Is this true about catholic school admission?

[confusedperson]

Regarding the coming 2012 admission. Let's say my 1st choice is a nearby catholic school, 2nd choice - a nearby state school, 3rd choice - a further away catholic school, and etc. My friend just said, you cannot put your choices like that, if I really want 1st choice catholic school I should be putting all catholic schools on the list proving my seriousness.
Well I would disagree because although I am a practising catholic, I have my own preferences - I am FT working and have a small baby to take to a nursery as well, so convenience of the location is a very important thing to me. Also I would think that LEA will decide based on admissions policy, but not based on my 2nd or 3rd choices was it catholic or state school...
Or will it be the 1st choice school reviewing my list of choices and deciding whether I am serious about the catholic school or not?
What do MNetters think of that?

In my LEA the schools don't see what number choice they are or what other choice you've made. But check with your LEA.

According to the admissions Code of practice they should follow their published criteria, so that is what to go by.

LAs aren't allowed to let schools know who else is on your common form or even what position you have put them. Don't worry, put your choices in your actual preferred order, it won't spoil your chances at all. If you meet the admissions criteria for more than one school, your higher preference will be the one offered. If you only meet admissions criteria for your 3rd choice school, that's the one you will be offered, they will never know they were your 3rd choice.

Your friend is wrong. As EllenJaneisnotmyname says, the school is not allowed to know which other schools you applied for nor are they allowed to know whether they were your first choice or your last choice. This is in the Admissions Code so has to be followed throughout England.

For each school your application is decided purely on the published admission criteria for that school. Your other choices cannot affect the outcome for that school. You will be offered a place at your highest choice that has a place available.

When filling in the application form you simply put your preferred schools in order of preference. There is no way of gaming the system.

Unless of course, like ds's primary school, they insist you give them your forms in an unsealed envelope for them to post for you.....If you refused we all knew you had bugger chance. That was 4 or 5 years ago though.

It used to be the case with some secondary schools in our area- eg if you didn't put a catholic school down as first choice they wouldn't consider your application. Was never the case for primary though.

Changed a few years ago when you stopped applying separately for faith schools. All applications go through the LA now & each school on your list considers your application as if it was the only school you applied for.

But do check what the process is in your area.

There is a lot of myths amongst applying for school places amongst parents! My advice would be get the admissions policy for each school your interested in, see where your child is likely to be categorised under their policy and then ask the school's what category they could admit down to for this year's intake. This does not mean they will be able to do the same next year but it will give you an indication of your chances of obtaining a place. I would then review your 3 choices using this information and if there's a probability you are unlikely to obtain a place at one of them I would give this much thought. In most LEA's the school will not know where they ranked in your preference.

LAs have to follow the national Admissions Code. They are not allowed to tell schools where you ranked them. This code has been in operation for about 5 years. Things were very different before that!

Oh ok guys, this has been very helpful!