We've been using Locrating extensively in the past few months while exploring where to move to with our young family. The site made it super easy to compare schools (both primary and secondary) and se... See more
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I cannot recommend Locrating enough. We used their platform to narrow down which schools to tour and to identify which state schools were truly worth exploring. The depth of educational statistics... See more
I've found this to be a really valuable service, it has helped us get a much clearer idea about schools and catchment areas which obviously helps when you've a property budget. It's enabled us to prio... See more
Company replied
Subscribed for about six months while moving house. Used Chrome plugin for Rightmove and it was pretty seamless - much easier than tracking down the various data websites for schools, society and envi... See more
Company replied
Very useful!
10 January 2021
Reply from Locrating
Thanks for the review Ruppa, it's much appreciated! I'm pleased you're finding the site useful.
Kind regards, Lewis
Worth paying for it
Absolutely!, this website makes deciding where to move a lot easier. I paid for the subscription, its worth the money paying for the extra info. When chosing a primary you can even check in which secondary children usually go.
9 January 2021
Reply from Locrating
Thanks for the review Mark, it's much appreciated! I'm pleased you're finding the site helpful and consider it worth the investment.
Kind regards, Lewis
Gives you all the information you need…
Gives you all the information you need when trying to work out where you want to make your home in a clear and intuitive way.
Especially good for London where one mile makes a huge difference to what an area is like.
9 January 2021
Reply from Locrating
Thanks for the review HS, it's much appreciated! I'm glad you're finding the site useful.
Kind regards, Lewis
Great source of knowledge
Locrating provides detailed insights into schools and area nearby
9 January 2021
Reply from Locrating
Thanks for the review Ekaterina, it's much appreciated!
Kind regards, Lewis
Can’t recommend highly enough
It really is an incredible game changing website. We’re finding it SO useful as we head into this massive new stage of our life and move our family. You really want to make sure you get a move like this right and it’s proving invaluable... can’t recommend the premium sub enough too. It has so many extra features that are really useful in narrowing down the data. I emailed for help in editing out the private schools and how to order them by exam results (although not of course the only metric!) and they got straight back to me with really clear guidance. It’s helped pinpoint our searches (overlaying the Zoopla property data with the school catchment spheres made our jaws drop!) and armed us with fantastic info to inform the move... trouble is I just can’t get off it now, it’s too good and for a map geek like me totally bewitching!
29 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Thanks for the review James, it's much appreciated. Any other questions, please don't hesitate to shout. Best of luck with the move.
Kind regards, Lewis
A real gem
A real gem-especially at this odd time when we can’t visit schools in person. Easy to use with some really insightful features and informative explanatory videos. I only wish I’d thought ahead and bought the three month subscription instead of just the one month as I’ve already renewed twice because it’s proving so helpful in finding a school!
10 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi, Many thanks for the review and kind words, they are much appreciated. I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your schools search and I hope you have a lovely holiday season!
Kind regards,
Lewis
Locrating is great and easy to use
Locrating is great and easy to use. The user interface is clear and understandable. I love so much that the filter function, it can show the rental proterties together with the schools. One thing I would like to have is the printing function, like I set a filter to show only the primary schools, and then generate a list of the result, which can save as a PDF for printing. That would be nice if we can have it.
5 December 2020
Reply from Locrating
Hi Jason,
Many Thanks for your review and kind words, it's much appreciated! I'm pleased you are finding the site helpful and thanks for the feature suggestion also.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Invaluable resource
Really happy I've found that invaluable resource. We are completely changing our approach towards finding a school for our girls. The new feature added 'Transfers' to understand from which Primary school or to which Secondary school pupils go, is just fantastic! very helpful, and intuitive. Could spend hours in there to plan for the future of our girls. Big thanks to Locrating
1 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Guimoul,
Many Thanks for your review and kind words, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site helpful and intuitive. We're really pleased with the new transfers feature. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Helpful and inexpensive resource
We were really pleased we were recommended this by some other parents. Easy to use, really clear resource, invaluable. We highly recommend.
2 December 2020
Reply from Locrating
Hi Louisa,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site valuable and would recommend. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Good for info on schools but catchment error
Good for info on schools but we found some errors in the catchment area data - this could have made us buy a house outside the school catchment we wanted - it was only when I double checked on the council website I realised it was slightly out of the catchment area and therefore a no go
1 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Jhward,
Thanks for your review.
It is important to understand the data that we display and how to interpret it. There are two pieces of data that we show on Locrating which relate to what are referred to as "school catchments"; (1) our catchment area indicators (aka pupil distribution circles), which come from school census data and (2) "last distance offered", which comes from Local Authorities.
Our catchment indicators are available for all schools in England, they are free of charge and show where existing children live; broken down into (a) a green circle around schools showing where most children live, (b) a yellow circle showing where some live and (c) a red circle showing where very few live.
I believe these circles are what you are saying are erroneous; but it is important to understand that these include all children (for the selected academic year) such as siblings, which may be offered a place not based on distance but because they are siblings of existing children at the school; they also, for example, include children offered based on academic ability, faith and even lottery. They are absolutely correct, because they use official data taken directly from the school census, but these circles are not the same as the "last distance offered", which is what you almost certainly found on the council website and which you are saying is the "correct" catchment.
When you signed up you would have been sent links to our blog articles (see below) that explain how our catchment indicators are calculated and how they differ from "last distance offered" as shown on council websites. Each time you login you are also presented with a YouTube video that explains the differences between the two (https://youtu.be/1H56dQnTUOs).
For many schools we do in fact show both our catchment indicators and the official last distance offered, but not for all schools as will be explained below.
Last distance offered comes from local authorities and is the furthest distance a child lives from the school who was offered a place based on the "distance criterion" alone. i.e. it excludes any pupils offered a place before distance is considered. It is not the same as pupil distribution, so it will naturally be different, further the two relate to different intake years. The school census is updated each spring and it takes many months to get access to the data, so our most recent catchment indicators are for the 2019/20 academic year and you are likely looking at a 2020/21 last distance offered. So, these are different academic years and therefore different pupils and a totally different set of offers and distances.
Unfortunately, last distance offered it is very hard to collect. We have to manually find it on Local Authority websites and type it in from the PDFs or other documents found there. It can't be automated as there are spelling mistakes and various other inconsistencies in these documents that require a human to resolve. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to do this for 30k+ schools, but we have collected it for the most popular areas based on our site’s usage. For these areas, we have entered 2019/20 and 2020/21 data.
We have found that our green circles (i.e. where "most" children live) are often a good approximation to the last distance offered, but ultimately, they are different measures; both are simply an extra piece of information to allow parents and guardians to make informed choices; they provide an indication as to where existing pupils live and how offers have been made in the past years. Which leads me to my final and perhaps most important point.
It is important to understand that even "last distance offered" is a historical measure. It says what happened last year based on who applied last year. This distance can and does vary each year and sometimes by considerable amounts, as it all depends on who applies each year and their particular circumstances. There is no way to predict a future distance because you don't know in advance who will apply to the school. Therefore, when you say the property is "slightly out of the catchment" I believe what you mean is that last year it was slightly beyond the last distance offered; it may, in fact, be in it next year; nobody has any way of predicting this. Hence, we go to great pains to say that all these measures need to be used for guide purposes only as there is always an element of risk/luck when it comes to school admissions.
I hope this clarifies the data we show. There are no contact details on this review and I can’t find a matching username in our database, so I can’t email you, but if you raise a helpdesk ticket, I am more than happy to look at the specific school you are referring to and provide any further comments that I think might be relevant. We are always here to help with this sort of thing.
Kind regards,
Lewis
For reference, our blog articles on this topic, that we mail to everyone on signup are:
Locrating's catchment areas explained
https://www.locrating.com/Blog/locrating-catchment-areas-explained.aspx
Collecting last distance offered data
https://www.locrating.com/Blog/collecting-last-distance-offered-data.aspx
Really useful site with detailed data.
1 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Graham,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Excellent
Excellent! Packed up with info to help you make the best choice for your child
1 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Antoniya,
Many your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
A good tool to find school
Locrating provides a full picture of school distributions and performance. Especially I am not familiar to UK schools, it saves me a lot of time to do school research. It's new function 'School Transfers' gives me a clear idea how to choose school. This is a really perfect handy tool. Very nice work.
1 December 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Michelle,
Many Thanks for your review and kind words, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful and like the new school transfers feature; we're really pleased with that also. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Excellent resource to find information…
Excellent resource to find information about schools.
30 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Amara,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site helpful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Incredible mine of information
Incredible mine of information on schools in one place. Invaluable.
30 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Emma,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Excellent customer service!
I recently made an enquiry about admissions and distribution data. My question was answered promptly and comprehensively and provided links for my further investigation. I'm very satisfied with the professional way my question was dealt with. Thank you Lewis!
30 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Katherine,
Many Thanks for your review and kind words, it's much appreciated! Any other questions don't hesitate to ask.
Kind regards,
Lewis
Deciding on an area to live
Deciding on an area to live with our 3 children has been made so much easier with the amazing maps on Locrating.com, the school and area information has been invaluable in our search for the perfect area for our family
30 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Nicky,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your relocation.
Kind regards,
Lewis
I highly recommend locating to everyone…
I highly recommend locating to everyone who need searching school for their kids. The details in the website are extremely useful. Moreover, you can also read the nearby houses information which is a great function.
29 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi KW H,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
I had a great experience with this service.
I had a great experience with this service. You can easily find all schools specification. I kept my time when I searched for the schools. this is a good guide choosing schools for your child
29 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Mustafa,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search.
Kind regards,
Lewis
A plethora of information regarding schools and neighbourhoods
I find locrating.com to be very convenient because it offers the options to see a lot of data regarding schools and living areas in a neat and responsive UI.
Besides I like the fact that I can filter schools by any criteria I can think of and bookmark favourite ones. On top, neighbourhoods stats seems to be a good indicator regarding how affluent certain areas are.
29 November 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Locrating
Hi Gruffalo,
Many Thanks for your review, it's much appreciated! I'm really pleased you are finding the site useful. Best of luck with your school search and remember to stay away from that big bad mouse!
Kind regards,
Lewis
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