how much importance is placed on the 'additional info' section on a primary school app?

[mamacoffee]

i mean the section where you select a school and you are allowed to explain why you have chosen the school. i can't tell if its important or not given that as i understand it they don't really assess you as a parent, they just look at criteria and whether you fulfill them

thanks.

Nothing, unless the school offers something of particular need to your child e.g. Dyslexia support unit. "I feel that this nice school will be the most suitable for my child as he likes reading" will be ignored.

very useful thank you

so do most parents leave it blank?

im a bit late in the game as its dc1 and i thought applications had to be in by march, now i realise that's roughly when you get to hear

I think some of us probably write something naff in there in the hope that it'll somehow help our case, but as Peter says above I think it only really carries weight if your child has special needs. My dad is an education officer and says it is pretty much down to whether you live in the catchment area or your child has a sibling at the school already - a sibling there carries more weight than catchment area. Hope you get the place you want!

Thanks I won't worry too much about it then!

It is not important for community schools if you are not applying with special medical and social needs, or a child with SEN. Applications will be very strictly assessed against the published admissions criteria.

If you are applying for a faith school you may need to demonstrate how you meet the faith criteria but this is usually done by filling in a supplementary form.

Admissions criteria vary from school to school so do make sure you check these out, and put down a school where you have a reasonable chance of a place. Also, use all your preferences up.

The only time it might be relevant is if you were to accidentally tick the 'catchment' box, say, but then stated 'I really want this school because my eldest son attends' and some eagle eyed admissions clerk notices that your application should actually be 'catchment sibling' instead of 'catchment'.

Either way, the LA has a criteria to apply to each application and it is applied strictly.