Introduction

A ‘catchment area’ is an area defined on a map which shows you what your ‘catchment school’ is, depending on where you live.

The majority of schools in the East Riding have a catchment area, and children living in a school’s catchment have a high priority for a place at that school.

About school catchment areas

Most children in the East Riding attend their catchment area school, and this is usually their nearest and most suitable school.

Some schools do not have catchment areas, for example, Roman Catholic primary schools. For details of the admissions arrangements for these schools, we recommend that you read the Guide for parents of children starting primary or infants school, which will detail any specific admissions criteria for your chosen school.

How to find your catchment area

You can use our interactive catchment finder to search for your school catchment area:

You can use the map to:

• find your local catchment schools
• filter by primary and secondary schools
• view catchment area boundaries
• search for catchment areas by address or postcode.

School places and catchment areas

Applying for a place at your catchment area school

When applying for a school place, we strongly recommend including your catchment school as one of your three preferences, even if you do not name it as your first choice.

This is because if your application is not successful for any of the schools you have chosen, your child will be allocated a place at the nearest school that does have available spaces. While this may be your catchment school, this is not guaranteed as a place is not reserved for your child.

Even if your catchment school is your first choice, we recommend also making sure that you select a second and third preference on your application. This is because it is not always possible to allocate every child a place at their catchment school.

Applying for a school place that is not in your catchment area

It is important to understand that if you apply for a school outside your catchment area, your application for that school will have lower priority than those from within the catchment.

There is no reason why your child cannot go to a school in another catchment area, but if you are naming it as your first choice school, you should carefully consider the likelihood of being offered a place.

You should also bear in mind that if you apply for a school outside your catchment area and your child is offered a place, younger siblings may have a lower chance of getting a place there in the future.