Is it too soon to start a 1st March (secondary school allocation day) support thread?

I've been thinking about this at times during the day but I'm really starting to feel stressed about it now! I only put Dd's other three choices because I was confident she will get her first choice. Found out that they have had 600 applications for 170 places! Feel sick! Don't want her to go to the other ones! My sisters daughters go to our first choice and they absolutely love it and are achieving so much!

The wait is driving me mad now. I never thought I'd be this stressed tbh. Here it states that the finalised lists get passed back from the LA to the schools next week (wk/c 20th) so now I'm considering who I know that I could bribe to tell me early

I'm getting really nervous now, I'm hoping that the fact that next week is our half term and we have family visiting will take my mind off it. I'm going to be off work that day which means I can think about it properly without having to rush out the door (I am not taking the day off for that, I have a hospital appointment)

My first choice admitted under PAN last year and almost half were on the distance criteria (after siblings and admission zone). Due to the way the admissions zones lie we are not actually that far from it, I think we might actually be closer than our admission zone school. (how the crow flies at least)

If we get her in then I can breath a little sigh of relief as it means dc2 will be higher up the pecking order (though we may end up applying under the exceptional medical reasons (asd) if another school seems best fit)

@oklumberjack I'm glad it worked out so well. I hope the same is true for us although I really do feel our first choice "fits" DD best.

Thanks for your thoughts.

@teddygirlonce actually none are faith schools (we are athiests so really don't qualify), although all are acadamies. Most follow the main Herts CC admissions criteria. The parish system definately comes from county.

@JustEatYourDinner yes I think you are right its there to ensure village children get a crack at the preferred schools which does explain the distance thing. However whilst thinking about it I can of understand how it works for the general admissions round but still don't get it when thinking about waiting lists and how they are constructed. How this is then balanced between town and village. I get even more bewildered when thinking about our preferred school which then has a lottery for each parish.

@tiggytape I wish I understood how the wait lists work. Its not explained in anything I've seen on the Herts CC website or the schools. I guess I'll just have to talk to admissions if / when we end up on a waiting list.

Sorry, and the 18 from the parish will be a lottery. Whereas townies will have to fit the criteria.

And the percentages change too.

@edna - I know some of the parish boundaries are because some of the villages are allocated a percentage of spaces in the town schools as they have no secondary of their own. So say the PAN is 180, 18 places will go to the outlying villages and then the normal criteria kicks in for the townies to fill the other 90%. So people from say, random town, offley, will get into the girls school where as people living in the town will miss out.

Sympathies with everyone waiting nervously. TiggyTape and others here were a great source of knowledge to me last year.

I just wanted to say that we got our second choice. At the time dd and I were a bit disappointed but now I'm SO glad we got our second choice school as it's a much better fit for her.

If I was a bit woo I'd say it was fate 😉.

Good luck everyone x

I'm really nervous too. Counting the days. If my DD doesn't get her 1st choice she'll be devastated and so will I. We stand a good chance as it's the local Academy and we are very close but until 1st of March comes I'm really worrying about it as I don't think I'd get our 2nd or 3rd choices and all other schools have serious issues.

We are waiting too. DS passed his 11+, and our local Grammar don't rank by scores. So after siblings/children of workers/medical/LAC he should get a place as we are only 1mile away - and their PAN is 170 with only 130 boys in the district passing the 11+. Doesn't make me feel any less nervous though. Our second choice is the high school with a grammar stream in the same trust as his primary, but it's a 20-25minute drive. And our third choice I could honestly hit with a stone from my front door. So I know we will get one of our three, but we really want the Grammar. I feel sick at the idea of needing an appeal!

Still stressing here and working out odds of getting DD1 to our first choice in catchment school.

So I've been thinking about admissions criteria and I was wondering if anyone could explain Herts parish system to me. From what I read its mostly based on distance but places also allocated based on the parish you live in. So every year there appears to be odd results where some children who live further away get in ahead of others who live closer.

Also I'm not sure how this works with the waiting lists (just thinking if we don't get in at the first cut what happens next). Particularly if, as with our preferred school, there is also a lottery system for children in each parish.

I think its very complicated and am sure I'm not the only one is confused...

LOL, actually the Scottish system sounds a lot more like the English system (not familiar with Wales - I think they have a slightly different system, also with catchments) than I thought!

Basically the placement requests are the equivalent of putting preferred choices on your CAF if it isn't your closest school, and your catchment school is the closest school, or the closest school that you can get places in!

The complication and anxiety, as far as I can see, is caused by choice - often an illusion because of over-subscription, and by league tables and everyone desperate to get into a school that is higher up the league tables than their nearest.

Are schools generally better in Scotland? Is educational achievement higher in Scotland overall (as far as can be judged by the different exam systems and timings) ?

Teddygirlonce for starting Primary 1 or Secondary1 the closing date is 15th March.

Here in Scotland you register at your catchment school (usually choice of 2, denominational and non denominational) and you will automatically have a place there. Only on occasions are catchment schools oversubscribed and this tends to be with 1 or 2 particular schools. If you wish to go elsewhere you submit a placing request. If the school you requested have vacancies they accept you. If they don't you default back to your catchment school. If there are more applications than vacancies then you are ranked on criteria

Medical conditions
Denominational (religious)
Sibling
Lone parent
Distance
Suitability of teaching methods / availability of subjects

Popular schools have tiny catchment areas. Any new developments that are built near popular schools will be added onto existing catchments of less popular schools in the same area. This means as time progresses catchment areas are become stranger! It also means that you may have 2 or 3 schools that are nearer to you than your actual catchment school!

Our local council are bringing into play reserved places for more and more schools to help alleviate the problem of pupils who move into the area mid year not having a place in their catchment school. It's also trying to move away from placing requests and promoting catchment schools with the tag line "local schools for local children" as there is a big uptake of people submitting placing requests in this city.

Can I join in? only one secondary school in our area and it's in special measures so ds1 should get in. It's the only one I put on the form as the next closest school is 5 miles away, good Ofsted and surrounded by houses so you have to live really close or have a sibling there already to get in.

Tbh I'm more worried about how ds1 will cope there. He has aspergers syndrome, will be one of the youngest in the year and just seems far too young for all of this. He still plays with his wooden train set regularly. He's going to get his head flushed down the toilet isn't he?