Distance from home to school

[flagmanter]

I have been trying to get this information form LCC today but nobody seems able to help. I have been told that we are 12.763 miles from QEHSG whereas I have checked with Google maps and the distance is 12.6 miles (from door to door). I appreciate that the mapping tool that the Council use is very accurate but I would like to ensure that our house position is accurate. We are 7th on the waiting list and would like the measurement calculation to ensure that maladministration has not taken place. To check my understanding of the process:

1) Do LCC measure from the actual house or the postcode. The policy states "the post office address point of the home" (Our postcode on Google Maps is about 200 metres beyond our house)

2) Who do I ask at the Council to provide the measurement calculation? (I was very helpfully passed onto School Transport by the Admissions team!)

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Alex]

The "post office address point of the home" is for the house itself not a postcode. The Admissions team and the Transport entitlement team do now use the same mapping tool for secondary school distances so they should come up with the same answer! It is possible to get slightly different measures using different tools but unfortunately the answer to this is that it is impossible to measure thousands of distances by any other means than a mapping tool and that has to be the same for everyone. The distance is measured from home to school (can matter which way round you do it because of one-way streets or going round a roundabout a different way...). It is possible for the mapping tool to "make mistakes" e.g. to measure from the wrong school entrance but it is unusual and will always be checked if someone asks for a check. Occasionally someone knows more than one route to a school and wants to check that the shortest possible one has been used. If you are still in doubt go back to the Admissions team (make sure Customer Services actually put you through to the "proper" admissions team rather than the "education" team at customer services and ask them if they will check the measurement again and whether you can have the route the mapping tool has used as you are getting a different measurement.

[Angie76]

Hi

I'm sorry to read you have just fallen short due to distance for QEHS!!
When I called about distance last yr I spoke with a lovely lady in admissions at Lincolnshire County Council who informed me they use the Map Point System which is very accurate. She took my postcode and number of house and it came in at 13.502 and when I had checked on google maps it was 14.4. This meant we opted to try for Caistor after looking historically at how far they had stretched on previous yrs.
I think if I was you I would be inclined to phone them back and ask them to check again for peace of mind.

Good luck
Angie76

[Stocky]

I would get it checked when you are that close for peace of mind. It seems there are alot 'huddled' around that 12.6+ mark, which would suggest it could be a fraction of distance separating a place. I know the people at 3rd, 9th and 10th on the reserve list and the distance between the person at 3rd and the person at 9th seems ridiculously tight! Good Luck