Catchment areas, nearest schools and other terminology make school admissions a jargon minefield. Here, we try to explain it as simply as possible. Nearest school criteria Several local authorities allocate places at oversubscribed schools by giving priority to children who apply to their nearest relevant school. This effectively creates a catchment – an area around […]

Parents often ask: Am I guaranteed a place at my catchment school – and here are three reasons why they aren’t Home to school distance tie-breaker Many schools use home to school distance as a tie-break if a school is oversubscribed within a certain criteria. If the school filled up with other kids in the […]

Here at findaschool we get lots of questions about catchment areas. Parents want to know how catchment areas work, are they guaranteed a place at their catchment school, and is it possible to get a place if they live outside the catchment area. I live in a catchment area – am I guaranteed a place […]

  Welcome to the new findaschool blog. Over the coming weeks and months, the team will be writing short posts to tell you all about the findaschool service, to provide advice on school admissions in the UK, and to offer some insights from the admissions data we have collected over the past few years. findaschool […]