High school places. What happens if you choose more than 1?

[Wahhhhh]

If you put down 3 in order of preference what happens

Ie

Schools

A
B
C

Can all 3 offer a place then you choose?

No! If you mean state schools, you will receive one offer, at the highest preference of which you meet the criteria.

You accept whatever they offer, you MUST accept or there is no legal fallback when you have no school place, then go on the waiting lists at all the schools you prefer to that one.
This is for England only!

It doesn’t work like that in my county.

You are offered a place at one of the schools you’ve nominated if you meet their admission criteria and they have space. If not you are assigned to another school.

So for example, my neighbour chose her 3 high schools, high birth rate year. She didn’t get any of them as they’d filled up the spaces with children living closer. She was offered a school elsewhere.

I chose the same first school and got in as I had an older DD already there and sibling in the school was a higher admission criteria than distance.

It can get complicated!

Oh shit really :(

I thought you got offered all 3 then chose.

My DD wants to go to A.

I put B down as its better than C, but she really doenst wnat to go to B.

C is where her brothers go.

I'm scared she will get offered B now.

Does she meet the admission criteria for school A?

She declared she doenst want to go to B after the application. Before she was blasé about it

She does but it's a new school and highly desirable.

She has sibling connections at C

If you get offered B you can accept and ask to go on the waiting list for A as well and you might get lucky

I wanted A, DS wanted B. B was like a lottery allocation by school regardless of most entrance factors so unlikely. I put B down and C. We got B.

I'm really scared now. She will be devastated is she has to go to B.

I've only ever put one school down previously as a feeder school from primary DS1 and 2 just had school C on their forms.

This is the first time I've put more than one.

Shit

Depends on locality but I do know quite a few parents who chose A, B, C and got Z - nothing on their list. If you have applied for a specific school you at least have a right of appeal, which makes a difference on waiting lists, but you can only appeal the schools you applied to - no appeal on grounds on not wanting a place at Z.

I'm hoping that C will take her if the worst happens. My 2 boys are star pupils there

I'll just have to wait and see

I have learning difficulties and must have misunderstood it all.

I did read up but I was really complicated to me

Sorry, I’ve just realised by bringing Z into it your worries may escalate. Forget Z. Ask your LEA if you can appeal for a place at A without jeopardising B. If you have grounds of appeal and win it will help with waiting list place. I was also advised by C to contact them directly if we were allocated elsewhere as they often had places available but LEA trying to make other schools they’d invested in financially viable and they would sort out a place. On the plus side you put her own choice first (I didn’t) and you don’t make the decisions. If she is unhappy I’d be fairly low key about allocation as a lot can change. There was a lot of hysteria that day, it was v intense, a cool head and a long-game may be the way to go.

It is really complicated, loads of different variables.

If she gets B you can appeal to go to A but usually winning appeal depends on having significant reasons for going there. You can also go on the waiting list for A, there’s often a lot of movement between places being given and school starting in September.

You need to first accept whatever was offered.
Then ask to go on the waitlists for A and C.
If you have siblings at C you might find yourself quite high up the waitlist, so if you are lucky you'll get offered that (or even A) at some point before September.

The other thing you could do is appeal, but you'll have to have reasons other than 'we prefer it'. Reasons could be

• your DD is good a music, A has an orchestra, offered school doesn't.
• your DD has been doing Spanish at primary, A offers Spanish, B doesn't.

Pretty much the only thing you can't say is 'A gets better results / has better Ofsted / has better behaviour'. There are some very helpful people on the Secondary education board who can advise you once you know what school you have got. But always accept the offered school and then go from there.

If she gets A we will be very happy

If she gets B(we don't want that anymore) it's unlikely we will get A at appeal

So could we appeal for C as she has sibling connections there and would be more likely to get a place, it's nowhere near as desirable as A

Thankyou Teen. That's helpful

Your sons being "star pupils" at C is irrelevant. But them being pupils there may well push her up the criteria - but that depends on if they give a preference to siblings, which is not universal at secondary, as children are supposed to be able to make their own way to school at that age.

What happens is: all applicants for school A, and all applicants for school B, and... are sorted into a big list according to each school's preference requirements - usually SEN, Medical, siblings, distance but may include religious criteria and feeder schools etc.
Then the these lists go back to the LA, and they work out the cut off point, but then the lists shuffle as some people qualify for more than one school - they get their highest preference of the schools they qualify for. This is all done by computers.

Now what I really suggest you do is find out why your DD doesn't want school B. If she gets offered school B, as well as making sure you are n the waiting list for school A - I would contact school B and see if you can visit and allay her fears. She might well change her mind if someone she gets on with is going there anyway.

And if there is a good reason why A is a better fit for your DD, then you could win a place at appeal.
My DC went to a very highly thought of school. My eldest got in via the waiting list having been 25th or lower to start with. Other children got in every year via appeal.

Fingers crossed for you @Wahhhhh

Thankyou Myrtle

UPDATE

We got school A!

So pleased.