School admissions in the 80s and 90s

[LockInAtTheFeathers]

After speaking to my mum about applying for my primary school place in the mid 90s and some posts I've read on here, it seems that back in the 80s and 90s there was no centralised system for school admissions and you just rang the schools concerned who would add you to their list. It sounds like there were admission criteria of some sort, e.g. apparently the local Catholic school said you had to be baptised and the local C of E school said you had to be churchgoers, while the community primary automatically gave a place to everyone in the nursery.

How did this work in practice? Would schools have a set number of places and did they have to fill them (e.g. would the Catholic school have to take someone who wasn't baptised who applied if they still had places, like they would nowadays, or could they say no and leave the place unfilled?). Could they go over the admissions number if there were more local kids than was thought? Did they fill by first come first served or who met an admissions criteria best? What if all the schools you rang said no? It all just seems so different to today's preference system that is centralised and takes months to sort out.

By the time I was applying for secondary school in the early 00s the equal preference system that still applies today was in place in my LEA, so it seems like a lot changed in those 7 years!

Definitely had a centralised system in London in the 80's I remember mum completing the form and deciding on the ranking

And the baptisms for convenience was already in full swing, plenty of my primary school friends were being dragged to church weekly to get ticked off!

My eldest started school in 2005, and we put her name on a waiting list in about 2001. However, my youngest two years later had to go through the centralised system.

There was a centralised system in the late 80s early 90s when my children stayed school. Decisions were made by the LA

I went to secondary school early 80s. You had to apply and got a letter to say which school you were allocated. Same as dd when she was 11.

I went to a comp in 1980 aged 14 from middle school. As we went to the middle school, we just automatically transferred to the comp. If parents wanted different, they had to sort it themselves. My friends' parents didn't want them going to the comp, so they sold their house and moved to grammar school catchment. Both their DC failed 11+ and went to the nearest secondary moderns instead.

Aged 5, we started the term in which we turned 5. So, 3 intakes in the year. Before that, it was playgroups aged 3-5 up to 3 mornings a week.

My own dc went to catchment village school 5 miles away, we later moved, I rang the nearest school, they went there, I filled out forms on the first day. That was in the 90s.
If we wanted to 'choose' the school, we could apply, but unless it was the catchment school, you had to deal with transport yourself. Therefore, there is no choice for poorest parents.

I remember there was a catchment area and my mum went to the council as she diddnt want me to go to the school that was closet one. I started at Easter so can only have done a few months in reception?

Secondary school was a pain in my city as there was a baby boom in 1983 meaning there were far too many kids for school places. A new school had to be opened to accommodate everyone

I started school in 1958, went through primary with 48 to a class, no TAs either.

My mum says the only options were the closest school or private. In theory there was more choice when I started high school but by then I had my ASD diagnosis and she had to fight tooth and nail for me to go to a mainstream school.

Thinking back to my primary school, there must have been some sort of catchment because there were two primary schools in my outer suburb of London. Everyone one side of a particular road went to one & vice versa.

Yes I am January born and started school in January. My best friend started at Easter. It was weird children gradually leaving nursery and you spotting them over the fence in the big playground. I've no idea on admissions though. I went to church schools and a letter from someone in the church meant you got a place (even if you lived miles away). I grew up in London. The class sizes were probably smaller than they are now.

For my co-ed comp secondary school they changed the admissions a year or two after I joined (I joined mid 1980s). There were a lot of schools in one location so they had a drawn map in an elipsis out from each school and therefore covered specific populations. Shortly after I joined it changed to be the school had to be the centre and that created black spots for certain areas, it also meant my school turned from an oasis of calm to one of pure hell and also the 'anyone gets in regardless of where you live as no one wants to go there' school. All the decent teachers left.

In my day everyone in my street went to the one of two primary schools (catholic or regular) and for secondary one of five schools (boys grammar, girls grammar, boys comp, girls comp, co-ed comp - there was no faith secondary at that time). In my street, not far from where I grew up the children go to about ten different secondary schools, I don't think any of them go to the same secondary school as each other (nearby grammars, Kent grammars, Bexley grammars, co-ed, single sex comprehensive schools, newish faith school, private schools). For siblings that can be great to get the school that suits you, but for only children going to the same school as another nearby child really helps with making friends, I remember playing in the street with school friends and walking home with them to avoid the bullies at the bus stop, summer holidays in the woods making structures out of dropped twigs and branches etc, it cemented our friendships.

Started secondary school in 1984. There were three possible schools, all sharing the same playing fields, and each primary school in the area split their leavers into three groups and just allocated them to one of the schools. Siblings followed each other but that seemed to be the only rule as to who went where.

I applied for secondary school in London in the early 1990s. There was a centralised system, where you had three preferences. However they did not operate an equal preference system as they do today. That basically meant that we had no chance of getting a place at our second or third preferences, despite living close by, because they were not listed as our first preference. It meant many people were quite conservative with their choices and wouldn't put down a preference unless it they felt that they had a decent chance of getting in.
The way it is done today is much better, but still I see on admissions threads the old advice trotted out about preference listing even though equal preference system has been here for years!

My birthday is in July and my local school wouldn't let summer born kids start reception until January (early 80s). My mum worked and needed me at school so she rang the next nearest school who didn't have that policy and they gave me a place.

It seems like schools back then had much more autonomy and were less centralised.

In the late 70s to mid 80s our local authority used to send out a letter to parents of what is now known as year 6 children which said you live in X area, so you are eligible to apply for schools 1a (girls only), 1b (boys only) , 2 and 3.

As the eldest my letter came through and as the cohort was massive I was only eligible for school 1a. By the time DSIS 1 was due to change schools she was eligible for schools 1a and 2. By the time DSIS 2 changed schools she was eligible for all of them as the year was much smaller.

Local knowledge was that if you had a boy and your parents were either in the prison service or police you automatically went to school 3 because inmates children went to school 1a or 1b. Not sure how true it was.

My brother was in junior school in the late 90s and had 37 in his class. The other local school refused to take over 30 per class, so they ended up at our school.

As PP said, when applying for secondary (late 90s), you filled in a form for each borough, but they worked through first preferences first, so it was hard to take a gamble on a slightly further away school. We lived near the boundary of areas, so were able to 'play the system' and apply for a school in area A and area B. I also applied separately for grammar school, so actually got 3 places.

Also, in the 80's there was no such things as Ofsted and therefore no 'good' or 'bad' schools (although obviously some were better than others) so it was much more usual to go to the 'local' school because that was most convenient and the only real differentiator between schools.

The National Curriculum wasn't created until 1989 so schools were all teaching different things and couldn't easily be compared. Amazing to think how much things have changed recently!

the choice of schools became a thing to stop house wealth dictating how good an education your child has. E.g house prices near good schools.
I mean, it’s not really worked but that was part of the theory I believe or how it was sold to the masses

I started secondary school in 1988 and there was a preference system like now. I lived in London and some choices were in the next borough.

As for primary, you went to the school that you were in the catchment area for.

Its true there was no ofsted good or bad schools. But where I lived there were comprehensives which were former grammar schools, and others which were former secondary moderns - and many parents wanted the former grammar schools for their children. For no reason except they had a better reputation historically.

Also just like today, church schools were often seen as better.

My children were born in the early 90s so I remember this as a parent. Every part of England did it differently. In our Inner London borough, you could apply for as many primary schools as you liked. We applied to eight for our daughter as we knew we were in a black spot and we only got one offer.

Each school did its own admissions, applying a published admissions policy, usually giving top priority to siblings and then going by home to school distance, sometimes with priority to children in certain areas. Obviously different for religious schools.

Children started Reception the term in which they would turn 5. My daughter was April-born but the cut off was 30th April so she started in January. By the time my son started Primary a couple of years later that had changed so children born between 1st September and 28th February started in September and the rest in January.

Reception and Key Stage 1 class sizes were capped at 30 by the Labour government in the late 90s. In our borough it was unusual for KS2 classes to exceed 30.

By the time my daughter was secondary age, we had co-ordinated admissions for the whole of London. You could apply for up to 6 schools. You were offered a place at one school or no school. All applications for each school were processed independently and ranked against the admissions policy criteria. Then all the lists were amalgamated and a hugely complicated computerised process begun of re-ordering the lists based on parents' preferred rankings.

Say Sam's parents had applied for places at schools A, B, C, D, E and F, ranked in that order, and Sam was ranked 321 for A, 345 for 2, 667 for C, 122 for D, 29 for E and 112 for F - and say they all took 240 children a year (unlikely) - Sam would be in line for a place at D on the first computer run. But the computer would then remove from A, B and C's lists all the children who came high enough on the lists for other schools that their parents had ranked higher that they didn't need their places at A, B and C. All lists were then re-ordered, again and again, until all places at all schools had been allocated. That might well mean Sam ending up with a place at A, B or C in the end.

This was a far better system than what had happened previously as some parents had multiple offers from different boroughs, grammar schools and academies/city technology colleges, and other parents had none at all.

Also, the Admissions Code of Practice had come in and schools were no longer allowed to interview parents or children as part of the process. Parents and LEAs could appeal against admissions policies they thought were unfair.

Thanks everyone- I'm finding this thread really interesting. As @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g says, it seems that every part of England was different and moved to a centralised system at different times!

My LEA used 'first preference first' for secondary admissions until my year (2003 entry), which was the first year of the equal preference system (much fairer IMO) in my area, and I understand that it became law across England in 2007. As others have said though, that 'first preference first' is still used is one of the biggest myths about the current admissions system.

In the mid-fifties, when I started primary school, each school had a catchment area. If you lived within that area, that is the school to which you went. Classes were huge, in the high forties.

Grew up in a London borough. Just asked my mum and when I started primary (1988) she wrote a letter to the school a couple of years before and asked I be put on the list for the appropriate year. By the time I went to secondary (1995) it had been centralised by the borough and you applied via them. FWIW during my time at primary the national curriculum was introduced and the 30 person class limit for certain ages was also introduced too.