Order of Schools on Secondary school application

[Tranquilitybaby]

Am I right in thinking it doesn’t matter in what order you put the schools you apply for? My daughter has just taken two entrance exams and we have just received the results for her second choice and she’s smashed it, 120 out of 140. We won’t find out her first choice school results for another 10 days yet and in reality we know she most likely won’t have done as well as the exam was much more difficult (non verbal reasoning).

If she still does reasonably well but under the lowest mark they accepted last year (which was pretty high - 105), does it matter if we still put it first in case there’s any chance she might get a place and put her second choice second or will that jeopardise her getting her second place if you see what I mean?

As I understood it years ago, the schools don’t know in what order you’ve put them and if the child meets the entrance criteria, they will be offered a place, even if it is put second.

Any insight or advice would be most welcomed. Thank you.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5423439-does-school-preference-affect-admission?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

There was a good thread on this yesterday.

TLDR: Always list schools in your actual order of preference, ensuring that you have at least one “dead cert” somewhere on your list.

You have to look at oversubscription criteria. If it does matter, it will be listed as one of the criteria.

The order you put the schools is not permitted to be part of the over subscription criteria.

The order only impacts if you qualify for more than 1 school, in which case you get your higher preference.

Every application for every school is ranked according to their published oversubscription criteria regardless of where they were in the applicants preference order. The equal preference system has been the law for many years now. If you qualify for a place at more than one school on your list you will be offered the one you expressed the higher preference for. If you don't qualify for a place at any of the schools you listed you will be offered a place at the nearest school with space remaining after everyone has been placed. It really is that simple.
If your DD scores lower on the test for her first choice putting that school first will not reduce (or increase) the likelihood of her getting into her second choice; they are looked at completely separately.
You'll hear all kinds of nonsense from other parents unfortunately but there's no legal way to game the system. People try every year, only putting one school, putting the same school more than once, listing only schools that they have little chance of getting into, or trying to be "strategic" about the order they list schools in but none of those things will force the LEA into giving them a school place that they're not entitled to. List the schools in the order you genuinely want, make sure that you complete the form fully and correctly and always include at least one school that using historical data and local knowledge you are pretty confident you'd get a place at. Then you just have to wait for the system to do it's thing. Good luck!

Unless you are in NI. Don’t assume everyone lives in England. Although OP clearly isn’t applying in NI, but it wouldn’t hurt to look at admissions criteria regardless.

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it. I guess with both her first and second choice Schools being very oversubscribed, the only risk is that with her doing so well at her second choice school exam, if we put it second and she hasn’t done enough for her first choice, there could be a real risk that anyone who also qualifies for her second choice, who has put it first we obviously get it above her so there is a risk that she also wouldn’t get second choice either if you see what I mean. Does that make sense?!

If I understand you correctly this is NOT how the equal preference system works. Let me give you an example. You put
1st - School A (rank per admissions criteria 200)
2nd - School B (rank - 140)
3rd - School D (rank - 10)

Another person puts
1st -School B (rank - 160)
2nd School C (rank - 200)
3rd - School D (rank 20)
4th - School A (rank 40)

Say each school can take 150 children

You will not initially be offered school A as you are too far down the rank (cutoff at 150 students).
You will be offered school B as your rank is within the number of children they admit(150). You will gain entry above the other person who put it as their 1st option as they are ranked after you per the admissions criteria.

In my simplistic example the other person will only be offered school D as that is the highest selection that has a place for them.

In the real scenario people ranked higher than 150 could be offered places as those who get their 1st choice drop put of contention for the other school places on their list as they have been given their preferred place.

You must put schools in the order of your true preference. Obviously, include at least 1-2 choices you are fairly sure you will get otherwise you may have the local council choosing for you.

No, that's the whole point. People who have put your second as their first do not get priority over you. Well they might do for other reasons - a higher score in the test, sibling link, living nearer or whatever the particular over subscription* *criteria of that school are - but not just because they said it was their first preference.
Imagine both schools take 100 pupils. They rank all applicants against their over subscription criteria whether they have listed the schools as 1st, 2nd or 3rd (or more in some areas) preference. The preference does not influence the position on the list. If your DD ranks amongst the 1st 100 in school As list she will be offered a place regardless of where she falls on school Bs list. If she's 99th on As list and 1st on Bs she will still get A. She then comes off B's list and their 101 moves up into 100th. If she doesn't qualify for a place at A but is in the top 100 at B she gets a place at B. No matter how many kids there are below her on the list at B who listed it as their first preference they don't leapfrog her.
The thing that is crucial if you are not absolutely confident about a place at A or B is that you pick a C which you stand a very high chance of getting into and is acceptable to you even if it is not ideal - just don't use all your preferences on very oversubscribed schools where you're not confident she'll meet the criteria.

This article explains it well I think - SEAG test is specific to NI, but the same principle applies.

https://thetransfertutor.co.uk/big-schools-allocate-places