Advice on Charters School Catchment

[AlpineAir]

Hello All

First time poster here.

We are keen on buying a house in Windlesham having not managed to find anything for our budget in Sunningdale/Sunninghill however Windlesham falls just outside of the official catchment area for Charters School which is where we would like our children to attend. I wondered whether there are many families in the Windlesham area who have successfully applied to Charters and their children been accepted? I know it all comes down to the specific school year's demand but I would be interested to hear from any Charters pupils' parents/guardians to see if they or fellow parents/guardians are living outside of the official catchment area (i.e. particularly at the time of application).

Thank you in advance!

All the allocation data is on the RBWM website - you can see the last distance offered on offers day for the past few years.

Thanks for your reply @Ionacat
I did check the website and it states the furthest allocation in 2025 was 2.8 miles from the school, but obviously doesn't specify where. This could be a North Ascot based pupil which is still technically within the designated catchment area so it's hard to establish if/when the school ever ventures out of the official catchment zone i.e. to somewhere like Windlesham. The plan is still to buy within the catchment area if affordable but am just looking into a plan B.

Not in your area, but I had a quick look - the 'last offer distance' is within the criterion the last offer was in - which for 2025 was the 34th under criterion 7, 'other applicants'. Applicants living within the designated area are all dealt with by criterion 5. Designated areas are often quite an irregular shape, so it's quite possible that a home-school distance in one direction is inside, but the same distance in another, well outside (for our own catchment secondary, our distance in the opposite direction from the school is in another LA, because the school is +/- in the top left hand corner, so to speak, of its designated area, and also nearly on the LA boundary).

I’m in the Charters catchment and DD has a place there. Anecdotally, it seems very rare for them to offer out of catchment. The school is ridiculously popular, not least because there isn’t another state secondary nearby.