Catchment area
The area whose addresses are assigned to a given school.
What it means
A catchment area is the area whose addresses are assigned to a given school. A child living in the catchment area is normally offered a place at that school.
Councils set and publish catchment areas. Older policy documents call them delineated areas. Denominational and non-denominational schools usually have separate catchment areas, so one address can sit in more than one.
A parent who wants a different school makes a placing request. Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) places do not usually run on school catchment areas, though a council may give priority to children who live nearby.
Also called delineated area, designated school area or zone.
How Admit handles it
Catchment is one of the criteria a council can score applications on. The council decides how much it counts, alongside criteria such as siblings at the school.
The criteria are configured to the council’s policy and applied the same way to every application, so catchment children and placing requests are handled in one process.
Applications and allocation
Your criteria, applied consistently: scored, matched to capacity and placed in one run.
Placing request
A parent’s request for a place at a school outside their catchment area.
Intake
The cohort of children admitted for one school session.
All glossary terms
Every term, with the names councils use for it.