Have you applied for your year 6's secondary school?

[sarah8484]

Just that really, have you applied for you dc's secondary school places? This is literally the most daunting thing I think I have to do. My ds knows which school he wants to go to but a lady over the road from me said she applied for the same school my ds wants to go to and her ds never got a place and wasn't even offered any of his choices, apparently there was a baby boom in 2008 where I live. Id be devastated if my ds didn't get his choice of school. Theres only 2 schools I want to put, but its recommended I put 5! Any one only applied for 1/2 schools?

Yes I’ve just done my Ds, I only put 2 school down.

Tbh I wouldn’t be listening to the scaremongering, apply for your schools, and await the the decision date, until then no point worrying about it.

Did it last year. Put any school you'd accept him going to, because on the off chance he doesn't get the preferred schools, you can bet he'll be allocated the one you really really don't want. It won't make any difference to your top choices but the more options the better. I feel for you, last year I honestly thought March would never come!

We have to pick 6! Its too many, the whole thing is only an illusion of choice anyway. I haven't applied yet, should I?? Still got some visits to make.
I think you would be taking a risk not filling all the places, you can be allocated anywhere with that tactic.

Don't rely on out of date tales from other people. Look at the guidance on the council's website that will tell you what happened last year about places.

When is the deadline? Schools here haven't had their open days yet! I'm going to sort my niece's soon but was waiting until she had looked at the schools

Ah just checked 31st October in niece's area

Not yet. 11+, then open evenings and mornings to do first. We get till 31st October and it doesn't matter if you apply sooner.

You must use all your choices.
And include your catchment , even if it's not great. Better to end up at a school your dc doesn't like on your doorstep than a school they don't like 10 miles away.

I feel extra stressed also because you can apply for schools now but the open days at the majority of the schools here are not until next month! I know it doesn't work on a first come first serve with the applications but would of liked to have viewed schools this or next week! Im such a stress head

Applying early doesn't get you up the list, it doesn't work like that....

Do not only put 1 or 2 schools down. If you do that you’re essentially telling the LA that other than those two schools you don’t mind which school your DC goes to. If he doesn’t get into either of those schools, they will place everybody else first, then you’ll be given a place in whichever school has a place.

A school you don’t like nearby is going to be better than one you don’t like an hour away.

Go and look at the schools.
Especially any school you can "guarantee" he will get into if you put it down. See if there is anyway you will accept it - if it was the last school in the world could you accept it. If so put it down on your form.
If you don't put it down somewhere (the bottom) you could well be offered an equally bad/worse school which also has an awful journey as well.
Use space 1 for the school you want most (it isn't wasted if you don't get it - its even worth putting a very unlikely choice in no 1 slot). Then the one you like 2nd in the second slot, and so on. But try to make sue you have some realistic choices, and at least one you can pretty much guarantee you will get offered.

Often you can change your choices up until the deadline - but there is no advantage in applying early.

Why don't you go to the open days first next month, then apply after that?

Instead of pointlessly stressing or listening to rumour, why not inform and educate yourself. Get hold of the admissions information from the local council (which secondaries were oversubscribed in your area last year and which category the last child admitted was in (inc distance data if applicable). Then work out which schools are likely to be possible and which of those you want to visit.
Make sure that that your catchment school or similar sure fire bet is somewhere on your list (can be at the bottom) as the only thing worse then getting a local school you didnt want is getting one across town you didnt want.

Do not put only 2 schools down - if you don’t get these you will be slotted into the school no one wants miles away. Do not put only 2 schools down.

Waiting for 11+ results first.

As a secondary teacher, I would recommend that, to set your mind at rest about other schools besides your top choices, you and your child should go on a tour of the different schools during a normal school day, not just an open evening visit.

We had parents and children touring all the time during the autumn term. It never bothered any of us, because we were a very friendly school, and it helped set a lot of prospective pupils’ minds at rest, because all they saw beforehand was an absolutely massive building and 1500 teenagers!

SLT would take them around, in and out of loads of classrooms so they could see what all the different lessons looked like, and they always made sure they were in the corridors during at least one break time, as that can be very daunting for a primary student to imagine.

I have done mine already. I have only put two schools down because our first choice is also our closest and we will definitely get a place. We live 950m away, and the catchment is consistently about 2100m. There are not six schools we would be happy with, hence my not filling up all the spaces. So in our case, only putting two schools is fine, it depends on your circumstances.

Always use all your choices. Catchments change, unless you live somewhere very small where there is only one viable choice based on distance. Where I live there were only just enough places for children last year (bulge birth year) and some have ended up travelling miles on a bus as those were the only places left.

An acquaintance tried the ‘just put two schools and they have to allocate one despite both being far out of catchment’ thing last year. I explained, many times, that no, the algorithm does not work like that. It’s just a computer program that filters based on address etc. But no. Her son was predictably allocated her closest school, which she didn’t want as it’s in special measures again.

TulipCat you cant know for sure you will definitely get a place though? Catchment is usually only 4th priority - 1st priority usually goes to LAC/previously LAC, then teachers children, then those with siblings at the school. That could quite easily fill 50-75% of spaces before they even start looking at catchment areas, and half of those within catchment will be closer than you. If there arent six schools you would be happy with, then fine, but do you not have a preference at all of the others at least? Because if you dont make it into either of your 2 choices, and youd have preferred anything but School X, and that is the one you get allocated because you didn't put C, D, E and F down on your application, it gets a bit messy.

Don't put 5 unrealistic, amazing, out of catchment choices down either because it's unlikely your dc will get any of them. I've seen that happen, along with the corresponding sad face in the local paper .

Ah god year 6
It’s a horrible stressful time and my advice is to avoid discussing with other parents as the inaccurate data and stupid commentary will drive you crazy

And you have NO choice , none its a statistical exercise

Don’t whatever you do only choose 2 places . I know people who didn’t study the data and put ones they would never ever get

Then they just got allocated one that had spaces

Put the ones you want firstband the ones you are statistically likely to get lower down

As if you only place 2 desirable ones and no other Preferences they will bump you to one that has spaces if you don’t get them

My son got our third choice , and is settling in fine

And frankly I don’t even want to see his year 6 parents anymore as the chat was too
Much

I'm waiting for 11 plus (probably for a miracle) and open days. For a lot of reasons I want my twins to go to different schools and neither of them at the closet one so I know I've got a fight. Dh seems a lot less bothered but I want to get this right for both of them.

It's a nightmare. My DD has done one 11+ exam and will be sitting another this weekend. There are the open days for independent schools but will worry about those exams later. There's an excellent state school but there's no guarantee. I feel sorry for kids in Y6. They should be enjoying their last year of primary school and instead have to do assessments, exams, etc.

Most areas don't have exams or assessments for secondary school unless you're going private. Bit doesn't have to madly stressful, certainly for the kids. If you don't show them you are stressed and uncertain, get the correct info from the council website, take them on open days and generally exude an air of confidence that whatever school they get it will be fine, you can take a lot of pressure off them. Y6 SATS are equally to be played down.. Secondary schools take little note of them for setting etc and make their own decisions after a few weeks or in y8. Good, supportive, involved parenting is the biggest factor in educational success. You can't actually 'beat' the system, you get what you get so you have to be prepared to work with the possible options instead of hand wringing about stuff you can't change.