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?

Use of the word 'borough' suggests the OP is in London. 5 miles in London can be near or far, depending on the public transport situation.

In London, people move house into desirable catchment areas much more than in other parts of the country because there is a large transient population of relatively well-off ex-pats. In my area, the most popular schools are oversubscribed by hundreds, not 10.

I’m in a grammar county and people move here too. The more money you have, the better area you can afford. Money always buys something better.

Yes. I agree academies have screwed things. We have new school though that’s filling up and others opened in the last 19 years. They are academies but they were needed.

We moved
No regrets

Private school for 70k?

£70k / 5 = £14k a year. That's if they leave at GCSE and go to a local college which is unlikely.

Seems cheap for a decent private school. I think 30 years ago my fees were around £10k -/ year.

Anyway derail. Sorry.

More helpfully (maybe), if you don't want to / can't move, then the needs improvement schools by me have been taken over by a MAT and pulled up in standards. MATS have their own issues of course but can't have everything.

Plus because of tiny catchments, more children whose parents care about their education have got in to these schools and they have naturally improved. One in particular was a definite no go school for many parents and has now, a few years later, had a new headteacher and is seen as much more acceptable.

So the dire school may not be the worst thing.

Yes am in London for those wondering. The borough is a large one and we live right on the boundary with another (which has grammar schools and extend the catchment to our postcode by some fluke).

Speaking to the other school parents - most are considering 11+, private or moving. All of which require resources. So much for social mobility hey!

Yes the schools here publish their fees. It’s 25k/year plus extras. 🤯

Many would consider the part of London we live one of the “better” areas (All boroughs have good and less good - why I love London). As people have realised this and moved here, catchments decreased and house prices have gone up. The cost to move as I mentioned up thread to an equivalent house is an extra 350k, minimum and more likely 4-500k (on top of current mortgage).

We don’t have those resources.

That's what we figured and moved to a better school district.

We are in NE England so yes prices lower than London/South and only planning on staying until Yr 11.

@Jazzybeat Witb respect, you don’t like the less good aspects of London. You don’t like the less good school 5 miles away. You want stay in your good bubble. I don’t blame you for that but most people don’t embrace the “less good” when it applies to them.

You would find it cheaper to buy a house in Bucks! Working might need travel but I’d do that sum too.

@Jazzybeat if you say which borough you're in, you might get some more tailored advice.

Maybe move boroughs so it isn’t the £350k uplift to move?

But if you buy a new house within catchment area, with the increased value + stamp duty+ solicitors/surveyor and any other fees, the largest part of the "cost" will be the house value which will retain hopefully or even increase over years. It's more like an investment in my eyes.

If you pay private education, the £25k/year + vat (if any) including all the other expenses for a private school, those will be money gone and not retained.

You would find it cheaper to buy a house in Bucks! Working might need travel but I’d do that sum too.

A child in my DC's class (we are in London) moved to Bucks the summer before Y6, just in time for school application.

Why not?!! Good decision and often cheaper than London! Just don’t leave it too late.

This is too late. Deadline is 1st April in Year 5 for some grammars.

In London, I believe it's the last day of October at Y6 for all.

Is it so early in Buck - April at Y5?

Yes it is different for Bucks Grammars. 1st April in year 5 for some of the South Bucks ones. I haven't checked them all but I believe some of the others are even earlier.

It might be worth looking at the data on what happened with your child's year groups admissions into YR and Y3, compared with the couple of years preceding them. It might give you a sense of the relative sizes of the year groups. Our school dropped suddenly from being wildly oversubscribed, and not even accepting everyone in catchment, to having spaces in one year. There have been spaces every year since.