Is there a way to change primary school choices after cut off?

[zippyswife]

I’ve made a mess of my options for ds primary school. Is there a way I can change it. Cut off was 15th January. I’m so annoyed with myself! I won’t get my first two choices as they are so popular and I have just found out that my third choice has very poor results in comparison to other local schools.

if you change the choices after the deadline your application is usually counted as late. if you are sure you wouldn't get or wouldn't want the choices on your list then its not a ridiculous thing to do - but you would only get a place in an undersubscribed school in first round allocations with a late application. you may be better off leaving things as they are - you will get assigned a place at the poor-performing school which isn't great but if your application is recategorised as late you will risk being assigned a place at a worse performing school that is also much further away.

my advice (I am not an expert and no more reliable than a random fellow mum met at the school gate) - leave your application as it is. when the assigned places come through, you do accept the place at the poor- performing school as that is the worst case scenario back-up option, you need a place somewhere. once the first rounds applications are done you can register to be on the waiting list for all possible acceptable schools. you are then in exactly the same position for those schools as you would be with a late application. obviously if any of them are undersubscribe you get a place. assuming they are all oversubscribed, at some point between April and September there will be some churn in the waiting lists and you will get a place you are happier with.

You might be able to add late preferences but they wouldn't be looked away until the on time applications have been allocated. As pp said accept any offer you're given and apply for more realistic schools as a late applicant, there's always more movement on waiting lists than you'd imagine.