11 Plus Exams Forum

Many available maps and internet based measuring tools will give you an indication of the distance from your address to a school, but they often use different reference points. To make sure that we measure the distance from each applicant’s home to the school they want in a fair and equitable way, Kent LA uses Ordnance Survey address point data. Ordnance Survey address point references are seven digits long and accurate to within a metre.

The central point of your property as defined by Ordnance Survey is taken as one end of a straight line, with a defined address point reference on the school site as the other end. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. When we apply the distance criterion for an oversubscribed Community school, these straight line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the school.

A block of flats has a single address point reference, so applicants living in the same block will be regarded as living the same distance away from a Community school. In the unlikely event that two or more children live in the same block and in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the school, the names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given the place.

Note: Kent LA supplies Ordnance Survey address point data to all schools for ease of reference, but you will find that some Foundation and Aided schools and Academies use dfferent methods to measure distances from applicants ‘homes. This will be clearly explained in each school oversubscription criteria. Where a school has not explained that it will use a dfferent method, the method used here will apply.