Secondary school admissions

[Powderyturkishdelight]

Hi all, it’s around 4 months until I get to hear if my DD gets the school she applied for. It’s the closest one to us (0.4 miles) it would be so beneficial for her if she gets in.

I keep hearing horror stories of children not getting their first choice of school. We have listed others in the same town of course but her first choice is the only one we actually liked from their open days, word of mouth and Ofsted reports.

i guess I’m after some experiences and advice on how to wait out these next 4 months , it’s going to be a long wait!!!

It's best to just not dwell on it. Nothing you an do between now and offer day is going to make a difference.

Tbh it's better for everyone if you reframe your language remembering that it was never a "choice" it was a "preference" - the only circumstance where you actually get to choose is if you have more than one option. You get to express a preference, you will be allocated one place.

In most geographical areas applying for your closest school that's only 0.4m away would be a dead-cert that you would be allocated your first preference so unless you're going to drip-feed that it's a religious or otherwise semi-selective school where you don't meet the main admissions criterion, or that it doesn't work by shortest straight-line distance, you probably have northing to worry about.

Encourage your child to be generally open minded and to be confident that things will work out ok whatever happens. Every spring after allocations are announced there are mumsnet threads started with mums describing how utterly devastated their child was to be allocated their 2nd choice school and it's clear that this sense of devastation is entirely the fault of the parents who have made out that anything other than success at getting first preference is cause for doom and despair.

If you don't get allocated the place you want that's not the end of the story but there's no point making plans for that when the chances are you have nothing in worry about.

Hey @Powderyturkishdelight please don’t worry (easy to say I know).

Agree with @CrabSignalArmy that this is a preference not a choice, and you should make sure you are pleased for your DC wherever they are allocated a place.

But honestly, unless the school you prefer makes its selections by lottery, or yes, there is a religious criterion, I cannot imagine how you would not get a place if you applied on time and listed it first, if it is 0.4m away.

The horror stories you hear are of people who foolishly listed only schools out of their area or schools they otherwise stood very little chance of. The vast majority of children will be allocated a school on their list.

I have never heard of anyone who listed their closest school and didn't get it - unless they were allocated a further away school that they listed higher.

The "horror stories" are people listing unrealistic preferences. There are a few "black holes" but you would know if youbate in one... (I used to live in one and the shouting was all year round until the new school was built!)

I only listed one school on both DDs forms. It was the catchment school, (fixed catchment, not nearest distance) which is a few minutes walk away. They go over PAN if there are too many children in catchment.

It would really be helpful if people could reframe their thoughts and think of the admission process as expressing a preference, which is what it is. Making a choice implies that you will get the first choice you make, which isn’t necessarily the case. Expressing a preference means that there is more than one option and you’re selecting which you’d prefer.

Less than half a mile travelling distance and the nearest school would indicate that you get a place, unless there are religious or other criteria you don’t meet.

The horror stories that hit the news each year are very similar round here. It tends to be more primary or infant entry as the secondaries are fairly similar.

The horror story tends to be that person who lives in town A, has chosen the three most popular schools from the far side of town B. Those three schools have a catchment area of less than a mile each, a waiting list of 20+, and town A and town B are over 2 miles apart.

They then clog up fb with the unfairness and sad faces of someone who has (predictably) been sent to the less popular (but actually quite nice) school that's 200m from them. They demand everyone protests, schools nationally go on strike, the MP makes a school place available and Elon Musk's next trip to the moon carries banners proclaiming that the school place is theirs.

After a couple of weeks they shut up, and rather oddly the people who do this sort of thing don't learn, so we'll see a different sad face the next year.