School catchment and transport eligibility maps

If the availability of free transport to school is an important factor in your decision making over what schools to apply for you should read this first.

Most statutory school age pupils make their own arrangements to travel to school, this could be by walking, cycling, using public transport or sharing arrangements with other families, or the family transporting themselves.

For a small percentage of pupils, the authority may arrange travel assistance, but this is usually restricted to where they attend their nearest qualifying school. This will be either the school located within the transport priority area for their home address or, if different, their nearest school to their home address assuming in either case that the school(s) in question are located beyond the statutory walking distance of their home address. Our policy (section 3) explains more fully the eligibility criteria for qualifying for free school transport and when help may be provided and how. The same policy applies to pupils with and without an Education, Health and Care Plan.  A separate policy applies to post 16 students in Y12 and above

How do I find out what is my child’s nearest qualifying school?

1. This will always include the school located within the transport priority area for your child's home address.  You can find out what school that is by using our School Catchment and Transport Eligibility Maps
2. In some cases, there may be a second school which is also considered the nearest qualifying school. This will be determined by using our GIS tool to measure the shortest route from your home address main entrance that opens onto a road or street that is maintained at public expense to the main school entrance that meets the public highway. As you don’t have access to our GIS system we provide advice at section 3.3 of our policy as to how you can find out what is your child’s nearest school.   

If the availability of free transport to school is an important factor in your decision making over what schools to apply for you should list your nearest qualifying school(s), as your first and (if necessary) second choices on your application for a school place.

How do you decide which is the nearest school with a place available?

As the Council co-ordinates the offer of school places, we can identify which is the nearest qualifying school to a child’s address and whether a place would have been available at either -
The point you moved address or moved your child’s school (where this happens during the academic year) or
The point when a place was offered to your child to join a school in September as part of the usual admissions round (e.g., Reception age, transition to middle, high, secondary school in September).

In other words, we will check to see if it is likely that your child would have been offered a place at their nearest qualifying school under the school’s admissions arrangements. This will apply regardless of how much time has passed between your child starting at the school and the transport application being submitted. If you did not make an application for the nearest qualifying school but would likely have been offered a place had you done so, then it is unlikely that your child will qualify for free school transport.

The Swarland Primary School catchment area has now been extended to cover the Longframlington area in Years 5 and 6, which had previously been allocated to the Dr Thomlinson's CE Middle School only. 

This area now has a dual catchment:

• For Swarland Primary School and The Duchess High School pathway.
• For the Dr Thomlinson's CE Middle School and King Edward VI High School pathway.