To only apply to schools out of catchment?

[drpepperwhatstheworstthatcouldhappen]

The school in our catchment area is a requires improvement school and I'd rather not send my son there. We had a look round and I just really hated it. Am I being crazy only putting down out of catchment schools? One 0.8 miles away, one 1, one 2.5. Our catchment school is always under subscribed so he's likely to get a place even if we don't get any of our 3 choices. It's just such a huge decision to make and I can't imagine sending him to a school I'm not happy with. Moving house not an option sadly.

What do you mean by catchment? Are you referring to a formally defined area where children get priority admission, or just the area from which children are normally admitted?

So what’s your back up plan when you get none if the schools you “ want “ because you don’t meet the entry criteria ?

youll go private or home school ? Fine carry on.

you want the state to educate your kid? - you may end up with a school further away that may be in a worse situation than the local one.

the logical strategy is to put the closest school in your last choice as you are sure he will meet the criteria for a place and then fill all the rest with your aspirational schools.

then if there is a chance at the other schools you’ll get the one that you meet the criteria for but if you don’t meet the criteria you’ll get the last school and have a place. You can then go on waiting lists from a place of strength

On our council website we can look at schools in our catchment area, and the only one that comes up is the requires improvement school. The 0.8 miles away one is right on the border. The other two are out of catchment area.

There isn't a school that's worse than the local one though.

The risk is that you don't get any of the schools you chose, don't get a place in the catchment school because other people take those places, and end up allocated a school that nobody else wants and is really inconvenient to get to. If you are happy that the catchment school is unlikely to be full, and that would be the default fallback, then I think I'd be tempted to risk it.

I cant remember how many schools you list but I always think put the close requires improvement school in as your last choice, or you could end up being offered a requires improvement school thats really awkward to get to instead, if you dont get a place in any of your choices.

Unless you really would go private or homeschool in this instance..

How many choices do you have? It's usually 3 minimum.

If it is 3, then put the schools you prefer first and second and your catchment school third. Having it on the form won't prevent you getting your first or second choices if there is a space for your child and the only thing worse than your child getting a place at a local school you don't want is them getting a place at a school miles away that you don't want.

Have you visited the schools, checked latest inspection dates and read the actual Ofsted reports? I guess if it's under-subscribed it probably is crap, but there can be quirks from rating.

How many schools can you put in total? And how many are actually within reach? We could put 6, so you'd still have space for the nearest school at the end. 0.8 miles isn't far, you might not get in from the first round by could get in on a waitlist. You do need to just your backup plans in order though or you're just letting the council decide ig the first 3 options don't work.

As I understand it They will look at all applications in the catchment first and only fill out of there if undersubscribed. I'd put your near one as last choice so at least you'll get a place and prepare info for appeal . Call local admissions and ask , you don't have to give your name

There isn't a school that's worse than the local one though.

That depends on why you dislke the local school, is it just because it requires improvement or is there something else? Some of our local schools are rated as outstanding, but I wouldn't want to send children there.

To put it this way, the requires improvement school has consistently only been 60-70% full. For the last 3 years. I really doubt it will be up to 100% this year. I guess it's part of the reason why they struggle. I could put it as my last choice so will give that some thought.

What are the admissions criteria for all these schools, including the one you don't like?

Put a school you would definitely get as last choice. A local school that you don't want is better than a random distant school you don't want.

When we lived in London you could put up to six schools. Only two met our criteria of providing a choice of MFL, a classical language and three separate sciences (was a long time ago). We fully met the faith criteria for both but it was a risk nevertheless. We got our 2nd choice and were 3rd reserve for our 1st choice and had that within three days.

However, we had a back-up plan and two offers from independents.

@drpepperwhatstheworstthatcouldhappen things don't necessarily work out as you wish. Heads change, pupil cohorts vary in terms of ability and behaviour. Having got the outstanding sought after school with 9 applicants per place, dd had a miserable two years in a dysfunctional and toxic environment due to a dreadful cohort and very weak leadership.

It's been in the news quite a bit over the last couple of years as they haven't been implementing things that Ofsted suggested. Injuries at the school really high. Two teachers have been sacked recently. One for swearing in a child's face and another for unknown reasons to me. When I went it seemed completely chaotic and a parent at the school gate who was coming to pick their kid up told me not to apply here when I asked what the school was like. It just feels wrong. Paired with really disliking the school, the lack of music which is important to me as a musician.

We could put our catchment school as a 4th choice if we didn't rank it 1-3 (last year)

Our choice 1 has a large heavily over-subscribed catchment (5 applications per place last year, but DS did get in)
Choice 2 we were a mile out of range but a reasonable chance of getting in. My concern was was choice 1 being hard to get into and effectively wasting choice 2. I went with choice 1 as DS preferred it.
Choice 3 was a religious school and DS was ranked 3 on admissions criteria.
Choice 4, local catchment school. Tends to be OK to get into. Weak SEN provision hence being reluctant to send DS. I wouldn't have not put it down.

The risk of not putting your catchment school is being put in a space anywhere else with space avaliable, and better making do with a local place than an equally poor one on the opposite side of the LA. With space avaliable it's a reliable bet if you don't get your higher preferences.

If you don't put the catchment school as your 3rd choice (is it just 3 you get?) and you don't get a place at the ones you want you could find the school you get offered is one miles from home.
Just because the school is usually under subscribed doesn't mean that is a guarantee for your child's year group.
You have to think that the possibility might be -
Place at 'requires improvement' catchment school.
Or -
Place at an reasonably ok school but it's 2 bus journeys away across town or even in the next town or nearby village and will take you an hour each morning to get there.
I would definitely put it as number 3 on your list.

I did exactly this for exactly your reason. You have one catchment school. I didn't put it down as any of my three choices because I knew if wouldn't be full if my first three choices rejected me. I actually got my first choice.

And like you say, if there isn't a worse option than your catchment school then you can't lose.

I put three non catchment schools, assuming we'd get the catchment school if none of the three were available. For similar reasons. We ended up with our third choice, which is our nearest school (daft catchment areas). If you're sure the catchment school won't be oversubscribed, I would definitely do what you're suggesting. Worth a shot!

This is a very risky thing to do.
What will you do when you don't get any of those schools because too many children live a lot closer/have sibling priority and you haven't put down any of the nearest ones to you?

Have you visited all of your local schools?
Have you spoken to the Head of the required improvement to see what action they are taking? They will be monitored.

Smaller class numbers can often be a good thing for children.

It is tricky. Are there any schools further away that are generally undersubscribed but you prefer and could tolerate the journey, that could be a last choice?

I wouldnt personally hold the fact a school is undersubscribed against it, its a bit self fullfilling. What did ofsted say was wrong, what capacity has the school to improve.

This will depend on the area you live, I've just done ours and didn't list the local school because any other she could possibly be sent to is better and I know she will be given a place there if we don't get our choices however I'm not in an area that is heavily oversubscribed overall

Sorry hadn't seen your update. Not implementing changes is a concern.

The risk is that you might not get any of the schools you put and that you get a worse school further away. I’m afraid that what you really need to do is research this with your local council for a bit longer before you make a decision.

For example most councils will publish online the furthest distance offered from each school for the last few years (many may have a catchment area but the best schools may only offer to the children who live closest within that area, as the admissions criteria uses the closest to the school if there are too many applications). If you look at the schools outside your formal catchment area and they have regularly for the last few years offered children who live further away than you do places, then the risks may be lowered. Equally if you look at an out of catchment school and they haven’t had full applications for all of their places and the likelihood is that you’ll get a place there. You may also want to phone the schools you’re interested in and speak to them about the chances of you getting in. However if all of the schools that you are looking at are oversubscribed and have a very small catchment area themselves and have only offered places to children who live much closer than you, then I would think the chances of you being offered a place are very slim so you need to possibly work out an alternative.