Primary school application help- I don't know what to do!

[billiegoat]

Can I ask your opinion on school application and what would you do - mumsnetters are so wise!

DH has ruled out one of our local schools, (the local catholic one) didn’t like it, that’s the only one I really liked in our catchment, the other one in catchment wasn’t awful but it felt very big and overwhelming and chaotic, it wouldn’t be the end of the world and it is a good school but we definitely have preferences ahead of it.

Both the schools we both like are in villages about 3 miles from us. They both have long wait lists each year and last year the last child offered a place lived much closer than we do which makes me feel like they’re wasted choices. They are both faith schools and we are not religious so that puts us further down the list.

The other we like is a town school about 2 miles from us but the last space offered last year was a sibling space and again they have a long wait list each year.

There are other schools the other side of our town that are good, and they don’t tend to have wait lists so we would potentially stand a chance with them if we viewed but it’s such a drive across town every day and means our child would potentially go off to secondary school alone. I haven’t viewed any of them and don’t have much time left.

Do you think we should just put our current top 3 and hope for the best and worst case scenario we get none of them and get offered our local catchment school (or would they potentially allocate us another completely random school?!)

We are lucky in that probably 80% of schools around us are 'Good' so I don't think it's going to be horrendous whatever happens, but I don't want to waste my choices.

I don’t know what to do 😫

I'd do this.

I believe this is a low birth year so you might get lucky!

I went to senior school alone, it was great.

We favoured a school out of catchment which was oversubscribed then our closest school followed by the other school in our town which we didn't like.

We nearly put the out of catch school as first choice as the closest school we like was historically under subscribed with classes of 15-20. Their biggest class was reception with 26. We are very glad we didn't as this year they had 60 first choice applications and started the year with 31 students in reception although they are now down to 30. If we had taken a punt on getting into the out of catchment school we would have ended up in the school we liked the least.

How would you feel if they got into the school you liked the least and is the most impractical? If there's not a lot in it, you could take the risk. If not make the decisions based on schools you are likely to get in to

I wouldn't worry too much about a school seeming "big, overwhelming, chaotic" if it is rated Good. Maybe you just visited on a day when there was a lot going on or a teacher was off sick. Reception children and probably Y1 and Y2 will be kept in their own familiar space nearly all the time and as your DC gets older they will become familiar with the other parts of the school and won’t be worried by the size in the slightest.

There's a lot to be said for going to a school close to home, where the journey will be much easier and your child will be more likely to have playmates living nearby.

Don't underestimate the convenience of living near the school. If you can walk, even better. Many schools are banning parking on nearby roads (ours just has), and finding somewhere to park in the 10 minutes the gates are open can be a nightmare. We live five minutes from the school and can easily pop over to drop something off or go to an assembly without it taking too much of our day.

It's also lovely living near classmates - going to the local shop or playground now means we usually see at least one family we know and we feel part of the community.

I wouldn't worry about jumpers/coats at all - they'll put them on if they want them. My son is in Y1 and refused to wear his coat this morning - it's chilly and miserable but it's up to him.

This is incorrect advice. It makes no difference what order you put the schools on your form, to your chance of getting in. It would not have harmed this poster's chances of getting their closest school if they'd put the out of catchment school first.

You stillwould have got your catchment school if you put it second unless you qualified for first choice... they aren't allowed to prioritise children by the order they are listed on the form.

You must put a pretty much guaranteed catchment school as your third choice. Better to be at the known crap school down the road than be allocated the unknown crap school 4 miles away.

Agree with everyone else: put your genuine order of preference, but with a school you are likely to get into somewhere on the form, even in last place. Otherwise it's possible you'll get a school you don't like, miles away.

Birthrates are down in many areas, so could get lucky.

I'd also add my usual reminder that all schools, including non-faith schools, by law have to have "a daily act of collective worship, wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". So (as a non-religious person myself) I would not reject faith schools on this basis, at least not at primary.

Don't judge the big school alone on a snapshot of the playtime. A lot of kids don't wear coats at break times, even at the smaller schools. Inside the schools get very hot, my child is always in his t shirt as he gets too hot! He goes to a larger school, I too had my reservations ( I went to the opposite, a tiny church school ) but it's worked to his advantage so far. Larger schools can also seperate children if issues and may also have more support for children with SEN, you haven't mentioned this but sometimes things aren't picked up until primary school.

My sister in law went for the small village primary and niece was bullied. Moved to the much larger (and closer) school in town, and it was much better. It's a job to know what is best.

The two local schools to us were the same distance (0.5 miles) we would have been put in the catchment school we didn't like which has a class of 20 (space for 30) this year and not the catchment school that had to decline 30 children!

We had 2 schools in catchment one we liked and one we didn't. The one we liked had to decline 30 children and the one we didn't only filled 20 of it's 30 spaces. We would have ended up in catchment school we didn't like.

This in SPADES

My main point was make choices based on how much you wouldn't like to end up at a particular school. We absolutely did not want my daughter to go to the other catchment school so we went for the school we were most likely to get into in order. If we had been equally happy with either catchment school we would have taken a chance on getting into the out of catchment school
Multiple schools told me they do their best to accept as many children that put them down first.
Our chosen school has ER status so accepts children with EHCP requiring the enhanced resources above children in catchment as well as having multiple looked after children.

You put the catchment school you liked first on your form and got a place in it.

Therefore you would have got a place whether you put it first, second, third or any other place on your preferences list. It doesn't matter whether they rejected 30 children or 300 or none. You were sufficiently high up on the list of criteria that you were always going to get a place.

If you'd preferred another school, you should have put it first on your form. You would still have got a place at your preferred catchment school if the overall preferred school didn't take you.

The preference allocation system does not take into account the place you put a school on your form. The place is only important if you qualify for a place at multiple schools (where you would get your highest preference).

Schools have no say in who they accept. It's done according to strict admissions criteria.

Putting a school first does not increase your chance of getting that school.

Multiple schools told me they do their best to accept as many children that put them down first

Schools cannot prioritise on the basis of where you put them on the form. It's a breach of the Admissions Code (which has force of law) and the actual allocations in the main entrance round are done by the LA. Schools that are their own Admissions Authority (and the LA for schools that are not) will produce a list that ranks all applicants according to how well they fit the criteria.

The LA then processes all those lists, so that every applicant receives an offer, and the offer they receive is for the the highest-preference school of the ones they qualify for.

It is however not unknown for schools to misrepresent the situation. Or for an audience to misunderstand "if you really want your DC to come here, list us first" (because it makes no difference to your chances at your lower ranked schools, and if you list your 'banker' ahead of us, that's what you'll get even if you qualified for a place here) as "if you really want your DC to come here list us first" (because being first choice matters).

Agreed. We were told by nearest secondary that if we didn't put them first we wouldn't get in, which was just a con to keep their 'first choice' status up tbh.

Schools don't get a say in who they take tbh.

@Superscientist
Look at it this way. Let's pretend 3 schools have 30 places.

You love school A, but you're not sure you'll get in.
You like school B ok, and you know you'll get in.
You don't like school C.

School A gets 100 applications. You rank 30th.
School B gets 100 applications. You rank 5th.
School C gets 20 applications. You rank 1st.

If you rank A, B, C, you get A and give up your place at B and C.

If you rank B, A, C, you get B and give up your places at A and C.

Now let's pretend you ranked 50th school A.

If you rank A, B, C, you get B.
If you rank B, A, C you get B.

The ONLY thing that determines what you get is where you rank on the school's list. Whether you put them first or second has no effect, unless you qualify for more than one, in which case you get whichever you ranked higher.

It's really important, for this reason, to give a genuine order of preference.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment

I've booked to see our catchment school again and hoping I like it more!