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Original poster

Secondary school - need advice on what to put down.

48 replies

shangchi · 26/09/2021 12:59

First time doing this and need some advice.

Where I live, unfortunately there's not many good secondary schools. I understand that the my chance of getting into my preferred school will be the distance of school from my house.

There's a handful of schools which I'd be happy with but a few of them are over 2miles away so no hope of those.

So that leaves me with 2 schools which id be happy with. They aren't the closest school to my home.

School A - oversubscribed, 700 applications for 180 places. The catchment area was 0.5 miles last year. I live 1mile away.

School B - oversubscribed. Has approx 35 places allocated from my postcode. It's a faith school so they have this as part of their criteria.

School C - stones throw from my home and really underperforming. Was in special measures a few ago.

School D - 1.4miles away. Poor performing school but better than school C. Its a very large school and would probably get in if I put as first choice. Also oversubscribed.

I want to put school A,B,D. In that order however if I don't get A, I don't think I'll get B or D as they are both oversubscribed. What on earth do I do! Shall I put D down as first choice even though I'm not happy.

If I don't get any of my choice I will most probably get the only one undersubsribed school in the town which is awful. I know a few people where this has happened.

OP posts:
PawPrintsInMyPansies · 26/09/2021 13:03

You won’t get into school A no matter what.

I had a similar dilemma. Id put BDC.

My daughter got school D initially, then 3 weeks later got offered a place at school Bz

Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 13:08

So you didn't put your preferred school as an option at all.

OP posts:
TeenMinusTests · 26/09/2021 13:09

They offer on a equal preference system, so putting D down last doesn't impact your chance of getting D if you qualify (ie they don't penalise you for putting it last).

Would you have qualified for A in any of the last few years? In which case it might be worth a punt.

Double check admissions criteria, don't just go on what you understand - read them.

I'd have C has last choice, better a poor school on your doorstep than one 10 years ago.

Go over to Secondary Education, lots of experts & advice there.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

General education Secondary education
Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 13:13

So how does it work.

If I put D down as my 3rd choice and someone else who lives much further away from me puts it down as first choice. Would they get preference of getting it over me if I didn't get my first 2 choices?

OP posts:
IglesiasPiggl · 26/09/2021 13:13

Your order of preference only comes into play once you have qualified for a place, so put the schools in the order you want to go to them. It doesn't matter if you put D as 4th choice - if you don't qualify for the other 3, you will be offered D if you qualify for that. Order of preference only matters if you meet the criteria for more than one school on your list - you will be offered the highest choice school of the ones you qualify for.

Playdoughcaterpillar · 26/09/2021 13:15

No. The schools don't see your preference order. You will be equally eligible for a place. Just put them down in your true preference order but don't put any you really don't want.

IglesiasPiggl · 26/09/2021 13:15

@shangchi

So how does it work.

If I put D down as my 3rd choice and someone else who lives much further away from me puts it down as first choice. Would they get preference of getting it over me if I didn't get my first 2 choices?

No they won't because "wanting it more than someone else" isn't one of the qualifying criteria.
Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 13:16

TeenMinusTests the thing with school A is that it has become totally popular over the past couple of years. It's a new school and there are lots of kids in my area that go there but in just a few years ppl in my area aren't getting in as much.

OP posts:
TeenMinusTests · 26/09/2021 13:17

@shangchi

So how does it work.

If I put D down as my 3rd choice and someone else who lives much further away from me puts it down as first choice. Would they get preference of getting it over me if I didn't get my first 2 choices?

No, you would get preference over them.

Every school orders everyone who has applied to them in order of criteria. Then a line is drawn at the PAN.
if any child appears above the line for more than 1 school, their order of preference is looked at and they are removed from lower preference schools.
This then results in more children getting above the line, and repeat.

At the end of this process there will still be some children below the lines, and some schools with spaces (the unpopular ones). The children unallocated get given schools with spaces.

PeonyTime · 26/09/2021 13:19

How many choices do you get?
If you think you stand a strong chance of D, make sure it is on the list somewhere. The choices are all equal preference until you qualify for more than one school, and then you would get offered your highest preference. Is C full? If you ddont put it on the lost, and you dont get one if your other choices, do you think thsts what you will get?

Basic rules: put them in genuine preference order, with something on the list you are pretty certain you will get an offer for.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 26/09/2021 13:22
  1. Your favourite
  2. Your second favourite
  3. A 'banker' ... one you dont mind, but are very likely to get a place if you apply.

Schools rank all the applications by their criteria. Then if you have more than one place, you only get your top choice... so the others are then released to the next applicants and the computer keeps on doing this until everyone has one offer.

RandomMess · 26/09/2021 13:28

How many options can you put down?

Is school C always under subscribed?

Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 13:30

I didn't realise that's how it worked. I thought the people who put it down as first choice get the places first.

PeonyTime we get 3 choices

OP posts:
RandomMess · 26/09/2021 13:35

If school C always has spaces then I wouldn't put it down at all.

If it gets oversubscribed/pretty much full then the risk of not putting it down is that you get an equally undesirable school that is far away rather than not on your doorstep.

Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 13:39

Yes - school C has been undersubscribed but it's small. I think they only take in 50/60 kids in year 7. It was inadequate in 2017 and then in 2019 was made good. So is probably gaining a bit more popularity

OP posts:
Whitefire · 26/09/2021 13:45

Where I live, unfortunately there's not many good secondary schools. I understand that the my chance of getting into my preferred school will be the distance of school from my house.

You really need to check the admission zones and the over subscription criteria. Distance isn't everything, the secondary school mine are at those within the admission zone are further away then those just outside (they are directly over the road from the school) This school is closer than their admission zone school but they sit much further down the over subscription criteria.

daisypond · 26/09/2021 13:50

I would have said to put school C down as your last choice, to be sure of getting something, but we have more choices here. School C might be better than you think. But as others said, put the schools in the order you want. Would school C be better than a randomly allocated other school maybe miles away?

daisypond · 26/09/2021 13:52

Yes, are you sure schools are allocated just on distance? That’s uncommon where I live.

Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 16:40

daisypond yes I've checked all th admissions criteria of the schools. It's basically in some order or another of looked after kids, kids of staff, kids with social/ medical need, sibling link and then distance from school.

OP posts:
Original poster
shangchi · 26/09/2021 16:42

I don't fall under any of those categories so distance is the only thing that my application will be based on.

OP posts:
daisypond · 26/09/2021 17:01

Yes, but distance isn’t the only criteria. You listed a load of other ones, which I would have expected. People who live much farther than you will be offered places ahead of you if they fall into the other categories, even if you live closer. Siblings, for example, can take up lots of places, no matter where they live. They will all be offered places before you. Check carefully the farthest away place offered under the distance category for each school.

Tomnooktoldmeto · 26/09/2021 17:21

If you only have 3 choices and have absolutely no chance of getting the first school then don’t waste a precious choice on it and put the one you don’t want in spot :3 as your banker

Be pragmatic, if you could get the 2nd or 3rd and would get the 4th don’t waste the space and get your dc sent to an unselected school that’s even worse and on the other side of town because that IS what could happen in an equal preferencing system if you don’t qualify for any of your choices

Whitefire · 26/09/2021 21:30

Do you have an admission zone school though? (previously catchment school)

The school my dc are at, has a kind of very thin rectangle shaped admission zone, with the school sitting near the edge of the catchment towards the bottom. The top edge is roughly 2 miles from the school, they will still get priority over those that live 350 yards away as they fall outside the admission zone.

Read each school's in full and your local authority website should have details of any admission zones. Where I previously lived we were also covered by an umbrella catchment school, and places were awarded on a lottery basis.

Allthebubbles · 27/09/2021 06:37

Have you looked at School C- it could be a great choice if it is really turning it round. Good in 2019 is far more important than inadequate in 2017.
I'd look round it and make a judgement then.

LorenzoVonMatterhorn · 27/09/2021 06:42

Has C had a new head? A change of head can make a huge difference. Dont waste an option on the faith school if you are not that faith. It sounds like you wont get in.

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