Distance, not catchment, would decide places at 14 council schools, Garth Hill included, from September 2028. The consultation closes on 2 December.
Living inside a school’s catchment area would stop counting at 14 Bracknell Forest schools from September 2028, under plans the council has put out for consultation. Places at oversubscribed schools would go mainly by how close a child lives to the school.
The consultation opened on 14 October and closes on Wednesday 2 December 2026. Responses count only if they go through the council’s online survey (Bracknell Forest Council, school admission arrangements).
The council calls catchment areas “designated areas”. Its consultation proposes two changes (consultation overview):
- removing living in a designated area as a priority for a place
- adding a new priority for children of armed forces families who get the Service Pupil Premium
The 14 schools
The council is the admission authority only for community and voluntary controlled schools, so these are the schools covered:
- Primary: Ascot Heath, College Town, Cranbourne, Crowthorne CE, Fox Hill, Harmans Water, Holly Spring, New Scotland Hill, The Pines, Warfield CE, Whitegrove, Wildridings and Winkfield St Mary’s CE
- Secondary: Garth Hill College
Academies and voluntary aided schools set their own rules and are not part of this consultation. That includes Edgbarrow, Ranelagh and the King’s Academy schools.
How places would be given out
The rules only matter when a school has more applicants than places. Children whose education, health and care plan names the school are admitted first, by law. After that, the order for the community schools and the two Church of England schools other than Crowthorne changes like this:
| Priority | Now (September 2027 entry) | Proposed (September 2028 entry) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Looked after and previously looked after children | Looked after and previously looked after children |
| 2 | Medical or social grounds | Medical or social grounds |
| 3 | Children of staff | Children of staff |
| 4 | Lives in the designated area and has a sibling at the school | Service Pupil Premium |
| 5 | Lives in the designated area | Has a sibling at the school, wherever they live |
| 6 | Lives outside the designated area and has a sibling at the school | All other children |
| 7 | All other children |
Within each group, places go to the children living closest, measured in a straight line from home to school. The rules are in the council’s current 2027 to 2028 arrangements and the proposed 2028 to 2029 arrangements in the consultation’s supporting files.
Crowthorne CE Primary keeps its church criteria. Under the proposal its order runs: Service Pupil Premium, then siblings whose parents meet the church criterion, then other siblings, then church families, then everyone else. None of those groups depends on where in Crowthorne a family lives.
Why the council wants to change
The trigger was Crowthorne CE Primary. A parent objected to its catchment area, and on 8 July the Office of the Schools Adjudicator partly upheld the objection (adjudicator’s determination ADA4602).
The adjudicator described a “bow-tie” shaped area with the school at its narrowest point. Parts of it are in Wokingham borough. It was widened in 2017 to take in the new Buckler’s Park estate, on the expectation of a second school there that was never built. The adjudicator stood by homes right by the school that fall outside the area and found “no full explanation” for the boundary. The decision said the area showed “a lack of rationality” and must be revised for 2028 entry by 28 February 2027.
Demand at the school shows why it matters. The adjudicator’s figures were:
- 2025: 48 first preferences for 30 Reception places, so 18 children who put it first did not get in
- 2026: 39 first preferences for the same 30 places, with 9 turned down
In 2026, the furthest child offered a place from inside the catchment area lived 1.118 miles away. The furthest offered from outside it, with a sibling already at the school, lived 0.579 miles away.
The council’s consultation document says it had already been thinking about reviewing boundaries that “had remained unchanged for a number of years”. The ruling, it says, made it ask whether designated areas still serve a purpose, “particularly given the borough’s small size and the high number of schools available to families” (consultation overview).
Wokingham Borough Council has already removed catchment areas from all the schools it sets admissions for. It told the adjudicator that new housing made rational boundaries hard to keep and that “parents understand distance”. The academies nearest Crowthorne CE, on both sides of the border, kept their catchment areas for 2027.
This is the council’s second attempt at Crowthorne. Before this year’s admissions round it consulted on shrinking the area back to its pre-2017 shape, taking Buckler’s Park out. Of 77 responses, 44 supported that and 33 opposed it. Buckler’s Park families said they had bought their homes on the understanding that they were in the catchment. A Cabinet paper in February recommended not going ahead, and the council kept the area unchanged for 2027, according to the adjudicator’s summary.
The armed forces priority
The new Service Pupil Premium priority would cover children who:
- have a parent serving in the regular armed forces, or in another nation’s forces stationed in England, and are registered as a service child in the latest autumn school census
- have been registered as a service child on any school census in the past six years
- get a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or War Pensions Scheme because a parent died in service
The council says service children move more often because of postings, which makes a stable school place harder to secure. That matters most in the south of the borough, close to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. The council’s own school places strategy says College Town and Owlsmoor primaries are affected by military families moving; we covered that strategy in October.
What it means for you
- Applying for a place for September 2027? Nothing changes. This year’s applications use the current rules, designated areas included. The Year 7 deadline is Saturday 31 October.
- Child starting Reception or Year 7 in September 2028? These rules would apply to you. For Reception that means children born between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024. The council’s admissions guides for 2028 entry are due on 12 September 2027.
- Living in a designated area but some way from the school? Your address would no longer lift you above families who live nearer. The council’s February Cabinet paper said families at the far ends of Crowthorne CE’s area currently have “a high chance of admission due to the shape” of it.
- Living close to a school but just outside its boundary? Distance would work in your favour.
- Have a child at the school already? Sibling priority would apply wherever you live. Today it is weaker if you live outside the area.
You can find your current designated area on the council’s designated area maps. Read the supporting documents and respond through the consultation survey by 2 December. The admissions team is on 01344 354023.
What happens next
The Cabinet Member for Education will consider the responses and decide whether to go ahead. The council must settle its 2028 to 2029 arrangements by 28 February 2027 and publish them by 15 March 2027. We will report the decision.
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