I actually feel like stamping my foot and shouting "waaaaa it's not fair". 
We live across the road from one of the best secondary schools in the city! (Literally can see it from my house). I always though dd2 would have no problem getting in even though it's a faith school and we're not religious.
Yet it seems this year the LEA have decided to completely change the goalposts for secondary admissions and they don't base any of the decisions on distance from home to school.
So each school I've applied for you need to either be CofE (and have the obvious proof), pass an entrance exam (for a state school!) or have an aptitude for music or art. DD2 has none of these. She's dyslexic, struggles academically, and isn't really exceptionally good at any one thing, she's just average.
The one hope I have is one of the schools is an academy (not out nearest one) but is a good school and there's an entrance assessment. They take so many kids from each academic level.
Other than that she's going to end up in one of the city's shitty comps which incidentally the nearest is 2 bus rides away! As opposed to going the excellent school over the road!
Feeling completely frustrated and stressed with the whole bloody thing!