Challenging distance from school to my house

zita

Im 100% sure how you go about it but I know of someone who was in a similar situation and she appealed to the county council and the decision went in her favour, maybe worth a try?

modgit

Hi

Use http://www.upmystreet.com/

It will tell you the distance to your nearest schools. Our local LEA advise that we use it as a "guideline" to the distances, as it is similar to the system they use.

nancy_2

I had the same problem when my daughter was refused a place at our local school based on distance.I challenged this by speaking to other mothers whos children had been given places, who lived further then me.The education department told me it was done by digital mapping,when I questioned the route that they calculated that I would take to school, I realised that they had assume that I would walk using main roads,rather then the cycle paths.

I was so upset about it that I did threaten to take my daughter up to their offices,on the first day of term , and get them to explain to her why she wasn't going to the same school as all her friends with the local paper in tow.

Next day I got a letter offering me a place at the school.

Either way it worked!!!

bestpud

This has concerned me a little as I've just done a distance check on google maps and it has taken all the main roads and completely avoided the very safe and well used park which cuts out a major chunk of the journey! And the route is a biazarre one even without that!

And yet, when I used upmystreet, the school I'd like dd to attend is actually closer than our catchment school (where she will go over my dead body). I assume that is a straight line though.

I haven't got to think about this for a few years yet but it hardly seems fair they are depending on sites like these to allocate places by distance! The school in question takes the safest walking route.

I'll be interested to see how people manage to argue against this... :think:

peachyprice

I think the problem here is, different schools use different criteria, some are straight line, some shortest possible walking route, some main road. You really need to find the quoted criteria for your chosen school before you can fathom out whether you've been diddled out of a place.

Woby_Tide

bestpud wrote: »

I'll be interested to see how people manage to argue against this... :think:

bestpud wrote: »

the school I'd like dd to attend is actually closer than our catchment school

Probably with the part where you say it isn't your catchment school. All the authorities have to set a criteria for distance. Some people will invariably be closer than others to certain schools but thats just down to the geography of the towns. Because a school is closer doesn't necessarily mean that is the one you have to go to.

Savvy_Sue

Some use straight line, but if they use a mapped route then they may well ONLY use roads not footpaths, because it can be hard to know what is safe and what is not.

duchy

Catchment areas are weird shapes as schools aren't evenly spaced out. For secondary school I was in the absurd situation that I lived on the wrong side of my road-so so instead of travelling a mile and a half to my nearest school -I was in the catchment area for the next school another 3 miles down the road......The stupidest thing of all-the bus I had to catch which took the most direct route-went straight past the nearer school.
Why not get a pedometer and simply measure the distance that way -if it is lower than they claim then definitely appeal.