Skip to content
Feedback button

School designated areas


Cornwall Council has divided Cornwall into geographical areas called ‘designated areas’.  These are sometimes called 'catchment areas'.  These areas are each served by a specific school or schools.  Designated areas help Cornwall Council to ensure that there are enough school places.  They are also used to decide on entitlement to home to school transport.  Please note that the designated school for an address may not always be the one nearest to that address.

Designated area is not always a priority in schools' oversubscription criteria.  Schools use the oversubscription criteria to decide which children should be allocated places.

Cornwall Council decides on entitlement to transport to all schools based on:

  • whether the school is in the designated area for a child’s home address; or
  • it is the child's nearest school

Addresses in some towns in Cornwall may have more than one designated school. These are called 'shared designated areas'. You can find details of the shared areas in the Shared Designated Areas document.

Designated school (or schools) for my address

To view the designated schools in your area select one of the links below.

A map of Cornwall will load showing the designated areas. Click on one of the sections to view the information about relevant schools for that area.

Please contact the school admissions team for advice if you live close to a designated area line.

Primary schools

View the primary school designated areas

Secondary schools

View the secondary school designated areas

Need help?

Most issues can be resolved online, it's the quickest and most convenient way to get help.

Use our contact us form