here but some overlap. This is so they can juggle if need be. Not ideal but it’s better than pure distance.

The OP said the school likely to be offered is 5 miles away. In a rural area that’s ok, in an urban area that’s a long way and not really reasonable for a school to fill
up with “black spot” DC who have to journey past other schools to get there I assume. It’s not good planning when LA knows new building will produce DC. Where I live, reasonable travel is a consideration for dc.

The difficulty comes when all or most of the schools are academies and set their own criteria. I work in an LA with over 30 secondary schools and every single one is an academy. Most of the non-faith ones have an oversub criteria of
EHCP
LAC/PLAC
Exceptional medical/social need
Children of staff who have worked at the school for more than X years or teach a shortage subject
Siblings of existing pupils who live at the same address
Distance from home to school gate in straight line.

in one particular area there were not enough places in the local schools compared to children needing places, even with bilge classes being created. The problem was made worse at the out of borough schools which used to take some from this area were also now full. the next nearest group of schools in the borough were only admitting up to children living 0.8 to 1.5 miles and were full at initial allocation. The unplaced kids were between 2 and 4 miles away.. Places had to then be offered at the nearest school with places which was about 6 miles away or the second nearest school with places which was 8 miles.

As the LA we had already tried to influence the academies to admit more children and got bulge classes set up but it's madness to have two schools which both have a PAN of 240 and once has 99 pupils and the other has 300. Academisation has really tied the LAs hands on what they can achieve while giving them the responsibility for places