Homes near Outstanding Schools

Ciwan

Hello All

I am house hunting and had a query about school admissions. I see a lot of homes with situations like this:



The house is surrounded by schools that have an Ofsted Rating of 'Good', 'Require Improvements' or 'Inadequate' but also the odd one that might be 'Outstanding'.

The 'Outstanding' school I've highlighted in the screenshot above is 0.5 miles away from the house we are interested in.

How do I know that they'll take my baby daughter or not?

Do I have to call each school and ask them what their criteria is? :eek:

Rain_Shadow

If your daughter is a baby then I presume school admission is at least three years away. Schools can change a lot in three years

martindow

Things can change but every school should publish its admission criteria which will give you an idea of where you will be in the pecking order. Living almost next door to a school won't necessarily guarantee a place.

I have friends who lived in a similar situation to your map with several schools within easy walking distance. They applied to the local schools and were turned down by all of them and offered a place at a school the other side of the borough. Eventually a place came up at a convenient school but it was a worrying time.

It used to be so simple when schools had catchment areas and you just went to your local school.

Miss_Samantha

My local authority publishes a very useful document listing all the schools with, for each one, a map of the catchment area and statistics like the number of applicants and how far the last one to be accepted lived.

In general, you must ensure that you are as close as possible from the school and in catchment (the 'shape' of the catchment area may surprise you).

booksurr

so I take you have have actually read the info readily available by clicking through on the link on rightmove ? why then are you still asking ?

http://www.192.com/schools/details/halifax-hx3/lee-mount-primary-school/107483/

What happened in 2015
This school was oversubscribed in 2015 for admission to reception.
The last successful applicant lived 737 metres from the school, measured on a straight line basis.

Past admissions status is no guarantee of future admissions, we advise you to always check with the school.

there were 50 places on offer. 30 offers were made to those with fixed highest priority (ie 1 for a kid in care and 29 for sibling places) over those based on distance leaving 20 places for the distance based criteria. 30 offers were made based on distance. So overall 10 people did not get in, although they may not all have been distance offers if for some reason a parent sent a sibling elsewhere anyway. There were 114 named preferences (applications).

In 3 years time the stats will be different.

read the school's own info?
https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/schools/lee-mount-primary-school-halifax

read the council's website since they write the policy for all schools in that district?
http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/residents/education-and-learning/schools/admission-criteria/primary-schools-admission-criteria-0

click through from the council website to the criteria page for each school to see if there is anything different about that one? (there isn't for Lee Mount, I've looked)
http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/residents/education-and-learning/schools/admission-criteria/primary-schools-admission-criteria

so in summary buying a place within 500 metres (straight line) would seem "sensible". All of that was done in the time it probably took you to write the OP

Hoploz

Admission criteria changes year on year. Depending on siblings, who usually get first priority, for example. So if there are 30 places and 25 applicants already have older bothers or sisters in the school, the 5 closest people will get in. The following year, only 20 places may be taken by siblings, in which case the nearest 10 would be offered a place.

This is simplified if course, but you see how it changes.

Miss_Samantha

Hoploz wrote: »

Admission criteria changes year on year.

The chances of getting a place may change every year, but not the criteria to get one.

hazyjo

Hoploz wrote: »

Admission criteria changes year on year. Depending on siblings, who usually get first priority, for example. So if there are 30 places and 25 applicants already have older bothers or sisters in the school, the 5 closest people will get in. The following year, only 20 places may be taken by siblings, in which case the nearest 10 would be offered a place.

This is simplified if course, but you see how it changes.

Happened in a school near me - people were literally across the green facing the school but couldn't get places as there were loads of siblings that year... Other schools don't class siblings first so it's more on distance.


Unless you're next door to it with another child at the same school, or in a tiny village where they're not all oversubscribed, you takes yer chances anywhere you move to...


Jx

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Ensure you look here also.
https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

A school in the area we are buying got an outstanding rating in March but Rightmove is still showing it's Requires Improvement rating from 2011!

anna_1977

I wouldn't bank on the school being outstanding in 3 years - Ofsted are having a massive overhaul so probably won't mean much by then

FBaby

Don't make the error of assuming that an outstanding ofsted school offers better education. Sometimes it does, some time it doesn't. You are much better off visiting the school. My DS went from an outstanding primary school to one under 'remedial measures' and then 'requiring improvements' when we moved. At first I was very worried, but I can now say that the second school offered a much better education than the first and the kids were much more pleasant.

Again with secondary school we had the choice between an outstanding and good school, went for the latter and two years on, I know we made the right decision.