If a school is oversubscribed, the distance from applicants' homes to the nodal point can be used for prioritising admissions.
[2][3] The term nodal point is also sometimes used to define a specific location on school premises to which home-school distance will be measured.
[4][5] Nodal admissions points are used by some local authorities to mitigate the effects of the Greenwich judgment on their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for local children.
[6][7] They are also used by schools which are not located within, or near the centre of, the area that they are intended to serve,[8][9] or by schools which have opened at a temporary location, pending a move to a permanent site.
[11][12] Nodal points have also been used to ensure a mixed socio-economic intake,[13] and put forward as a potential means of resolving school access issues in rural areas.