I'm all for parents who do whatever they need to do to get their child into their school of choice.

Let's face it, the school admissions system is so complicated and designed to be that way that you need a double masters degree just to understand it all and it encourages parents to be devious.

The LEA's give you wrong and unlawful info as well.

My DC has been without a secondary school place for nearly a year now and I am having to home educate instead.

I could very easily not bother educating him at all and nobody would care.

Crazy thing is I have just applied for yet another secondary school place this time outside our catchment area that is 8 mins drive away from where we live but yet again because it's a good school they are oversubscribed and full. However if we moved into the catchment area which means effectively just moving 8 mins down the road my DC would immediately be offered a place.

If we don't move then I have to appeal for a place against the usual prejudice to rooms and resources etc defence. The school is over PAN by 12 and I've been told although we are first on the waiting list we are effectively 12th as the LA won't offer us a place until the PAN have reduced by 12.

We are now on four different waiting lists and still my DC does not have a suitable school to go to.

I would most definitely lie and cheat now and do whatever necessary to get my DC into a suitable school.

yes but if you have 10 applicants a place or whatever at 11 and fewer at 4 or 5 why risk it by only sitting them for the school at 11+?

mumNWLondon - I like that idea!

Xenia - surely your DCs would have no problem competing against people from the state sector for places at 11 if the state sector is as bad as you make out. Your arguments don't make sense.

Xenia are you saying that you don't want any female teachers?

If my dd wants to teach or lead the country I would be equally happy.

GrumpyYoungFogey - you say everyone should go to their local state school with faith schools effectively becoming community schools through the same admisssion process as other state schools. How would you ensure your "should" - presumably it would involve an attempt to abolish private schools or reduce their intake to some very small number.

Or educate them privately from day one and pick a career as a woman where you have your choice, power, all because you earn a lot of money. Make sure girls don't go into hair dresing and nursing and teaching and it's only the boys who want to lead the nation and run companies. Girls can do that too and that then enables them to pay school fees (but only if they had a good enough education in the first place).

Probably after good genes and good mental health and being loved (all of which sadly many chidlren do not get), your school and in particular your peer group, has the biggest influence on you. In a sense I pay to buy a clever hardworking peer group.

And go private from age 4 or 5. I'm sure my girls got into Habs and NLCS slightly more easily at 4 or 5 than they might have done at 11 when you get that massive influx from the state sector.

To go back a rather a lot of posts...

The system of "choice" is a farce. It wastes huge amounts of everybody's time, whilst letting the middle-classes avoid confronting the social reasons (immigration, family breakdown, loss of social taboos that civilise behaviour) that give rise to so-called "bad-schools".

Everyone in the state sector should go to their local school, unless there is spare room at another school out of area. If it leads to the white middle-classes clearing out of London to the Home Counties (like the working class before them) then so be it.

Church schools funded by the state should have exactly the same admission criteria as "community" schools. RC schools are not especially sectarian (in England and Wales at least), but they do seem to be populated by the offspring of nominal left-footers who see themselves as ethnically a bit different. CofE secondary schools (and increasing primaries) are simply a dodge for filtering out the more undesirable elements.

If you want a specifically Christian school, do it privately, like this:

http://www.cfschool.org.uk/finance_fees.shtml

Ultimately though, I suspect where they are schooled makes little difference to the life outcome of one's children (or even their exam results). So this vast effort is to ensure that the "DC's" have a "happier" time at school. Which more than makes up for the house moves, entrance exams, stress over getting choices, tutoring, being split up from primary-school friends and goodness knows what else goes into the process.

Does the lottery apply to those who meet the faith criteria or to any applicants?

Sorry - misread your post. So it's the school itself that has introduced the lottery?