What's the best way to check distance to secondary schools?

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What is the most accurate way to check your distant to schools you are considering? I'm literally using google maps to check distance in miles but I'm wondering if there is a better way!

Thanks!

You have to look up in the admissions policy how they measure, is it straight line distance or shortest walking distance.

Find a house in Rightmove and look at the nearest schools option. It has the distance for each

Ooh I didn't think of this, thanks!

Google maps has a measuring tool where you can drop pins & measure the distance (if it's straight line distance). You need to know where it is measured from (main gate etc,). It won't be exactly what the schools use but it should give you a pretty good idea.

I wondered this too. Our council uses "shortest walking distance", there is a glitch in Google Maps whereby it insists going via the river (unlit . . .) and going in by the back entrance to our development is the only feasible walking option. This adds 2 miles to the route!

Many of them said they used a computerized system which I assume is internal to them? I wasn't sure what tool I could use to get some degree of accuracy to the distance they would put us at

Plot a route (which I use for plotting running routes) has an “as the crow flies” option I think, which is how it’s worked out round here

I don’t know where you’re based but in Surrey there’s a map where you can plug in your address and it’ll give you the ‘official’ distance to the school, so it’s not secret: www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/admissions/about-map/find-a-school

I'm in Greenwich, I haven't come across a tool like this so far but wish there was one. It's feels extremely secretive!

My council have a checker you just put postcode in

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sorry about that awful link above. It dues work but I had dreadful trouble editing it and then I must have run out of time as I’m unable to edit it further.

This is the link to the measuring tool that Greenwich suggest
<a class="break-all" href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130102222141/www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/inyourarea/distance.pl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130102222141/www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/inyourarea/distance.pl

Greenwich have a map where you can see furthest distance offered last year and see if you fall within the circle. Won't tell you the distance but helpful to see if you look remotely close. www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200286/apply_for_a_school_place/1400/secondary_school_offers_interactive_map

Our local council has a website. Put in the address and it tells you exactly how far away it is from the schools nearby. Worth checking your local authority website!

You can email your LA admissions department and ask them for your distances - it's the only accurate way to do it.

Otherwise, Google Maps is next best (and you'll probably find that sites like RightMove use GoogleMaps data too). You can switch from miles to km in Google Maps if that's what your LA uses.

You can switch from miles to km using a calculator or Google. Distance will be as the crow flies.

Echo emailing your LA admissions team, mine told me my distance to all local secondaries. Call or email now when they aren’t so busy dealing with applications.

Agree you need to check how they measure, as some people here are talking about 'walking routes' but my LA uses 'as the crow flies'.

Back in the day when we were looking, the schools would have a map on display on open day, with circles around the school showing the distance the furthest person was admitted from (on distance criteria) which gave you a good idea. Not sure if that still happens.

However, you don't necessarily need to be that accurate, as just because that was the distance last year, it doesn't mean it will be the distance next year - it only gives you a "how likely is it we have a chance" idea.

I work I'm admissions. For all our non faith schools we use straight line distance measure. The schools all have a mapped set location either front gate or main door usually. Then we use a very specific point called Eastings and Northings to identify each house and the school measuring point has Eastings and Northings too. Then a computerised system does all measurements for us based on the applicants for that school and lists them in distance order (within each category like siblings/looked after etc)
I've got old fashioned magic spreadsheets that can do the same for single addresses of someone wants a list of every school in the LA. We usually get that request around appeals time. Faith schools do their rankings based on their oversubscription criteria but we provide all the distances for each child applying so they can then rank within each group by distance if they need to do so.

If you put your postcode into the gov UK compare site, it lists all the schools by distance from your house. You can then check the distances on the council website - there's a leaflet each year that tells you what the last 3 years cut offs were per school.

Email admissions. I wouldn't rely on Google maps measurement it was 0.1 miles out for me which makes a huge difference where we are. The distance is measured from a specific point which doesn't necessarily match with post code or main gate.