Do I have a foolproof way to get the primary place at desired school?

[TeenAndTween]

No of course I don't.

This is a public service announcement to anyone with a child due to start school in September in England.

• use all your choices
• put them in your preferred order
• make sure you have a safe bet on there somewhere, even if you don't like it much
• get your application in on time

Better to have a rubbish school on your doorstep than one 10 miles away.
Just putting down one choice doesn't force them to give you it.
Don't lie about where you live, it's dishonest.

Read the admissions criteria, remember they may have changed since your eldest first went 10 years ago.

If you have detailed questions or a complicated situation then ask on the Primary board under Education as there are some very helpful experts there.

For pedants. AIBU to raise points about school applications that some people may be unaware of to stop them making a massive mistake with their applications?

If someone tells you that they heard "from someone in the know" that you should do XYZ in order to optimise your child's chances of getting in.....

Then (metaphorically only) hit them on the head with a shovel.

Re: appeals - it is worth it in some cases, there was some bizarre cockup at our local schools this year which meant people who should have had priority (siblings, lived extremely close etc) didn't get places at one school. The parents appealed and it was a mistake that was sorted out once it was looked into. It's the only time I've heard it happening though!

As othets, knowing the admissions criteria is the most useful thing in that situation though because the parents could tell the way places had been allocated didn't make sense.

Very important thread; suitably clickbaity title

My contribution: make sure you know when the deadline is. A friend missed it by a week last year and had months and months of awful uncertainty being treated as a late applicant.

And, please, be kind. Tell your friends what the deadline is. Tell them what the process is. Don't assume anyone knows what to do. If they're in England and have a child with a DOB 1/9/12 to 31/8/13, this matters to them and they have only a short time to get sorted. All it takes is to say "have you got your school application in?" If they say "don't be daft, he's only three / we live next door / his sister went / there's ages ... so no I haven't" then ffs help.

Most catholic school are not top performing. What a biased sweeping statement. It totally depends on the individual school.

Religious schools have criteria that you have to meet in order to get in. People who are bothered enough, organised enough, intelligent enough and understand the system well enough to meet the criteria (whatever it may be) are also likely to be the parents who read most nights with their kids, help with homework and bother to turn up to the jumble sale.

If religious schools are not decent performing then you have to wonder why.....

The "CofE" secondary near us is hilarious criteria wise. A genuinely religious family that attends church weekly would not get in under their "faith" category. A nice pushy, highly educated, middle class mummy (ie me!) will have no problem whatsoever.

Yes MrsHathaway

It doesn't hurt to help. And try to correct those popular myths such as turning down a space will mean they will make one for you where you want it too

Not everyone knows this.

Of course some people won't be told but at least you tried

Tricky if the school you want is oversubscribed and they live 150m closer ...

But oh how I wish I'd dropped applications into conversation with my friend this time last year. Her daughter is happy at school now but it was a really awful process.

The religious schools everywhere I have lived in the Uk (lived in many places) have all been top performing. In most Catholic schools I knowc Catholic parents are often denied places in favour of bright non-Catholic kids who had taken specific exams & demonstrated 'high value' skills. The schools say that doesn't happen but it does. Most of my family have done very well out of it.

Does anyone know when the social medical admissions results come out.. I know it is in January to slow time for appeals before general admissions but I am checking my emails every five minutes!

Allow not slow

The RC schools local to me are not the highest performing by a long way, but they do perform unusually well for their catchment/location iyswim.

In the naice villages nobody bothers applying to the RC primaries a car ride away. In the estates in town it becomes far more attractive to do so as the SATs results can be 20-30 points different.

Santals That will be different for each LA I would think. Why not give them a call?

If religious schools are not decent performing then you have to wonder why.....

Well Catholics get into Catholic schools (so real Catholics and those from Catholic Backgrounds). The requirement is usually that the DC have taken their first communion. For many this is a large beer swilling party, not a a particularly spiritual event. I used to work in a Catholic school and most of the kids were Working Class of Irish descent and only attended church for weddings, funerals and first communions. Many of the parents didn't value education particularly highly either.

RC schools are very diverse by nationality, as many new immigrants from Catholic countries go to them, knowing nothing about school admissions but being told by their priest, because they are (generally) frequent attenders and part of the church community.

In some areas, RC schools are swerved (you'll see as many threads on here about 'over my dead body' as 'unfair I can't get my DC in')

Agree a proper buy-out would be the only way to remove faith schools from the state sector, but with no spare cash, a shortage of places generally taking what cash there is, and both major parties having policies of more, not fewer, such schools, I just don't see it happening.

Parents voting with their feet and only putting VA schools down as last 'banker' choice so their unpopularity is reflected in falling rolls will hurry the process along.

If that doesn't seem realistic, then perhaps improving all schools is the more achievable way ahead? Because the picture in demographics isn't really that clear - with Cof E schools being so numerous they are formative of the 'norms' of outcomes, all categories having some which have been colonised by the middle classes (actually often on distance) and all categories of schools having some with highly adverse demographics.

A mum who lives close to us got married and had her new husband adopt her children 'because then they will get into st X'

When you are choosing a school out of catchment don't believe the head teacher when she says they can guarantee you a place.

When the out of catchment school is heavily oversubscribed don't go round telling people that your daughter is going there before the council offer the places.

Don't tell parents of children who have applied to the catchment school that it's not as good as the one your daughter is going to.

Don't only put the out of catchment school on your form, especially when the local school is heavily oversubscribed because it's one of the top 50 nationally.

Thanks. Interestingly I have just dig up a document that says that all decisions will be sent out after all considered but 3.9 also say 40 days after closing date. Which was December by my calculations, so technically I should know.

Just looked through emails and they say a letter in January, but am on the phone now to check.

I did it. I refused the special measures school allocated to me and held out for a good one. My children got a place on a fantastic school in the next Borough two weeks into term when a place came up die to a house move. It's not for the faint hearted though and you do miss out on information talks/tours /first day etc., but it was worth it for us

Phone call says by the end of next week. Good to see the council is following their own guidelines

watch You sound like someone who knows a not-so-smug-anymore parent!

KC225 BUT if a place hadn't come up would you have been in a position to home educate?

People should only reject offered school if they are willing and able to home educate for as long as it takes. Yours was a very very high risk strategy. And you would have been offered the place at the better school even if you had accepted the place at the special measures one.There isn't causation between the refusal and the offer.

Schools, teachers and admin staff don't necessarily know much (if anything) about the admissions process. Take anything they tell you with a pinch of salt and double/triple check your understanding by doing your own research and contacting the LA.

Don't assume that because you have 'had your name down' at the school since the child was born, you will get a place there.

Also, attending the school's nursery/pre-school doesn't automatically give priority.

Also don't assume sibling priority, and especially if you are out of catchment.

teen yes - they didn't get their out of catchment school and then didn't get allocated the catchment school because they hadn't put it down and instead got about the school that just about everybody doesn't want.

They went on the waiting list for a place at the catchment school but didn't get one.