To think that siblings should not get priority when it comes to applying for secondary

[ReallyTired]

I think that sibling priority is essential at primary school level, but compeltely unnecessary at secondary school. My children will be at different schools as one will be at primary and one will be at secondary and I am sure we will cope.

Why is having two children at different secondaries any less doable than having a child at primary and a child at secondary? I find it unfair that a family can move into catchment of a top secondary, move out of area and still get sibbling priority. It is crazy that some children have to take a bus to school because they cannot get into the comprehensive that is walking distance of their house.

Secondary school children without special needs do not need mummy to take them to school. I feel that community secondary schools should just have a distance/ catchment criteria.

Clementine you end up doing over an hour a day morning and night and driving over 20 miles to do drop offs and pick ups. I had a mum who watched primary dd till I got there cos secondary finished earlier then drove to other secondary which finished much later.

Clementine, the assumption would be that your older children take themselves to school. In the same way you will find that there is very little childcare provision for secondary school children because the assumption is that they can sort themselves out.

But I do take jacks' point that public transport is often insufficient in rural areas.

They don't, at least not in my area.

Its siblings in catchment
Non siblings in catchment
Siblings further out
Non siblings further out.

So if someones moved out of catchment they're still quite low down the list.

YABU. Having all the DCs at the same school helps with uniform costs, transport costs and time and childcare during holidays/half term and training days. This is especially important if the parents work. My friend is a single mum, she would be royally screwed if her DCs had different times off and she had to do multiple drop-offs and collections.

In cities they shouldnt as they can get themselves there and also be alone after school.

Our "outstanding" secondary school has just changed its admin policy to make siblings the priority over distance which was the original priority. In fact the sibling only has to have been at the school in the past 5 years, so they dont even have to be their anymore. siblings inlcude half and step (which I expected) but also children of partners.
Distance to school is the last in order of priority. We are in a rural market town though and they have made one of the local primary schools a feeder school that has priority over all other primaries. It is the least popular school in town which this will help alleviate. With this being the changeover year there has been quite a bit of upheaval. 1/3 of applications were turned away this year.

Must say I'm a bit shocked by the number of secondary school children who can't make their own way to school. And the areas that some secondary catchments must cover! Where I live you can't get into our most over-subscribed school if you are more than 800m away, or something silly like that.

Am firmly on fence about this. Mind you I also disapprove of single sex ed but sent DD1 to an all girls' school and will be quite happy if her sister wants to follow her (mind you it is vast and we are well within catchment...)

DD1's London comp has a vast catchment area, Mintyy. Mind you I only know one child who is driven there. The Ritual of the Bus is paramount.

It is the case that if you have no choice but to go to a school over walking distance away then free transport is provided, right?

If that is national not just a local thing then yes, there is no need for sibling priority.

Is it really MI?

(have you seen the results yet, btw?)

Where I live (edinburgh) then the catchment is king.

Catchment area children are guaranteed a place (which does mean some school have portakabins) and then siblings might get a place if there are any left.

It's just easier if they are in the same school - and cheaper - but not necessarily imperative.

My oldest got into an out of catchment school after catchment places were filled. Siblings out of catchment aren't guaranteed a place but luckily we got one for our second too.

Transport costs are huge - no free buses here!!

I disagree I think sibling priority is an appropriate measure

Totally shocked that children have to pay to get to secondary school! This is something I confess I never knew.

My children went to three separate schools at the secondary stage - not really intentional, it just happened that way. None of them found it a problem, and I can't say we ever found it a problem as parents to have to deal with different schools. I can see the advantage in terms of convenience, getting to know the staff, passing on uniform etc, but I'm not sure whether that should necessarily give siblings automatic priority.

I know of twins who were sent to different secondary schools to encourage them to be seen as individuals (the twins were happy with this) and it was fantastic for them. Siblings don't NEED to go to the same secondary school, it is often handy if they do but that is different.

Special needs and medical should always come before any other criteria, and children in care if they have a need for a certain school. I have no issue with giving priority to siblings living in catchment over others living in catchment, or siblings out of catchment over others out of catchment though as someone needs to be prioritised in those cases so siblings makes as much sense as anything else!

No I haven't - have looked online without success. Gather good but not quite what hoped for...?

Yep, think kids come a loooong way - big school, only one gender eligible and has still got reputation of being Not Fab even though is pretty damn good.

Not sure how I would manage with different holidays and inset days.

Catchment comes before siblings at our school.
Personally what I disagree with most is staff children getting priority only second to looked after children.

why is there an issue with inset days etc? These kids are 11 plus. They can be alone unless they have SN.

I feel that community secondary schools should just have a distance/ catchment criteria

That could and would become unfair. In the same way it can do with primaries.

I disagree. I think siblings should be entitled to go to the same school. Who would want them to go to separate ones, unless they had drastically different needs? For practical reasons it must be a nightmare if they are at different ones!

I love in a reasonably sized town but there is only one secondary school and one Grammar school. If DD 1 hadn't got in she would have to get a bus into another town and it wouldn't have been free. Plus now they will be on the same inset days and DD1 can look after DD2.