does the crow fly drunk?

[kmoon249]

I'm not from the UK so the primary school application process if particulary confusing. i looked up the distance from our house (using our postcode) to the local schools using the walkjogrun website recommended in various posts (using the schools postcode). i crossed checked with the last distance place offered chart published in the offical primary school guide.

We are a good 100 meters out of range from the published catchment area of one local school. However a friend's kid got into this school in April- no siblings, no special needs and they live further away. the streets may be crooked in this town but i still live in between their house and the school's post/entrance and so i ask, what have I done wrong?

many thanks to anyone who takes the time to respond.

[Emski]

Postcodes cover a few properties so you need to place a pin on the map in the centre of your property and at the school gate and then measure that distance.

Southwark (if this is your borough) uses a measuring tool that is not available for public use and bears v little resemblance to results from other tools. It's a far from exact science - frustrating when every metre counts for getting a place in a primary round here!

[Curmudgeon]

Isn't it door to door and not crow flies

[Cora]

April will be an in-term entry, so someone must have left between sept and April leaving a space....? Catchment areas widen as spaces are filled from waiting lists.

[alieh]

It is as the crow flies not door to door. Did you look at the book for Starting School in 2014? If so you would think that the distance should be right based on the offer your neighbour received in April. Or maybe you were looking at last year's book (i.e. Starting School in 2013) in which case the distances would have been based on the previous years' entry and therefore different to offers made in April 2013.

[Lacey]

I don't know about Southwark but some schools (non-Community schools?) may still have safest walking distance rather than crow flies/straight line eg in Lambeth, Julians is based on safest walking distance.

But the Starting Schools booklet will make clear each school's criteria.

Edited to add: most non-Community schools probably do have crow flies criteria but there may be some that still use safest walking distance.

[Grotty]

The published catchment areas are usually the catchment areas for the last year or previous years, but they change each year, and can change dramatically based on bulge years, increased or decreased numbers of siblings. So, if she got in just based on distance alone, it means the catchment area this year is bigger than it was last year.

[kmoon249]

thank you to everyone who responded.

I did look at the 2014/15 book and my friend's child was accepted in the general pool. i thought this was April but i guess am wrong. Looks like i have to do the pin on the map thingy.

geez its really hard to top a night of dishes and tidying......figuring exactly where i live compared to local primaries...i need a drink

[Anna27]

Southwark is as the crow flys, if you email them you can request distances from your home to nearest schools. Lewisham were great and gave me the distances over the phone, southwark never got back to me! Worth a shot though.

We also found that the nursery attached to our local school used a different system and handled Applications themselves, whereas Southwark handles all the school admissions. They used a post code program online which wasn't very accurate!

[alieh]

It would have been April that your friend found out about her school place probably - applications go in in January and results come in April I think. What school is it and other people might have anecdotal information about the distance? Maybe there was a typo in the book??

[Carbonara]

I may be wrong but I thought that the published distances referred to those withon the first round of offers, not those who got in from waiting lists or once the second round offers start coming?

Are you sure your friend got in straight away as the very first offer they received? And also that the published distance refers to that year?

[LondonMix]

The booklet is last distance including waiting list I think. The preliminary information provided by the Cllrs on this site earlier this year was before waitlist movements.

[oimissus]

no, the distance in the booklet doesn't include waiting lists, Renata (local councillor) confirmed this on my thread about primary school tours.

[alieh]

Yep, correct. The published figures do not include waiting lists. But if the offer was made in April, it would seem to be in the first round and should, therefore, reflect the published distance. The whole thing is a bit nuts to try to understand, really!

[LondonMix]

That?s really annoying. I know for Dulwich Villiage infants the difference between first round and final offer is over 100m typically. I suppose they only way to find out is to contact the schools for the true last distance offer then?.