Admissions
School catchment distances by council
The last distance offered at each school, taken from the allocation figures councils publish after offer day. We hold distances for 2,516 schools across 45 councils, 2018–2026, and add councils as they publish.
Councils with published distances
Council not listed yet? Browse every local authority in England.
What a catchment distance is
When a school has more applicants than places, the council offers places in order of its admission rules: usually looked-after children, siblings and then distance from home. The last distance offered is how far from the school the final child offered a place on distance lived. We call that the catchment distance, because it is the figure parents usually mean.
Why it changes every year
The distance moves with the number of siblings, the size of the year group and how many families apply. A school that reached 1.2 km one year can reach 0.8 km the next. Look at several years, not one, and treat anything close to the line as uncertain.
When there is no distance
“All offered” means every applicant who named the school was offered a place, so there was no distance cut-off that year. Faith, selective and banded schools use other rules, and some councils do not publish a distance for every school, so those rows stay blank rather than guessed.
Before you rely on a distance
Distances here are copied from each council’s published allocation figures and linked from every school page to the source document. Councils measure in different ways (straight line or walking route, from the home to the school gate), so check the council’s own admission arrangements for the year you apply. A school page on MySchoolHub tells you how your postcode compares with the last few years.