SE23 Forum

Useful link to see catchment areas of SE23 schools. Don't understand why some are huge and others tiny though!

http://se23family.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10...hment.html

they all look tiny to me!

yes, I am puzzled by this. If one were to draw circles of these radii round each school, I imagine most of the local area would not be covered. Is this really representative?

Yes tiny apart from kilmorie! Where does everyone end up going??

And the only reason Kilmore was so big this year is because they bulged to a 4 form intake rather than 3 (I think). That said, I thought Fairlawn and Haseltine bulged too). Kilmorie, Haseltine and Fairlawn are all part of the same federation) but maybe I got that wrong. Mildly concerned about what this will do to the Kilmore catchment for 2015 when my daughter is due to start school but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Thanks for this. Has anyone got a trundle wheel or a good website for working out exact distances as the crow flies?

There are plenty of tools out there but here is an example:
http://www.freemaptools.com/distance-bet...tcodes.htm

i use this:

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en

works really well!

distances are measured as the crow flies for schools so just draw a straight line. draw form the main gate of the school to your front door.

dnjc

Thanks for those tools.

The door to door Google one puts us 2m outside the catchment for our 'local' school this year, it's going to be a close call in 2014!

that means you would be pretty certain of being accepted during the shake down in the second round.

What these distances don't tell you is which schools will have bulge classes next year as this makes a huge difference to the number of places available and the catchment areas for each school. In fact I don't think Lewisham have published the figures for all the bulge classes from September 2013, only some of these have been included, not the ones added in a hurry in July.

In reality Lewisham will try very hard to place children in one of their local schools. We are very lucky in Forest Hill that we have a lot of good/outstanding primary schools to choose from, but their are still areas which remain just beyond the catchment areas for non-faith-based schools and end up having to travel quite far. I would love to see a map for the average distances children have to travel to school based not on each school, but on each street where this children live, this would give a better indication as to where there are a lack of local school places (assuming that most people want to send their child to a local school).

2m door-to-door distance means that the distance as the crow flies will be much less. For me the nearest primary school as the crow flies is very close, unfortunately it is a long walk down and up the hill to reach the school, unless you send your children via catapult.

These aren't necessarily catchment areas - they're the distance of the furthest child offered a place that year. So while it's an indication it's not defintitive as the distances of people applying this year will be different. I don't think this takes account of siblings either, which is a large influencing factor in Lewisham as they have priority.

so, the basics of this are:

the published distance is for those subset of kids getting into the school after siblings and those with SEN. It's also first offer distances. So quite possible that some people who live close will not take the places and in reality the furthest distance is higher. But the first offer distance is a fair indicator, especially considering the additional area cover even by 10 extra radius meters.

dave.

Are previous years' distances available? That would give a clearer indication.

Don't know but here is link to source document and contact for admissions team:
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/ed...rates.aspx

just google:

lewisham admissions primary 2011
lewisham admissions primary 2012
lewisham admissions primary 2013

etc.

it is all in the tables in the 'starting primary...' pdfs.

Map of "catchment" areas that I had wished for:
http://datacollator.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...lwich.html

To be taken with pinch of salt IMO.

that looks about right to me.