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

It depends on the school. Across the 22 Portsmouth schools with a published figure, the last child admitted lived a median of 0.75 miles away; the tightest was St John's Cathedral Catholic Primary School at 0.24 miles. The distance moves every year with demand.

Do Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth schools admitted from

For every oversubscribed school, Portsmouth publishes how far away the last child offered a place lived. This is that figure for 22 schools, tightest first. A short distance means a school that fills up close to its gates; a long one means places went further afield.

22schools with a published figure

0.75 mithe middle school's distance

16filled within a mile

The tightest is St John's Cathedral Catholic Primary School at 0.24 miles in varies; the most far-reaching, Trafalgar School, admitted from 1.72 miles.

Primary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
St John's Cathedral Catholic Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.24 mi	varies	113%
Westover Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.26 mi	varies	94%
Langstone Primary Academy Portsmouth	No current grade	0.3 mi	varies	98%
St Swithun's Catholic Primary School Southsea	No current grade	0.3 mi	varies	100%
Highbury Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.33 mi	varies	93%
Moorings Way Infant School Southsea	No current grade	0.36 mi	varies	86%
New Horizons Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.51 mi	varies	81%
Wimborne Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.53 mi	varies	98%
Cumberland Infant School Southsea	Good	0.57 mi	varies	96%
The Victory Primary School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.63 mi	varies	78%
Copnor Primary School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.75 mi	varies	92%
Solent Infant School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.8 mi	varies	100%
St Paul's Catholic Primary School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.83 mi	varies	65%
Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School Portsmouth	Good	0.93 mi	varies	99%
St Jude's CofE Primary School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.99 mi	varies	97%
Gatcombe Park Primary School Portsmouth	Good	1.18 mi	varies	97%

Secondary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
St Edmund's Catholic School Portsmouth	No current grade	0.51 mi	varies	109%
Priory School Southsea	Good	1.0 mi	varies	102%
Admiral Lord Nelson School Portsmouth	No current grade	1.07 mi	varies	100%
Ark Charter Academy Southsea	No current grade	1.1 mi	varies	98%
Mayfield School Portsmouth	Inadequate	1.13 mi	varies	93%
Trafalgar School Portsmouth	Good	1.72 mi	varies	103%

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 Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth. 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.