Catchment areas could be axed for primary schools

A LONDON borough is set to scrap school catchment areas, in a move that critics claim could force children to travel miles for lessons.

Under plans being considered by Ealing council, preference at oversubscribed primary schools will go to children with siblings who are already pupils.

But the distance a family lives from their preferred primary would be rated the least important factor.

The plan emerged as the Government advised councils across Britain to consider whether their catchment areas were "outdated".

For many parents, the need to live within the catchment area of a highly rated school is a key concern when moving home. Abolishing catchments could also affect house prices in sought-after suburbs.

But in its report Ealing said the current rules meant many popular schools could not give places to children whose older siblings were already pupils. "The effect is that families are split, which gives the parents the problem of taking and picking up siblings to and from different schools at the same time."

The most popular schools have also become so competitive that parents who live in a catchment area get "a false impression that they are likely to gain a place". The report added: "The catchment areas are now out of date. Some families may live very close to a school but because of the way the catchment is drawn, [they can] be unable to gain a place at their nearest school."

Proposals for primary admissions in the borough from 2010 would see priority go to children in care, then to siblings of existing pupils, then to pupils with exceptional medical circumstances, and finally to those living closest to the school.

But critics have pointed out that children who live next door to one school may end up having to travel miles to another.

Louise Gibb, a member of the Ealing admissions forum and a school governor, said: "The reality is that if you give places to children out of your area, you're depriving a child a place at their local school." A council spokeswoman said the plans were subject to a public consultation.

Parents across London are struggling to decide where to send their children next year amid record competition for the best schools.

Police had to be called to keep order at Wallington County Grammar on 11-plus exam day after 1,500 children applied for 126 places.

And Derek Emmings, head of fair access at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, pointed to cases of children being swapped between schools after the official admissions process had finished.

"There has got to be something wrong with the admissions arrangements if you have got to swap afterwards," he said.

A popular secondary school could be forced to change its admissions policies after it was accused of "social segregation".

The claim was made against Drayton Manor High School in Hanwell by neighbouring school Brentside High.

Drayton Manor headteacher Sir Pritpal Singh rejected the allegation as "preposterous" but the school was referred to the national admissions watchdog.

Drayton Manor, in the borough of Ealing, was accused of turning down applications from children who live on the Cuckoo, Copley Close and High Lane estates, less affluent areas that are less than a mile away. Sir Pritpal insisted the school's admission policy had been in operation for 10 years without complaint.

But Brentside High accused Drayton Manor of rejecting dozens of children who come from the deprived estates.

Ealing council backed the objection and referred the complaint to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.