School Catchment Areas
Admission priority by home address
A school catchment area is a boundary used to prioritise admission when a school is oversubscribed. Each admission authority sets and publishes its own criteria; the local authority coordinates the offers. Many English schools use no catchment at all, ranking applicants by straight-line distance instead. Welsh authorities more often keep catchment; Scotland and Northern Ireland run different systems.
What This Means
The report ranks each nearby school by how this address matches its admission rules. "In designated catchment" means a published boundary contains this property. "Within last year's intake distance" means the address sat inside last year's cut-off. "In range" is different: only distance was available, so no catchment claim is being made. A faith or feeder match helps only a child who also meets that qualification. Catchment never guarantees a place, because the criteria are ranked and looked-after children come first. Boundaries and cut-off distances move each year with demand.
Practical Advice
- Ask the local authority admissions team for the published oversubscription criteria and last-admitted distance for each school you want.
- Ask the school directly whether its catchment boundary is changing for the intake year your child would enter.
- Ask the local authority which distance method it measures with, since a straight line and a walking route give different answers.
- Request the supplementary information form from the school office if a faith criterion is the route to a place here.
Key Points
- Camden's community primary schools have no catchment boundary at all. They rank applicants by a straight line from the home to the centre of the school, measured on the council's mapping system.
- A school named in a child's Education, Health and Care plan must admit that child, ahead of every other criterion, however far away the family lives.
Additional Information
Scotland works differently. A child inside a school's delineated area is given a place there. A placing request for any other school must be lodged by 15 March. Northern Ireland has no catchment, and most grammar schools rank applicants on the SEAG entrance assessment first. The linked guidance covers England only.