How far do you need to live from a school in Merton to get a place?

It depends on the school. Across the 9 Merton schools with a published figure, the last child admitted lived a median of 1.0 miles away; the tightest was Lonesome Primary School at 0.25 miles. The distance moves every year with demand.

Do Merton schools have catchment areas?

Most English schools do not. When a school is oversubscribed, places are offered outward from the school until they run out, so what exists is how far the last admitted child lived, which the council publishes after each round. That is the figure on this page.

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How far Merton schools admitted from

For every oversubscribed school, Merton publishes how far away the last child offered a place lived. This is that figure for 9 schools, tightest first. A short distance means a school that fills up close to its gates; a long one means places went further afield.

9schools with a published figure

1.0 mithe middle school's distance

4filled within a mile

The tightest is Lonesome Primary School at 0.25 miles in varies; the most far-reaching, Ricards Lodge High School, admitted from 1.61 miles.

Primary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
Lonesome Primary School Mitcham	No current grade	0.25 mi	varies	65%
Wimbledon Park Primary School London	No current grade	0.28 mi	varies	87%
St Mark's Primary School Mitcham	No current grade	0.51 mi	varies	79%
Singlegate Primary School London	Outstanding	0.58 mi	varies	94%
Hillcross Primary School Morden	No current grade	1.0 mi	varies	88%
Merton Park Primary School London	No current grade	1.16 mi	varies	93%
Pelham Primary School London	No current grade	1.18 mi	varies	88%

Secondary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
Rutlish School London	No current grade	1.49 mi	varies	98%
Ricards Lodge High School London	No current grade	1.61 mi	varies	102%

Reading the numbers

These are not catchment areas: most English schools have none. Each figure is the distance from the school to the home of the furthest child who was offered a place under the distance criterion in that round, as Merton measures it, which is usually a straight line from a fixed point at the home to one at the school. Looked-after children, siblings and, at faith schools, faith criteria come before distance, so a school can fill before distance is reached at all. The figure moves every year with the number of applications. How the whole process works →

Checking an address against these

Each school's page has a checker that measures a postcode against that school's distance. The full property report measures every nearby school at once, alongside sold prices, flood risk and the rest of the house.

Admission distances published by Merton. School details and grades from the Department for Education's register and Ofsted. If a figure looks wrong, tell us and it goes on the accuracy log.