What kind of 'reasons' did you put in school application form for your preferred choices?

[Holymoly321]

I have to do DD's primary school application for Sept 2010 entry by next Friday. Have looked at the forms and am wondering what sort of reasons people put. All the schools near us are fairly decent, and all provide pretty much the same kinds of things in terms of the curriculum, extra curricular clubs etc. DH and I have made up a shortlist based on our feelings of the school during viewings, if the children looked happy etc, so are now not sure what we should be writing in the 'reasons for your preference' boxes. Can anybody help? What did you write in yours and did it make any difference? Apologies in advance for the nosiness of this question, but we really are stuck.

Have you checked out what the admissions criteria are for the actual school. Ours are (1) sibling in school; (2) catchment area; (3) preference. So if you lived half a mile away you could write what you bloody well pleased and they wouldn't care. But if you are in an iffy location and are going on the basis of preference, mention anything impressive about the school, any relationship you have to the school already (ie have your kids been to the preschool), social links to the school etc.

When you say 'mention anything impressive about the school', do you mean as in 'as parents we liked the fact there was an emphasis on sport and music, lots of green open space, calm atmosphere etc'? Does this not seem a bit 'vague and airy fairy?', even though these are part of the reasons we liked the school? And the reasons are pretty much the same for all three of the schools - would it matter that we put the same sort of reasons for each of them?

I've never heard of having to put a reason before - where I live you would only do that if you were applying under the medical or social needs rule....

Don't bother - they don't read the "reasons" bit. It's just there to make parents feel better.

I've always left it blank.

The reasons box is there if you really need it and meet their criteria for being prioritised: social, medical that kind of thing.

thank you so much everyone - thought that might be the case but wanted to double check with those of you who had filled the forms out before.

Just out of interest Cory, what would be a 'social' reason?

I rang them the admissions people up and asked them what it was for and the woman actually said that it was just to make people feel better and that they didn't read them.

lol savoy - definitely feel better now!

Chickiolina - we had a social reason. Our ds has been badly bullied to the point we needed to see a psychiatrist. Our social reason would be it was detrimental to ds's mental health to go to the local schools with his class-mates(children from his primary go to 4 different local secondaries).
Another example I know of is a mother whose husband had run out on her and went to live with another woman. This other lady's children went to the local primary and they both had children who were reception age. The mother got her child in out of catchment because the other mother was being very unreasonable.
It's hard because even for social reasons you need a letter from a medical professional or a social worker to back your case up.

kittybrown, thanks for clearing that up for me. hope your situation is all sorted now and that your DS is happy and loving his new school.