Hello

I believe there is a proposal to increase the catchment area for CGS
to include Chalfont St Peter. I was curious about how this, if approved, would affect
intakes in nearby schools and also OA distances for 2019.

Any guesses?

Link here: https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/edu ... ar-school/

It can only help. There was a lot of pressure on boys' places in South Bucks this year, and Chalfont St. Peter was badly affected. Until now, they have had only one catchment school, which is DCGS. When there was too much pressure on places at DCGS, RGS was able to mop up the surplus, but not this year - it also didn't go beyond catchment. Likewise, CGS couldn't allocate places because their distance just didn't extend far enough. (It went into Herts, but didn't extend far enough within the county to accommodate the CSP boys - it's about 7 miles from CGS to CSP, and CGS only allocated to 5.5 miles outside catchment.)

Next door, in the Denham/Iver area, where there has also historically been a huge problem with boys' places, they have the choice of 4 catchment schools. It's an overdue and very positive change.

It won't impact on girls' places, because CSP has both BHS and DCHS as catchment, and neither are oversubscribed within catchment.

It will, likely as not, reduce the out-area allocation distance for Chesham yet further - perhaps by a mile or so?

Can I ask why some catchments go outside the county? It seem unfair that siblings from outside the county but within catchment will get a place over county children who could be much closer to the school. Fortunately this doesn't affect us (at the moment at least!).

Will this change if there is more pressure on places?

"Grammmmmmmmar"??? Eep. Perils of phone posting!

Thank you Sally-Anne for your (as always) detailed and helpful analysis.
I did think CGS area would decrease further, probably will make us too far to within allocation distance this year :S But still, I do feel for the CSP boys this year - to be too far, but still have people drive through the area to school from further away is quite disheartening.

Catchment areas should be driving/walking or at the very least straight-line distances - not sure why it isn't?

@qwerty - I think there was a Bucks school that changed policy to prioritise IA over OAS, not sure if that's still in place or getting more prevalent. I can understand your frustration, but with this uneven catchment, sometimes OA is closer than IA!

An interesting twist to this one, which is that a parent had submitted an objection to the CGS admission arrangements to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, something I wasn't aware of.

The objection was essentially that the school's admission arrangements discriminated against boys living in the CSP area.

The OSA decision has just been published, and the objection is upheld, although both the school and Bucks CC are in full agreement with the Adjudicator - hence, I assume, the plan to revise the catchment area.

All 16 pages can be read here (I haven't waded through it all!): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... y_2018.pdf

It seems to be saying that Bucks CC will look at all areas with only one catchment GS - that could be a challenge!

Just had a read - thanks for sharing!

Very interesting case, and I can fully understand why the parents of those four boys feel it's unfair. It must be galling to see so many children admitted out of county (and as you know my DD is one of the furthest admitted for CGS this year, so I do feel some guilt) when there is no reasonable GS option for those in county. I really hope they are able to get a place at a GS somewhere for September. Would this being upheld be a good basis for an appeal (out of pure curiosity) ?

From a purely selfish point of view, given I have three more children including one currently in Y4 who is also desperate to go to CGS, do you think they might change the sibling rules or priority in any way? Or are they likely to just extend the catchment?

Whatever happens, I think it's safe to say that no child from our primary will likely be getting in to CGS in the next few years at least, certainly without a sibling link. Even without this ruling, I imagine the distance would have shrunk anyway. It's completely fair of course, but still a bit sad!