AIBU to ask a school applications question?

[meladeso]

what the heck do you write in the "preference reasons"?

is this going to count significantly?
i was there bumbling along thinking catchment, siblings, etc was all that mattered, and now i'm facing this, which makes me feel like i should be pleading / making my case?!

No idea if this is the same in all LAs, but the options i'm offered are:

Sibling
Catchment Area
Medical
Feeder School
Aptitude
Religion
Co-Educational School
Single Sex
Distance
Travelling time
Social Reasons
Other
Staff - Child's Parent is a member of staff at School

and then a space for me to write notes in support of my choice.

Also, what are the differences between catchment area, distance and travelling time, do you think?

and does any of this matter? i'm not too stressed about getting the place i want, so if it's not likely to, i don't mind just checking a box and jotting something.

god knows if i'm being a divvy. but i'm stuck. please be gentle...

Unless your kid is not yet, but about to be, diagnosed with SN then I wouldn't bother writing anything.

The experts like prh will be along in a minute no doubt, but I think it's a legal requirement to have the box even though hardly anyone uses it or needs to. It's for really unusual situations, and in those cases you would probably have been in touch with the LA to explain and talk about options in advance, anyway.

Sometimes it helps them put you in the right category.

e.g. if you wrote 'I'd like birth son to attend as it will make drop off easier as my foster child already attends' but you hadn't realised that meant you have a sibling link, then they would hopefully notice and put you into the sibling category.

Catchment area is a defined area of the map which gives priority. They aren't circles and can be strange shapes. So you could be 2 miles away in catchment and be higher priority than someone 1.5 miles away out of catchment.

thanks kinder that's what i thought

i can't see what difference it makes if we have no specific reason to be trying for a place somewhere we don't quite meet criteria for?

Agree, it's not needed for the majority of applications

Things like "DCs nan lives round the corner and will be doing pick up" or "it's the only school we like" aren't valid reasons. It's for things like SEN in the process of being diagnosed or if you are in the process of moving house

thanks giery and tween

One of our options we're slightly out of catchment for, but they're not oversubscribed and we've a fair chance of a place, so i feel compelled to write something on that subject, but fail to see how (unless unusual circs, of which there are none) that matters anyway.

numbers and geography will decide.

i can write some stuff about DC friends from nursery likely going there, but who at the LA is going to give a shit about that!

ha harderandharder we were just laughing about that

i do imagine someone somewhere receiving these applciations might get the odd scoff at the reasons people give here

I was wondering this exact thing, the only thing we will include I think is that our first choice is for the non English language school as we really want our dc to be bilingual.

i'm relieved, i thought it was going to end up like some sort of hideous online job application form that you massively overthink in the end

My child is adopted and is entitled to priority place

So I quoted the act that gives the piorty place and the la my child was adopted from

If your not in one of the priority groups

Then really there's not much point unless it's a sink school with lots of spaces the only other thing I heard is when twins are needed to be kept together or people in the armed forces that are not currently living in the area but will be posted to the area at the start of the term

You get a place based on the admission criteria for the school, which will normally be siblings, possibly then catchment area and definitely distance to the school.
One or two others on the list may feature in some admission authorities admission criteria, such as medical and parents work at the school. But actually it does not make a difference whether you put anything down or not as to whether you get a place offered at a school, it is all about the admission criteria and a computer program that does all the work.

thanks admission - for confirming what I thought to be the case
much appreciated