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Original poster

London Oratory v Cardinal Vaughn - which do I put first on application ???

29 replies

Dani1 · 17/10/2017 14:04

We live in west London and are Catholics. DS is in Yr6, and we're about to apply for school for next year through the local council. Our two main choices are London Oratory and Cardinal Vaughn - but I don't know if either of them will consider DS if we don't put the school as first option.

What I mean is, suppose we put London Oratory first - does that mean if we don't get a place there (which frankly is very likely) Cardinal Vaughn won't consider us because we didn't put them first?

I feel like I'm going around in circles - as have asked both schools and they are being vague and/or non-responsive.

Any help or views would be really appreciated.

OP posts:
Original poster
Dani1 · 17/10/2017 20:07

That's so helpful - thank you so much for making that clear !

OP posts:
TobeLaRoan · 17/10/2017 14:50

Most catholic schools will also require you to submit a SIF (supplementary information form). This will ask for details about your catholic practice, but won't ask about what other schools you've applied to. You need to submit the SIF to the school by the specified date, as well as submitting the CAF to the Local Authority.

The school will then crunch the numbers and send the LA a list of all applicants in the order in which they meet the admissions criteria. The LA will in turn crunch all the data it receives from all the schools and individual applicants, and on 1st March will offer you a place at the highest ranked school that was able to offer your dc a place.

That's why it's so important to put your true order of preference.

innertiger · 17/10/2017 14:32

Neither school should know where you have placed them. My understanding is, you apply to your local borough and they then send a list to any faith schools with the names of those applying. The schools then send a list back to the borough saying these are the children we would offer too, and in which order (based on info you'll have filled in on your SIF forms and given directly to the schools).
The borough then feed that into their system and the offers are made. We were always told they key thing is to place them in the order you would prefer because if BOTH schools do make an offer, the computer will take your first/highest place choice and offer you that.

TobeLaRoan · 17/10/2017 14:29

Schools don't know what order you've put them in. The Admissions Code has the force of law and explicitly forbids using order of preference as a selection criterion.

You should put the schools in your genuine order of preference - imagine you were offered places at all the schools, and decide in which order you'd place them. That's tge order you should put on the form.