Secondary school - need advice on what to put down.

[shangchi]

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.

As earlier posters said
Put them down in the order you want them.
The schools don't know your preference order they just make an offer or not on all the applications they receive.
The council then give you an offer from the highest preference school you put down that made you an offer.
When you take that offer they then tell any of the lower ranking schools who also made you an offer that you aren't taking their offer and they then tell the council the next person on their waiting list there is a space there.

Are you sure school C is still under performing? If it was put into special measures it should have had a massive amount of money thrown at it and a a change in leadership. Could it be that it has vastly improved but is still suffering from its previous reputation?

You say B is a faith school. Do you fall i under faith criteria? I would from what you are describing likely go

B
D
C

Cutting out A all together jd you have no chance at all to get in. IF B is a small possibility then that goes first Then D as thats your preference over C and finally C as your banker.

However if faith criteria means you arw unlikely to get B then I may go ADC

Another option is a bit of a gamble but you could go A B D and pray you get one of them and if not will be allocated C or go on waiting list for C if you don't get any.

Lastly have you visited C at all as it sounds like a school that is turning things around so may actually be a better choice than D.

The school system works by they get told you have these applications and they get sorted after their admission code numbering where each pupil is on that list. And they then pass this to the LEA who looks at who has different preferences.

so if you put on your form ABD and school A and B can not give you a space but school D can you will get a space

If you have A B D and school B and D says yes they can give you a space then you get offered school B over school D as you had this as a preference over school D.

The schools are not told where on your preferences they are they simply put a number after their criteria on each application the filtering happens when you start looking at the preferences

When my youngest went to secondary we had 4 options we put school A B C and D i now know that we would not have been offered a space at school B as no-one from our village did. We did however qualify for school A C and D our offer was for school A and she went to school A. When the offer came through as I looked at the list school D C and B said " higher preference offered" until we got to school A and it said offered

With ds we had school A B C D he did not qualify for A or C but did for school C and B we were offered school B and he went to school ab on offer letter school D said higher preference offered school C higher preference offered school B offered school A not offered

Close friend put down A B C D was offered B and child went there. We now know she woild not that year have got into school D but as a school higher on her preference did have space for her it was irrelevant

The order in which you place a school first not affect your chances of getting in.

Put them down in the exact order you prefer them…

The last 2 should be D C in that order.

You won’t lose your chance of D by not putting it first.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

1. Your favourite

1. Your second favourite
2. 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.

This - does your child have Sen or EHCP or any other factors?

WishingYouAMerryChristmasToo no my child has no EHCP and doesn't fit into any other criteria.

I think I'm going to put down A,B,C.

Its crazy how there is so much demand for schools.

From what you have said:

• A: chance of a place tiny, almost non-existent
• B: unclear. Those from your postcode who got in, was it because of their faith or based on distance
• C: almost definite
• D: probably

I would work out how realistic a place at B is. If B I'd unlikely, it seems a shame not to include D at all (assuming you prefer it to C).

My thinking is D we would get anyway if we don't get any A,B,C as 50 kids were placed in the school in 2021 where this wasn't any of their 3 choices.

@shangchi

My thinking is D we would get anyway if we don't get any A,B,C as 50 kids were placed in the school in 2021 where this wasn't any of their 3 choices.

But they may live closer than you do.

I live 0.01m from it. Literally next door!

You said D was 1.4 miles away?

If C is the one next door and you are certain it will be undersubscribed, you don’t need to put it on the form. So you could put A, B and D if you would actually prefer D to C. But be aware that if C is out of special measures, has a new leadership team and is on the up, it could be a lot more popular than you expect, and not the dead cert place you are assuming.

If you’ve muddled up C and D above, I don’t know what you should do 🤷‍♀️😁

@vastgrandupgrade

You said D was 1.4 miles away?

Yes, and underperforming but oversubscribed.

Then she says it’s 0.01m away. Somewhere along the line she’s muddled them up, I’m just not sure where!

OP, do you have a catchment school? Where I live, we have the equivalent of your A, C and D schools, plus one other, E, we didn't have a hope in hell of getting in to, but hey it was better than school C (our catchment secondary and at the time in special measures). We went for D,C and E. DS has done well at school D, so do go and see school open evenings if you can. In another year, maybe 10 years ago, we'd have got him into School A, but not a chance now that students go there to avoid the special measures school.

Make sure one of your 3 choices is your catchment school or you could end up with a dreadful school, like C, only miles away.

Just be aware that schools with good reputations and results may not be achieving high standards on their schooling alone!

Back in the 2000’s there was a very popular school in Leigh in sea which saw people paying inflated house prices just to live in the catchment area.

A local newspaper did a story after surveying parents and found that a very high percentage of children were also receiving private tuition outside of school and therefore the school couldn’t take all the credit for the high grades!

OP, every single person who puts D on their list will then be ahead of you, even if you live nearer.

You may then find that you have been allocated a school that you don’t like and is also much further away.

You can only safely leave D off if it is usually very undersubscribed.

Sorry: I got C and D mixed up.

Oh sorry I have messed up and mixed everything up. The choices I'm going to put down (I think!) Is A,B,D

C is the one I lift next door and 50 kids got placed there when they didn't even have it as a choice.

I have no idea if I'm in a catchment area but the nearest schools to me in distance is

Ç - next door
À- 1m
Another school which is not on my list - 1.1m
B - 1.4 m this is the faith school that has allocated 40 places in my postcode area.
D - 1.4m

If C is as unpopular as you say, then that makes sense. It's a bit risky but you will hopefully get D (or A or B) and if you don't, they will probably assign C.

shangchi it's actually really hard nowadays to get a 'good' OFSTED grading, so school C can't be all that bad.

Also if you don't put C you run the risk of getting neither A,B,D and then they give you something miles away that's underperforming. I know of people who have had this happen.

Some regions have set catchment areas for schools (where people living in a certain, defined area have priority), and some just go on distance from the school, with no set zones. If the admissions criteria of the schools doesn't mention a catchment area OP, then it looks likely that in your area schools go by distance.