Secondary admission - I’m so confused - help!

[Alabasterangel6]

I’ll give the scenario and hope someone can untangle me! DS is in y6 now so it’s application time. My preference is

1 - school one - by a long way. 2 miles from us and we are in catchment/feeder school. Oversubscribed but not massively so.
2 - school two - brilliant school but oversubscribed by a lot. 2 miles from us in the opposite direction to school one.
3 - school three - good school. 2 miles from us in yet another direction. Oversubscribed but fractionally. The numbers are good. I’m meh about this school I’d prefer the other two but unsure whether it is not sensible for us not to put a third choice down.

School one and two come under one council jurisdiction and school three under another.

There are additionally schools 4, 5, and 6. I don’t want any of those. School 4 is 3.5 miles away, poorly performing and badly rated. However we still seem to be in the catchment for it despite there being a nearer school belonging to another local authority.

Schools 5 and 6 are 4 miles away and would entail bus changes and have just awful reputations - knife crime, bad press. But again they are in our local authority.

So....
How do I apply for schools one to three given they are in different authorities? Do I just send in two applications, one for each? Or am I better to just not bother with school 3? Am I vastly less likely to get school three anyway, despite being so close, because we have other school further away but undersubscribed —but shit—

Advise please!

My dcs Secondary in a different LEA to our address.

I'm not certain it works the same everywhere but I just filled in one application to my local authority and they do the rest.

Just to add I was only allowed 3 preferences on the form - 2 were my local Authority and one a neighbouring Authority. We got the neighbouring one. It was my second choice (but VERY glad it turned out that way as it's work out great for us)

You apply for all on the one application to your home LA. Be realistic and put at least one certainty among your 6, even if it is less ideal than your higher, but more risky, preferences. Otherwise if you name only 3 all of which you lose out on oversubscription you will be allocated one , probably not of your choice or as well regarded.

I live on a county border and you just clicked a box change the options. It wasn’t complicated when I was actually doing it. A few years ago you had to apply to each LEA separately so you could end up with two places from two LEAs but not any more.

As to which school you should pick, you should just put them in the order you actually want them. So 2 then 1 then 3 in your case.

Places are allocated on equal preference so put them down in the order you genuinely want. It is a common application form so only one form needed.

There is no magic formula, no conspiracy to not give places. Schools place people according to their over subscription criteria and you get offered the highest on your list that has a place.

The computer does it's magic. It literally is 'computer says yes or no'

Have you seen them yet? One school which everyone raved about left me decidedly unplussed.

General advice - use all your choices and include your 'banker' if necessary. This is the one that you are very likely to get offered a place out, even if you don't really like it. Better to be at a 'bad choice' nearby then one miles away.

2 miles away and oversubscribed can mean either usually would get it or no chance. You need to look and see what the furthest distance that got in for the last few years was.

@witchend - where do I see that information? On my local authority site it tells me places and applications but no further data than that?

Thanks all - I will put down 2, 1, 3 in that order. Yes I’ve seen them all, lots, for reasons with work that I won’t go into as it’s identifying, but I’ve seen the schools ‘working’ and also going to open evenings this week and next. I won’t submit the form till after then but just getting my head round it!

I think the local authority should have it. Try posting in secondary education because there are some people far more knowledgeable than me.

You need to look at the criteria that the last child admitted to each school fulfilled in previous years to give you an idea of how likely your are to get into each school.

This info is published in the 'transferring to secondary school ' booklet on our local council website.

Eg I knew that based on last 2 years allocation, DS would have got into 3 local schools but not the 4th as the last kid admitted there met the criteria of 'in catchment, 1.6miles from school'. Infact in the last 3 yrs they had never taken from more than 1.6miles in catchment. We are out of catchment and 2.5 miles away from school. So I did not waste a preference on that school.

One application form, you apply through your own local authority.

You will find the information on their website under schools admissions.

Schools can only offer places according to the criteria published as their admissions policy. The county it borough a school is in makes no difference , they cannot prioritise people by which LA they live in.

Across England the admissions process is governed by the Schools Admissions Code. It is the same every where, and us law.

You list your schools in order of preference.

The schools look at every application they receive and rank them according to their published criteria. Whether you put the school first or last makes no difference. Only the degree to which you meet the criteria.

The schools tell the LA who they can admit.

At this point the order in which you put the schools down really counts.

If all the schools you put down say they could offer you a place the LA offers you the one that you have put highest up your list, turns down the others for them to be re-allocated to someone else.

If none of the schools you have applied to can offer you a place the LA waits until all the other places have been allocated and offers you the closest school that still has places.

This is why it is OK to list two schools that you love but may be long shots in first and second place, but you must list a school that you would definitely get a place at.

Because then you get to pick the ‘least worst school that you could definitely get into ‘ rather than be left a place in the school that no one wanted.

The ‘last distance ‘ published is the offers made on National Offer Day. It can get a bit wider after the eating lists move.

Thank you mildthing, that’s really helpful to get my head round.