Selection Criteria Primary School - Advice needed.

[TwistTee]

Hello,
My LEA's admission criteria for Primary Schools is typical of most areas with places ranked by 1)Children in public care 2)Siblings already at sch 3)Medical conditions/religious affiliation and 4)Geographical
We do not qualify for any of the first 3 so will have to rely on how close we are to the school and I've been told 2012 is an extremely high birth year for the area.

I would like to pick a sch which is 1.5miles away for my 1st choice on the off chance we get in. If not, I'm hoping for choice no 2 which is much closer. However, I want to make sure that doing this would not disadvantage us given it wasn't our 1st choice.

In other words, will people who put our sch no 2 as their first choice have priority over us or is it done purely by distance?

Hope this makes sense.

Your LA has no choice in this. Putting a school as first preference does not give you any priority. You will not miss out on a place at your local school just because you make it your second choice.

Sorry but in the LEA area I'm looking at the issue of first/second preference is important. For example, supposing TwistTee's child and my child both live in area and there's only one place left at the school then if TwistTee has put the school first and I've put them second place then in this case she has priority over me and would win the place. I'm happy to be corrected but this is my understanding.

JackyJax - If your LA is doing that they are in breach of the Admissions Code. Whilst some LA's do breach the Code, I think a failure to use the equal preference system is highly unlikely. They cannot give someone priority because they have made the school first choice. They must use the admission criteria only. So if your LA uses similar admission criteria to TwistTee's child, in the situation you describe the place would go to whoever lives closest to the school assuming neitehr child had a sibling at the school or had priority for medical/religious reasons.

If you tell me which LA you are in I am happy to check that they are obeying the law.

Just to add, even if both children live exactly the same distance from the school the LA still are not allowed to use the issue of first/second preference to decide who gets the place. There are various things they can use to decide the issue including, if all else fails, a lottery, but they cannot use preferences.

Just to confirm that LEAs are not allowed to use order of preference as a criterion.

Thank you everyone, this certainly makes the decision a bit easier.

Happy to be corrected by those who obviously know much more than me. Am sure my LEA isn't doing the wrong thing; my misunderstanding. Thanks for the clarification and good luck to original poster.

In my LEA, the school just sees an application (it doesn't see how you ranked it). Each school you apply to (in my LEA, you can apply to up to 6) ranks all of the children applying for a place according to their published criterea.

So, for instance, a two form entry school would in principle offer the top 60 children a place. If one of those children declines the place, then child number 61 would get offered the place instead, and so on and so forth.

As many as two or three schools might rank your child high enough for you to be offered a place there, but your LEA will offer you a place at the school that comes highest on your own list.

Make sure that you put as many schools as you can on your application. Some parents just put one or two down (and often both of them are unlikely) and can find themselves without any school offers.