How much extra would you to be in the catchment area?

M_A_R_I_E

You need to check how oversubscribed the school is - being in catchment area does not guarantee you a place as now siblings are first on the admissions criteria.

My school had 120 applicants for 60 places this year. All siblings got in but some first children in catchment did not.

Speak to the school and ask for their numbers this year - that will give you an idea of how popular it is and what to expect.

I would also look for a back up school - don't pin all your hopes on one school. I know this year in our area we had a massive cohort of children entering school and lots of people did not get any of their 3 choices.

moneypanicker

Definately agree with MARIE just coz you are in the catchment area does not mean you will get in. We didn't get into our catchment school once siblings were taken into account the furthest anyone lived from school that got in was 200metres!! Don't pin all your hopes on this school if you get in thats great but you may not.

ab7167

I thought only siblings who lived in the catchment got priority? Although there could still be a lot of those! My daughter is also 4 in December and we live in catchment for a heavily over subscribed school, they had 74 applications for 15 places last year! I am hoping that she will get priority over the out of catchment siblings...

milliebear00001

ab7167 wrote: »

I thought only siblings who lived in the catchment got priority? Although there could still be a lot of those! My daughter is also 4 in December and we live in catchment for a heavily over subscribed school, they had 74 applications for 15 places last year! I am hoping that she will get priority over the out of catchment siblings...

It is different for different local authorities. Some have siblings with higher priority, some have catchment. My own LA sets catchment above siblings, so last year (for example) several children did not get into the schools where their older brothers and sisters were attending.

ab7167

Ah, didn't realise it varies by LA. Have checked, and I am correct for my LA, catchment over sibling is the order here, so we should be OK!

JC9297

milliebear00001 wrote: »

It is different for different local authorities. Some have siblings with higher priority, some have catchment. My own LA sets catchment above siblings, so last year (for example) several children did not get into the schools where their older brothers and sisters were attending.

After SEN/cared for children, most LAs put siblings in catchment 1st, then children in catchment with no siblings 2nd, siblings out of catchment 3rd and then children outside of catchment last. Distance is used within all criteria if there are more children than places.

milliebear00001

JC9297 wrote: »

After SEN/cared for children, most LAs put siblings in catchment 1st, then children in catchment with no siblings 2nd, siblings out of catchment 3rd and then children outside of catchment last. Distance is used within all criteria if there are more children than places.

I am not sure whether it's true that 'most' do it that way. I teach in another LA that also uses catchment over siblings. It causes parents all sorts of issues (and last year many of the parents of siblings at my daughter's school appealed and got into their school of choice) but otherwise, you can end up with a situation where a child who lives next door to a school is forced to travel miles away. It's always a difficult one with oversubscribed schools!

ab7167

That is the order that my LA uses. I think we should get a place based on that. There are a lot of out of catchment siblings, but as we are in catchment (and it is small, we only live 500 yards from the school).

I don't think there will ever be a foolproof way to do it for oversubscribed schools. The only real solution is to make all schools good, don't know how they would do that in a hurry...

flutterby_lil

Have you got older siblings who would get a place at the school if they have places with you all moving into the area?

Where abouts up north are you moving to?

FatVonD

I moved house to get my son into my preferred school (think £30,000 extra on the mortgage plus legal fees and stamp duty!) which then went rapidly downhill when the head teacher changed plus it became clear that their outstanding SATS results were because it was in an upper middle class area where everybody had their kids tutored outside school for entry to the independent high schools.

My friend's daughter got a place at an under performing school that, due to low demand, meant she was in a class of only 20 children where they thrived with more one to one attention, by the time she left primary school her year was top of the league tables.

Given my time again I'd not have set so much store by which school my son went to as there are so many variables.