Which schools is your address actually in catchment for?
Enter a postcode. We'll show every primary and secondary nearby, their distance, current pupil numbers, and a link to your council's official catchment map - in about three seconds.
School admissions is stressful enough. Finding the data shouldn't be.
Every council does catchment slightly differently. We pull the same source data they use - then make it easier to read.
Search by your postcode.
Just type where you live (or hope to move to). We'll geocode it against the latest Ordnance Survey data and find every nearby school within reasonable travel distance.
Try the postcode searchCompare the schools side by side.
See capacity, current roll, age range, religious character, sixth form provision, and how oversubscribed each school was last cycle. Welsh and English schools both supported.
See an example: CardiffGo straight to the council's policy.
One click takes you to the official admissions document for your local authority - boundary map, oversubscription tiebreakers, application deadlines, the lot. No more PDF hunting.
What's in an admissions policy?How a catchment area is actually decided.
There's no fixed boundary. A school ranks every application against its published oversubscription criteria, in order, until its places run out.
- Looked-after children and children with an education, health and care plan naming the school - highest priority nationally, before anything else is considered.
- Sibling links. Most schools give the next priority to children with an older brother or sister already attending.
- Faith criteria. Schools with a religious character can prioritise baptism, church attendance or a faith leader's reference - but only after the two rules above.
- Distance from home to school. Once looked-after, sibling and faith places are settled, everyone left is ranked by straight-line ("as the crow flies") or safest-walking-route distance until places run out - this is what sets the "catchment" boundary each year.
Or pick your council directly.
The bits of the admissions process nobody actually explains.
How catchment areas actually work in 2026.
Catchment isn't a guarantee - it's a tiebreaker. We walk through how schools rank applications when oversubscribed, what "as the crow flies" really means, and why your nearest school isn't always the one you'll get.
Read the guide →The 2026/27 admissions timeline.
Every key date for primary and secondary applications - open day, closing date, offer day, second round, and what to do if you miss the deadline.
Read →Ofsted ratings explained.
What Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate mean, the new report-card grading, and how to read an inspection on a listing.
Read →Applying outside the normal round? Read our guide to in-year admissions.
Reviewed by people who've sat in admissions appeals.
Our editorial team includes former admissions officers and education journalists. Every guide is reviewed before each admissions cycle and updated when DfE policy changes - usually twice a year.
We aren't paid by councils or schools, and no listing can be promoted or improved by payment. The site exists because school admissions data is freely published but practically unreadable, and your kid deserves better than a 47-page PDF on a borough website. We do link to TheTutorLink, a tutoring platform, on some pages - those links are always clearly marked, and they don't influence what we write about any school or council.
Read our editorial policy →