Secondary schools in Milton Keynes

Have you thought about Bedfordshire? The Upper Schools close-ish to MK are good. If you lived in Woburn Sands, you'd be Cedars catchment, I think.Or Redborne.

Just to flag to OP if they don't know, that Buckinghamshire has a grammar system and Buckingham secondary school is not a grammar. That means it will be missing the top 20-25% of the ability group (who will be in grammar schools).

Personally I'd steer clear of Bucks schools for this reason. (MK, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire do not have grammar systems)

Buckingham secondary school currently has yr 8 vacancies www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/education/school-admissions/changing-school-in-year/check-for-school-places/list-of-school-vacancies/

I don't know much about MK academy. Stantonbury hasn't had a good reputation for years. Sir Herbert Leon is on the Lakes Estate in Bletchley, an area with very high social deprivation. I have volunteered there occasionally and have been told that some pupils have never been to Milton Keynes, let alone London. If those are your options for Yr8 placea currently and you have flexibility in location, I agree with the above poster - look outside MK - North Bucks with Winslow or Wing (Sir Thomas Fremantle or The Cottesloe), south Northamptonshire, or Bedfordshire with its middle school system where yr 8 is the last year of middle school and yr 9 the first of high school.

@Aj981
If you don’t need to be in Milton Keynes, you might find The Sir Thomas Fremantle School at Winslow a better bet. Not sure about vacancies but you could ask them. It’s not far from MK.

There are very few places in MK that are within the catchment areas of 2 secondary schools.

Your options are to go on waiting lists (and there may well be movement over the summer holidays) or to appeal. In both cases you probably need to be moved first so that you have a local address, but this obviously means deciding what school(s) you are going for, moving as close as possible, and then hoping to get to the top of a list/win an appeal. Of course some people already on lists won't want to move a child in Year 8/9, but some will see this as an ideal time as it's before they get too emmeshed in GCSE work.

Worth looking at the schools with spaces as well - they are not universally hated (particularly Stantonbury which is a bit of a marmite school).

What are you looking at from a school in your definition of "good"? Do you have any requirements about where you live (the schools you've listed are fairly well spread out)
I'm surprised to see Milton Keynes Academy on your list (usually people are not so keen on it) and also surprised that you don't have Hazeley or Walton High (or Kents Hill Park, although that's a newer school that may not appeal).

You should bear in mind that for a Year 8 place, you are at the mercy of which schools have spaces, so I would suggest contacting the LEA to discover this, before you get too far down your "choosing a school" list. There's no point having a firm favourite if your daughter has no chance of getting a place there.