Derbyshire School Catchment Areas

Derbyshire publishes its school admissions policy annually. With 353 primary and 45 secondary schools to allocate, the council uses a ranked oversubscription tiebreaker — usually looked-after children, then siblings, then catchment distance.

Chesterfield, Derby and Alfreton host the biggest clusters — useful to know when a preferred school is oversubscribed, because the next-nearest alternative is often in a neighbouring town rather than the same catchment.

Selective schools are part of the mix in Derbyshire — for those, passing the admissions test comes first and catchment distance only applies as a tiebreaker.

Each Derbyshire school below links to its official DfE record and Ofsted report so you can verify everything against the source data yourself.