Step Up Step Up - December 2013 | Page 10

PAGE 10 STEP UP School place mapping tool The council is keen to support parents in making the best use of their ‘An important element of choosing a school is the distance between school and home...’ six options for school places. An important element of choosing a school is the distance between school and home, which is why the primary school brochure provides details of the furthest distance a school admitted a child from in previous years. It can, however, be difficult to understand what the furthest distance from a school ‘looks like’ and so the council is developing an interactive web-based tool. Parents will be able to click on a link for each non-voluntary aided primary school to view a map of the radius around the school showing the area covered by the furthest distance. This may help parents to understand how, in some cases, they may live too far from a school to have a realistic chance of their child being offered a place. Of course, it is understood that there is no guarantee in the current year a school will make offers to children living the same distance away as the previous year. However, it is another form of support to help with school applications. The mapping tool is in development and should be available soon.