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?

Sailorcherries- I think the problem is a combination of poor planning and the reality is if you give everyone a choice, most people will try to get the best choice, or at least not the worse.

Before scrapping catchments, if your nearest school was the worse in the town, you had to suck it up or move or hope there would be a space at a better school out of catchment, unlikely though. Now you don't have to move to get a better school, people go through this silliness to get a school place they want, but the reality is you will probably only get your nearest school.

So hope for your favourite school, but put your nearest one on the form and assume that's the one your dcs will be going to!

I work in a primary school that had 399 applications for 30 Reception places for 2016. Parents look at me askance when I tell them that they live too far away yet they can walk there in five minutes. In a few months a new housing development will be occupied, meaning a hundred or so more new families will be living practically adjacent to the school, so the situation can only get worse.

Not applying until next year but this is really useful (and a bit scary to be honest!)

KohI Thanks for the link. I was partly thinking of that thread when I started this one but I don't think I would ever have found it. I wonder what the OP eventually did?

drspouse some faith schools (particularly Catholic ones) local to me have SEN, LAC in faith then other children of faith and then other LAC, so it can happen.

I think that's how they have to do it unless they prioritise all LAC above Catholic children. IIRC the rule is that they are permitted to prioritise Catholic children above non-Catholic LAC.

This gives them the option of
Catholic LAC, Catholic children, non-Catholic LAC etc etc
Or, as in my diocese - LAC, Catholic children etc etc

Where the problem is likely to be is defining Catholic LAC. They usually (but not always) go on Baptism so a child that isn't yet Baptised wouldn't count. Even if both their birth and adoptive families are practicing Catholics.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is

If you live near 2 counties you only apply in 1 county. Do not let someone tell them that you can apply to 2 and have 1 first choices " as this was what they did" It was the case some years ago but not anymore.

Also Even if the HT tells you that "you will get in they have leeway" they don't they have to follow their set up admission priority. Even Ht sometimes get it wrong so CHECK what the admission says. (I know some academies have different rules but check with their rules)

Don't slag off schools you know very little about to other parents whose children might be going there . I can't tell you the number of parents who have told me that the secondary school my dd will be going to (bar an earthquake) is a hotbed of drugs and violence. Funnily enough, they are all parents without children there (but possibly remember the bad reputation the school had 15 years ago). All the parents I know whose children are actually there say it is a happy, friendly place. So I'm holding my nerve, but it is horrible - like sharing birth horror stories with a pregnant woman.

This thread is so necessary. When I was applying for primary schools, my friend insisted on only applying for the local, ridiculously oversubscribed faith school on the grounds that her dp had gone there as a child. They were not churchgoers. When no place was forthcoming, she was still cheerily complacent that they would win a place on appeal. Result: unpopular school on the other side of the borough.

Now that my dd is Y6, one of the class mums tells me that only one of the local schools suits her child - the massively oversubscribed one that we are out of catchment for. I asked how she felt about a new school in our area and she dismissed it because it is a 10 minute bus ride away ("I want her to walk to school"). So she has only applied for the school she definitely won't get into, thinking that will force the computer to give them a place. Result will be that her daughter will very much be catching buses to get across the borough to the schools no-one else wants to go to. They are such a lovely family - I could weep for them.

dorcas God I hear you! I have lost count of the number of people who have been disparaging about the secondary school my DS is likely to end up (not our first choice but the most likely outcome). I just find it so so rude to slag it off to someone's face - it isn't as if we hadn't thought about it but we live where we live so options are a bit limited!

Re that PFB thread, we arranged private visits at three of the schools we looked at, including the oversubscribed one DS is now at having got in via the waiting list.
One (not oversubscribed but 3 form entry recently so loads of applications) only does private visits. So it's not that uncommon.
(But the OP's strategy is not recommended)

Re that PFB thread, we arranged private visits at three of the schools we looked at, including the oversubscribed one DS is now at having got in via the waiting list.
One (not oversubscribed but 3 form entry recently so loads of applications) only does private visits. So it's not that uncommon.
(But the OP's strategy is not recommended)

Brilliant advice, wish I had had advice like this before I spectacularly messed up DD1's nursery application with my self-entitled, pfb attitude at the time.

If you are applying for a first child chat to other parents in the area to find out what the norms are and what difficulties you may face getting in to certain schools. Obviously don't take what they say as 100% gospel truth but a certain amount of local knowledge is helpful when prioritising your choices.

Yes to making sure you accept the offer too, have known a few people fall at the final fence by not doing this!

Also the space on the application form and any supplementary form is basically to clarify what category your child falls into. You can't use it to say "need to measure distance from some address that isn't the child's, so that granny/childminder can collect after school" Despite families I know trying that.

And bear in mind that reputations can be a decade or more out of date, and that the individual classmates and teachers your child has will be more important than anything else to start with.

Just popped back to shamelessly bump say that, if you have submitted your form and now realise you have fallen into one of the traps mentioned above, it is not too late to resubmit with altered choices.

Oh and check that you have actually submitted it, not just started to fill it in and forget to submit. Our LEA send a confirmation email.

A little weekend bump as it's so close to reception application deadlines.

That last point about checking that the application has gone through properly and you have the reference number, is a good one (possibly keep key docs in hard as well as soft copy)

"We don't have any 'shoe-in' schools on our list; especially since the Catholic school which usually is slightly under-subscribed will be more popular due to the next nearest Catholic school plummeting from outstanding to requires improvement after the most recent OFSTED inspection."

Shouldn't you add a 'shoe in' then hungry? Rather than risk a worse school further away?

One final bump for anyone sitting down with a cup of coffee planning to finally get round to submitting applications.

So don't make your list:

1. The outstanding school 5 miles away (which normally only accepts up to 2 miles)
2. The good Catholic school 4 miles away despite the fact only practicing catholics get in and you are non-practicing Quakers
3. The good school right next to Granny's house, even though she is 20 minutes drive away and you have to go past 9 other primaries to get there and its single form entry in the middle of a hosing area

UNASHAMED BUMP OF LAST YEAR'S THREAD FOR THIS YEAR'S COHORT

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