Schools admission criteria......

The grammar I've just applied to for my daughter does have sibling priority, siblings come before distance (assuming 11+ pass).

there are barely any children in care in the grand scheme of things they will hardly affect your child’s chances of getting in.
Seems very harsh to begrudge kids in care tbh.

if you’d omitted that from your post and just mentioned pupil premium or distance you might of gotten a more sympathetic response

Schools consult with parents/community about changes to their admissions policy. You say it has changed how, and what has COVID got to do with it?

Are you sure the criteria have changed since you applied for your older dd? Around here that criteria has been in place for at least five years. Very few children in that category are admitted each year. Is this the first year of the change? To give you a different concern I think that you should be more concerned about the impact of VAT on school fees for independent schools than the small number of children who might be admitted on the basis of living in care/ pupil premium. How far out did the catchment go before? If she doesn't get a place you can still appeal for a place.

The 'sink' School might become better because it will mean that more of her peers who would have attended the grammar go there. In my experience a 'sink' School in a grammar area can still have decent, dare I say, better teachers because they need to engage the children more and they might have more dyslexia support. My child who didn't pass the 11 plus is now at Oxbridge having attended a non grammar school in a grammar school area. Have you been to look at the school?

Brilliantly said. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Look at ‘get information about school’ website in respect of the grammar school and see how low the percentage of pupil premium children in the school is, compared to the ‘sink’ school. Then you will realise you have nothing to worry about and the money you had for tutoring paid off. Then maybe spare a thought about the children in the ‘sink’ school.

The majority already didn't have a choice.

It is right fhat children in care are at the top of the list!

Absolutely this.

OP, your entitlement and unpleasantness is plain to see by your posts. Your judgment of children in care and disadvantaged backgrounds reflects poorly on you. You’re also clearly rather ignorant yourself as I’d bet my house that the allocation criteria for your preferred school hasn’t changed since your first child got her place - children in care and PP get priority at all schools - so why this is news to you now is beyond me. And as to why you are so outraged by that, that’s a whole different issue.

Wanting the very best for your child is natural and something we all strive for. Achieving that at the expense of others, particularly those much less privileged than your own, is where your morals have taken a nosedive

@LookingforMaryPoppins

My DS is ‘supposed’ to have the advantage of top of the admission criteria because he has an EHCP. We are a very hard working family, he is doing well academically and is extremely quiet at school and doesn’t self advocate.
We get to select a parental preference school and go through the admissions process first.
Shall I tell you what happens in reality?
Schools see ‘EHCP’ and come with any excuse they can to state ‘cannot meet needs’. No one at the LA is particularly competent, or knows SEND law, or even if they do - they decide to break it.
Schools know this and off roll where they can.
So that leaves me in a situation where I don’t know if my DS will even have a school place - let alone a proper choice of school.
I’m fully preparing to end my career and having to home school.
I think if your selective school sees an enrolment of your daughter as giving them better results than enrolling someone with an EHCP - they’ll off-roll the EHCP child unlawfully - in the hope that the family know fighting the law takes possibly a year with no school place - or may not even bother to apply in the first place.
For far too many EHCP parents, just having a school place is a struggle - let alone a proper choice of school.

I live in Scotland so there isn’t this level of choice. But I can’t work out why prioritising siblings for almost anything would be fair. So all the pressure is on the eldest?

I also hope that children in care are always prioritised. Society has failed them and society should work hard to help them too. What a horrible thing to worry about.

Your reaction to this is astonishing OP. You seem to really resent a very small handful of very disadvantaged kids from having the leg-up that they need. They still have to pass the 11+. I would be amazed if this wasn’t also the criteria when your other daughter got a place. All state schools prioritise pupil premium and looked after kids. It’s the right thing to do.

Why do you assume that children in care don't have hardworking parents who cherish education? Ditto, PP?

I have to very patiently explain equity to my students every year when they complain about our PP students going on an extra school trip. I get it, they're teenagers and all they see is a group of children getting something they aren't. And I hear their parents' voices in it all. They ask "how come my parents work hard and I get nothing?" What they don't see is the reality of life for the people sitting around them who are quietly dying from shame because the people next to them are claiming disadvantage when they really don't have the first idea what it means to be disadvantaged.

You aren't at the bottom of a pile. A small number of LAC and PP students are rightly having the field leveled for them. You have no idea the advantages your dd already has over them and will continue to have.

Those are the top categories for any state school. Very, very few kids who pass the 11+ will be on pupil premium or in care. For a grammar they want the top X highest 11+ scores irrespective of whether or not you have a sibling. I’m amazed you’ve only just realised grammars have no sibling priority.

This.

Oh wow, this post is something else!

The outcomes for children in care, or previously in care are generally pretty poor.

My two children were taken into care at the age of 14 months and just over 2 years old.

By the age of 2 and a half and three and a half, they had a brand new mum and dad and a boat load of trauma to deal with. I'm surprised they are still standing quite frankly.

But they are, and they are meeting expectations. They bloody amaze me..every day.

I wouldn't put them through the 11+, because I would feel it would be just too much for them. They are still standing and doing ok - that's quite a feat after what they have been through.

Children who are in care or who were previously in care, do get first priority on school selection. It is literally one of the very few benefits they get.

Imagine getting a brand new mum and dad at that age (and not all of them even get that), having to deal with all the shit that life's already piled on you, and then someone else getting pissy because, for once, you were allowed at the front of the queue.

BTW - they only get to the front of the queue, not because everyone cares so much, but because they get extra funding for the school - for the school, not for them personally.

YABU.

The numbers of children in care or receiving pupil premium are likely to be small, and even smaller still will be those that have passed the 11+. It is completely right and fair that children in those circumstances are given priority entry assuming they have met the selection standard. What makes you think these children arent as deserving as your DD? Or that having a sibling makes your DD more deserving?

OP ths is just the way it goes in selective systems. I think it's great that disadvantaged children are being prioritised but understand your fears. Sink schools round me are truly awful in many many ways. Academically, I'm sure your daughter will be fine, she had already proven she's clever and can work hard plus she's lucky to have a family able to support academically and with time and money.

Having a sibling priority in the criteria wouldn’t make this situation any fairer, but OP has a valid point. Having Pupil Premium as criteria is extremely unfair.

Why would there be a sibling rule?

There probably won’t be that many in care applying - they will still have had to pass the 11+.

surely if siblings had priority that would also be unfair on those without siblings.

What is a normal family?

Bloody pesky kids who are in care or who have poor families - how dare they be given the opportunity to achieve things!
Surely a selective school shouldn’t have any sibling criteria?
Your dc are already at a great advantage merely by having parents who care. FFS just when you think you have read it all on here 🤦🏽‍♀️

Not from the UK so unfamiliar with some of it. But I do think people are being harsh on the OP.

It’s not the old system. Plenty of areas in the country have selective grammar schools remaining. Not everyone takes the test - only those who want to get into the selective school.

This looks like normal selection criteria to me. If you're relatively close you'll be fine.

This is why comprehensive education was introduced.
Where abouts are you that operates this old system