How do School Catchment areas work?

royalsteve

mrsS wrote:

agree again- tried state schools for 4 years- went back to work and sent them private.

there IS NO COMPARISON!

but you shouldnt have to do it as you originally said

anyway- us sending or not sending our kids to private school does not answer op question!

agreed, they do work you alot harder. However, people send their kids to private schools for a variety of reasons -
a) their kids arent intelligent
b) better teacher/pupil ratio (my niece had 9/1 rather than 40/1 at the state school)
c) they work the children harder (my niece had a min 1 hour homework a day, her friends at the state school had 1 hour a week),
d) snobbery (very sad!) - at my niece's school the worst types were those who had lots of money and did nothing to help the school - no help/pta help/nothing - too busy earning their money to pay for their flash cars

but there is no guarantee that they will be intelligent at the end, this is down to the pupil and parents as much as the teachers

Jonny_B_3

There seems to be alot of generalisation in this thread.

Every school is different, just as every child is different. Some schools ethos suits some, not others. Some schools are better with special needs than others. Just because it is private, doesn't mean its better. I've worked and been a governor in an excellent state school for 12 years.

As for catchment areas, it is a hot potato. Just being in our catchment area doesn't guarantee you anything. We have had to turn children in our catchment area away. They would have got in 5 years ago but due to new development there are more children nearer and the ones further away don't get in during years when there are high numbers.

Schools can set their own admissions criteria. For the record ours (matched by the LA) are

1) Children in the care of the LA
2) Children in the catchment area with a sibling at the school
3) Children in the catchment area
4) Children outside the catchment area with a sibling at the school
5) Children outside the catchment area.

The distance is measured as the crow flies.

You can appeal if you don't get in and about 20 a year are successful.

barnaby-bear

ianian99 wrote:

it should not make a difference where you live, ALL schools should teach kids to the same standard then all kids would get an equal education and not just the ones whos parents can afford to buy a house in the catchment area of a good school.(usually well over the odds because its in the catchment area for a good school)

I think teaching standards are fairly consistent - however school results mainly a product of the raw material. The parents who can afford a house in good catchement area likely to be working, supportive, educated etc.
How do you expect a teacher to counteract a home environment, you only need a few !!!!less, scrounging, abusive, disruptive parents and their charming offspring to ruin an entire class. You can teach to the same standard but if a few deliquent retards are setting fire to stuff and running riot and there's nothing that can be done to control them and the parents don't care then the parents that do care make sure their kids go to schools where the majority of parents do care and have nice well-behaved kids...

silvercar

barnaby-bear wrote:

I think teaching standards are fairly consistent - however school results mainly a product of the raw material. The parents who can afford a house in good catchement area likely to be working, supportive, educated etc.
How do you expect a teacher to counteract a home environment, you only need a few !!!!less, scrounging, abusive, disruptive parents and their charming offspring to ruin an entire class. You can teach to the same standard but if a few deliquent retards are setting fire to stuff and running riot and there's nothing that can be done to control them and the parents don't care then the parents that do care make sure their kids go to schools where the majority of parents do care and have nice well-behaved kids...

Agree with everything you say apart from the first sentance. What happens is that the well-motivated, good teachers go and get jobs in the decent schools where teaching standards are high. The jobsworth teachers stick in the carp schools because they know their standards won't come under scrutiny and teaching becomes more of an attendance allowance.

barnaby-bear

royalsteve wrote:

agreed, they do work you alot harder. However, people send their kids to private schools for a variety of reasons -
a) their kids arent intelligent
b) better teacher/pupil ratio (my niece had 9/1 rather than 40/1 at the state school)
c) they work the children harder (my niece had a min 1 hour homework a day, her friends at the state school had 1 hour a week),
d) snobbery (very sad!) - at my niece's school the worst types were those who had lots of money and did nothing to help the school - no help/pta help/nothing - too busy earning their money to pay for their flash cars

but there is no guarantee that they will be intelligent at the end, this is down to the pupil and parents as much as the teachers

e) their kids are intelligent? Many independent schools are grammar schools and selective so average level of student higher, plus it's really only private schools offering 3 single science GSCEs, A-level further maths etc,
f) better extra-curricular activities and facilities - sports, drama
g) any *bad* kids are complained about by other parents and their behaviour not tolerated and parents held accountable and if they are still bad they are made to go away

dunstonh

So in summary, there are no real rules in this and it varies across the country. However, information should be available to you if you ask for it.

size3shoes

All local authorities have to publish their admissions criteria, and most will have a glossy brochure which should set it all out. I work in the admissions field in London and here (as far as community schools are concerned) there are no set catchment areas (apart from a few schools in areas where there are no viable alternatives) but rather it's usually done on 'the nearest to the school' basis (after siblings and children in care). This means the actual distance you need to live from the school will vary each year depending on how many apply, where they live, how many siblings apply etc. It cannot be predicted and some years people will get in from a particular road and some years they won't. The government have asked local authorities to give parents some idea of distances etc and the best will put a table in their brochures showing how far away the last one offered a place lived for each school for the last few years. With regard to the post from the teacher who said that if a child lived in a catchment area, they had to take them even if the school was full, this is not true. Schools can only take up to their published admission number. With regard to appeals, they will only be successful if you have a good case (eg social/medical reasons are the most common). With regard to appeals for Key Stage 1 (what we used to call 'infants') it is extremely difficult to win appeals as the government changed the rules for these a few years ago in order to keep to only 30 per class. To win one, you need to prove that a mistake was made (eg the distance from home to school was measured incorrectly) or that the decision to refuse a place was totaly perverse. Very few are successful.

jiblets1

size3shoes wrote:

With regard to the post from the teacher who said that if a child lived in a catchment area, they had to take them even if the school was full, this is not true. Schools can only take up to their published admission number.

As far as is the policy in my area, a child can be admitted to a class even if there are already 30 children in the class. The 30 limit applies to when the numbers are sent off in September. If the numbers increase during the year that is viable. It is unfortunate for the school that this is the case, especially as there are still not allowed to be more than 30 in the class next September - not only because classes are much less efficient as the sizes increase, but because this leads to constant rearranging of class set-ups and a small band of children are frequently moved to a different class and away from their friends. Very difficult all round.

ukbondraider

I understand that for Secondary Schools, as well as meeting the criteria mentioned above the children must first and foremost pass the 11+ and or the special admission exams for those schools.

To prepare my kids to achieve this I would therefore like to send them to the top primary schools.

Am I correct in that primary schools do not have admission exams and entry to a top primary school will simply be more on the basis of living near the school?

silvercar

Am I correct in that primary schools do not have admission exams and entry to a top primary school will simply be more on the basis of living near the school?

Primary schools don't generally have exams. They do usually give priority to siblings, this can result in very few places being available in some years.