Question about published offer distances for schools

[JRJ]

I would be helpful if anyone could help me interpret the published last offer distances for schools please?

We are looking at Sep 2020 primary entry and trying to get a feel of where we may or may not be likely to get a place by looking at the catchments for previous years.

When the council list the furthest distance for an offer, does that include sibling offers too? One school I contacted suggested that it did, in which case it isn't very helpful at all...

Thanks

J

(I appreciate the importance of including some nearby bankers in our 6 choices so as not to end up at the other side of the borough. And that including a couple of unlikely ones won't harm our chances with others on the list. But just not sure how many more aspirational options it is worth going to visit)

[bonaome]

For community schools in Southwark (and Lewisham) the distance data in the starting school booklets doesn't include siblings. Sibling places are allocated before places are allocated based on distance. Distance is irrelevant to a sibling place.

That's for the community schools, e.g. Heber, Goodrich, Dog Kennel Hill ... the ones featured in the council booklets.

The other schools, e.g. Goose Green, Harris Primary ED - i.e. the ones _not_ in the council booklets, are academies and are responsible for their own admissions arrangements. Those you'll generally have to ring up and ask what was the furthest non-sibling distance based place they offered. Faith schools have arrangements which are different again.

A reasonable, though not infallible guide, is where the older kids of your neighbours go. Not infallible because of random factors - e.g. some years are abnormally lumpy on sibling places which means fewer places offered on distance which means that particular year you'd need to live nearer than other years to get in.

I hope that's vaguely useful.

[JRJ]

Thank you Bonaome, that is useful.

We have a very well regarded school pretty much at the far end of our road, and the only older kids we know on our road go there, but it looks like the catchment for it has shrunk and shrunk and we would have been some 100+m outside it last year. Another one that we like the look of is a little further away but we would have scraped within the distance figures in the last couple of years, although someone in the office there told us that the furthest distance figure quoted (and it is a council one) included siblings. I am hoping that they were mistaken!

I appreciate your taking the time to answer.

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi JRJ, the distance figures do not include those allocated places via sibling criteria not those offered distance via other criteria eg previously looked after children, those with a statement of special educational need.

RenatA

[JRJ]

Thank you Renata

[jessmc]

We are also looking for September 2020 - am I imagining it or is there a website that shows previous year catchments for Southwark? Is there something for Lambeth too?

It?s so confusing!

[JRJ]

Hi jessmc

the distances for the council run schools are published on the relevant council websites. I have found that other schools seem happy enough to tell me their distances for last year when asked directly.

hope that helps

JRJ