Applying for a school place out of catchment area

[likessleep]

What is this based on?
We are in an area which has an OK school, but about 7 miles away from one with an excellent reputation. We have considered moving, but in current climate, probably isn't wise.
I guess with no older siblings and such a good report, this school is likely to be oversubscribed anyway.
To someone with a toddler, yeah I know it's years away, but what is the process of applying and what does it depend on?
Any advice or information appreciated, as this is a steep learning curve for me!
Cheers!

[edam]

I dunno what the chances are in your area, but round here there's very little prospect of getting into a primary school unless you are a lot closer than seven miles - we are just under a mile from ds's and the cut off point some years is our road (depending on number of siblings in that year).

[mosschops30]

I dont know how it is by you, it may differ by area.
Where we are you can apply to another school, but ultimately the only reason you'll get a place is if its undersubscribed which from what you say it wont be.
The council will normally notify you the year before and you tell them which school you intend to apply to.

[MrsMattie]

I don't know where you live but I'm guessing if it's an excellent school it'll be oversubscribed - and you simply won't get in. You can of course put your child's name on the waiting list if you don't get in.

In my area (a London borough), non-denominational state primaries allocate places based on proximity of where you live to to the school (children with siblings already at the school, a SEN statement or children in care also get priority). The most popular schools have tiny catchment areas. On our LEA website they have a table of info showing the furthest distance away that a successful applicant lived for each school - it is between 0.6-0.9 miles for the 'best' schools. Gives you an idea of how likely you are to get in. Have a look on your LEA website and see if there is something similar.

Good luck.

[likessleep]

thanks so much for posting, that's great, i'll look into that ...

[Clary]

likessleep, is this the next nearest school? in other words are you in a rural area? This may make it more likely you would get in, but tbh otherwise 7 miles is a logn way to primary school.

Are there other schools nearer you would consider? Locality of yr primary school is very very handy imho for lots of reasons - from having pals over whom you can walk home to knocking on yr naighbour's door to take DC no 1 when DC no 2 is chucking up.

Go an dlook at yr local school - you may well be pleasantly surprised.

[MollieO]

In our LEA you would only get into an out of catchment school if the school was unpopular or the catchment area had few children of school age. One of our schools falls into that category but only goes to 7 at which point you are left trying to get into a middle school that is oversubscribed. No problem if you are planning to go private at 7 which quite a few do from that school.

[cory]

In our LEA you can only get into popular catchment schools if you can show a reason why your child needs to get into this school ahead of other children. Things like special medical needs that can only be met by one school.