Help me understand secondary school admissions

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I think I'm beginning to understand how it works (in Englad or just my Local authority I dont know):
Put 3 schools (or 5 depending on area) down that you want and generally meet the criteria to be selected.
Make sure they are in genuine preference order
Looked after children are pretty much awarded the No1 school they choose (totally on board with that)
Then the school uses their criteria on siblings/distance etc
The LA then gives you the name of the school your dc is getting based on getting a place and in order of preference.

So I apply for school A B then C in that order, B and C give me places but the LA assigns me B as it's my preferred choice.

however

What then happens with the place I got at C?

Does the LA go back to school C and say "declined" ..... then does someone else who has been awarded a different school get told "C now has a place"?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Thank you for all helping- I do really appreciate it.

I've no concerns when the time comes, as such, just genuinely interested in the process.

How do things like addressed get verified? Do you use census / council tax data?

Yea council tax.

In most authorities you apply online now, so the data is on “the system” and just gets pulled through and then allocated to an officer to wade through and check.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Thank you for all helping- I do really appreciate it.

I've no concerns when the time comes, as such, just genuinely interested in the process.

How do things like addressed get verified? Do you use census / council tax data?

Depends how joined up your LA’s systems are! It will have your child’s details as fed in by the primary school though so if those match and the system can’t see any anomalies or recent moved etc, generally it will tick that off and move to the next record.

If the system has had you down as living 10 miles away for all of little Billy’s life but you tell it you’ve moved two doors down from the secondary school and it can’t see anything to confirm that; it’ll flag it through checking. In the LAs i know about, parents would then be asked to email proof of move in- then it gets ticked off and shuffles a little bit nearer allocation.

Some areas would put you on waiting list for A automatically, others you would need to do so. This is ordered by the same admissions criteria and your position can go down as well as up. Allocations day is March 1st.