BSCS: Realistically, how close do you have to live?

Map showing Bradley Stoke Community School catchment area in a typical year. Radius: 0.666 mile

Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) is one of the most popular schools in South Gloucestershire and it consistently attracts significantly more 1st-preference applications for Year 7 entry than there are places available.

Hence the perennial question we hear around this time of year as parents are making secondary school applications for their offspring: How close do you have to live to BSCS to have a realistic chance of getting in?

In a typical year, around 40 percent of successful entrants are allocated a place without consideration of how far they live from the school because they are in one of the prioritised categories that include: children with special educational needs, looked-after children and siblings of children already at the school.

Once places have been allocated to the prioritised cases, proximity to the school comes into play for the remaining applicants, based on home-to-school distances. Within this process, distances are all measured to three decimal points in a straight line between the address point of the child’s main residence and the address point of the school, using the council’s mapping software, to ensure consistency for all applicants.

It should be added that a second geographical factor, namely residence within the school’s ‘consortium area of responsibility’ (roughly comprising of the Stokes, Filton and Patchway) can theoretically come into play during the process. However, since BSCS opened in 2005, no places at the school have been allocated in any entry year to applicants living outside the consortium area.

As can be seen from the table below, applicants not satisfying the criteria for one of the prioritised categories have typically needed to live within two-thirds of a mile of the school to qualify for a place at BSCS.

Above: Map showing catchment area in a typical year. [Click to enlarge; view larger version (DropBox)]

Table showing Bradley Stoke Community School application statistics 2017-19.

Disclaimer: Past years’ statistics may not be a reliable guide to the actual outcomes in future years, due to changes in demographics and other factors. The description given above is a simplification; please consult the admissions brochure for definitive information.

Related link: Secondary school admissions (SGC)

This article originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal magazine (on page 27). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH (except August), to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.

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