Schools in Catchment Area?

[Browncoffee]

Bit of a silly question - how do I know which schools are in my catchment area?

[The Nappy Lady]

Sadly in these present times it tends to be the one closest to you and that's about it.......

Not sure if catchment areas as such exist any more as the school allocation process works based on a number of criteria, distance from school being only one of them, but expect someone else on here will be able to confirm...

Molly

[mumra]

Not a silly question at all- but Molly's right, it has changed of late according to demand. Best idea probably is to post roughly where you live on here and see if posters who live nearby could tell you according to their own experience of getting in/or not to local schs. Also-look on map for nearest schools then contact sch to find out what was the furthest away place they gave last year/or this year to see if you would fall within that.

[intexasatthe moment]

Dulwich Village Infants is the only school I can think of that has ever had a catchment area - parish boundary - though of course living within it is only one criteria and wouldn't guarantee you a place .

Southwark community primary schools have never had catchment areas - its always been a question of supply and demand determing how close you need to live in order to get a place .

[Alec John Moore]

http://www.findmyschool.co.uk/ looks quite good. You can search for the schools nearest your postcode, look at the Ofsted reports and ask others about the schools you are interested in on EDF. The local authority has the info on application procedures.

[alieh]

Does anyone have the statistics on the distances in the last couple of years for Goodrich? I.e. number of kids who got in under the distance criteria, as well as furthest and/or average distance for those that got in under this criteria. I realise it is a matter of supply and demand, but just trying to get an idea of whether we would have had a good chance in the last couple of years (and whether we could reasonably say that our house has been in Goodrich "catchment" in recent years). We are about 400 m from Goodrich.

[Alec John Moore]

page 24/25 of this year's admissions booklet (for places in 2010/2011 gives the stats for admissions for the year 2009/10.

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/1162/introduction_and_how_to_apply

[Browncoffee]

Thanks for all your responses. I live on Marmora Road (SE22), which is just off Forest Hill Road. I'm still looking into nurseries at this stage but was just curious. Thanks again...

[MrsR]

Hi Browncoffee, lots of your neighbours children go to Fairlawn and Francesca Cabrini which both have nurseries. Fairlawn nursery is in Waldenshaw Road (just behind Sainsburys in Forest Hill) and has 45 morning and 45 afternoon places so fairly easy to get into. The downside is that its quite a walk from Marmora Road and parking is restricted to residents only (though you could park in Sainsburys and walk round the corner).Unfortunately a place at nursery does not guarantee a place in reception. Good Luck

[alieh]

Thanks for the link Alec John Moore!

[alieh]

A follow up question about the link Alex John Moore posted....this says that there were 90 reception places at Goodrich, and that 38 were given to siblings, 3 to children with exceptional needs, and 1 based on "home to school" distance. Does this mean that the 1 place was given to someone for whom Goodrich is not their closest school and that the balance was made up by people who got in based on distance plus Goodrich being their closest school? I.e. 90 places minus 38 siblings - 3 exceptional needs - 1 distance but not closest school = 48 places going to kids based on distance where Goodrich is their closest school?

Why is this so complicated??

[Browncoffee]

That's very useful information, MrsR.

Thank you,

BC

[prdarling]

Alieh yes that sounds about right. It's very complicated and very frustrating.

The stats this year are even worse...52/90 places at Goodrich have gone to siblings, plus probably a couple of places to children with exceptional needs etc so probably only 35 places which is why the 'catchment' area this year has shruck ENORMOUSLY.

Last year the furthest distance offered was 683m this year it is 440m.

We live 465m and thought based on last year's stats we'd be OK

How wrong we were. I have applied to 6 schools across 2 boroughs and got nothing

[ClareC]

does anyone know the stats for Heber?

[prdarling]

Clare you can phone Southwark admissions and they will tell you.

I don't know re no. of siblings at Heber but apparently the furthest distance offered was 470m

[Joella]

ClareC - The stats for Heber this year cannot be used as a comparison, as all 80 families who put it down as their first preference were allocated a spot, due to the fact Heber is taking a bulge class for 2010/11 entry. Therefore, how many siblings or distance won't be useful as a guide for entry, it would be better to look at other years details.

[toast]

Some families who put Heaber down as first didnt get in, my friend who lives by the Herne put it as first and got GG like us.

[Pickle]

Is there a website where you can work out how far away from each school you live? Thanks.

[Joella]

guess the headmaster's letter was inaccurate, apologies my info wasn't correct.

[toast]

Pickle

I am a fan of walkjogrun but there are others. You do need to work it out from the school gate.

[prdarling]

Pickle - the admin team at Southwark will be able tio tell you exactly 020 7525 5337

[Fuschia]

prdarling Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

.

>

> The stats this year are even worse...52/90 places

> at Goodrich have gone to siblings, plus probably a

> couple of places to children with exceptional

> needs etc so probably only 35 places which is why

> the 'catchment' area this year has shruck

> ENORMOUSLY.

>

> Last year the furthest distance offered was 683m

> this year it is 440m.

>

> We live 465m and thought based on last year's

> stats we'd be OK

The reduction in distance is because the measure is now as the crow flies

[snowboarder]

Pickle - I used this to measure approx distance - http://www.runningahead.com/maps

[Fuschia]

You need something that measures as the crow flies. Lewisham actually have such a tool on their website that tells you how far you are frome a school using approx the same system as they use for admissons, IIRC

[Mellors]

Does anyone know how far away the distance was for Ivydale? Am thinking of moving to Nunhead to get out of the East Dulwich "black hole" hell!