Applying for a Primary School place Help!

[mommabee]

If this is in the wrong topic section Sorry, wasn't sure!

I know I'm probably being a total worry wort and am very early in thinking about this but, I am applying this sept. for a primary school place for my DS am I right in thinking that when I apply I can put down reasons for my school choices? If so what sort of reasons count??? 'Because I want him to go to this school and will be on the verge of a nervous breakdown until I find out if he has a place here!'? No?
If anyone has any ideas of what sorts of things to put I'd really appreciate it
thanks :)

You have to understand the system. The school will have an admission criteria so that they can put in order the applications for the school. Typically this will be Looked after children having the highest priority, followed by siblings in the school, followed by whether the child lives in the catchment zone and then distance. It might be different from this, so you need to find out and this will be in the admissions book that comes out in September for all the schools in the Local Authority. Normally there is also information on what the last pupil admitted was admitted on in the admission criteria order.
You need to look up this information and see realistically whether your child is likely to get a place rather than assume that they will get a place.
Whilst there space on the admission form to say anything you want, in reality it has no bearing on the possibility of getting admitted to the school. The only time it might have a bearing is if the admission criteria has some kind of medical / social criteria and you are asking for admission under this criteria, when you will need to explain and give evidence of the issue.

You need to take a look at the admission policy for the school - at the end of the day admissions to schools are based on the criteria laid down in the policy and your child is ranked accordingly. TBH I don't think any "reasons" would count except if they were part of the criteria in the 1st place ie Religion, sibling already at school or distance from home to school etc

thanks, that makes things a bit clearer. I've looked into the admissions criteria as much as i can so far and we live very close to the school so thats my main hope of getting a place! although I know this doesn't always help, but looking at figures of why people got places I think we're in with a good chance!
I just wondered about 'reasons' as I overheard a mum in a play centre saying when she applied she'd put down that they could walk to the school as a reason.
Come Sept. where would I get an admissions booklet from???

Hi mommabee I'm a worrywort too and also will be applying this autumn. I'm feeling very frustrated not being able to find out what will happen! I've been soothing my worrywortishness by looking up as much info as I can on local council web pages.

We are about half a mile from three different schools, all of which I would be happy with but because we're not really close to any of them I'm worried we could be one of the "left with no place offered" families.

My favourite of the three, was massively popular up till 3 years ago (when typically you could only get a place if you were within 400 metres) but then it got a poor OFSTED and people were less keen on it, so the last 2 years people were getting in even if over a mile away. The last OFSTED inspection was good again, and it's difficult to know whether this means that everyone will start putting it first choice again (in which case we prob. won't get in) or whether they will be cautious (in which case we would - but then I'd fret about whether I should also have been more cautious!)

Our applications are mainly done online, so bookmark your local LEA website. Ours didn't come out until after the autumn half term, so Nov time. Meanwhile you can google the oftsted site and it will identify all the local schools, try to visit all nearby ones. Go to summer fairs etc too to spy see the school 'off duty'. You can try asking if they know about numbers in higher priority categories, they are unlikely to predict looked after children and SEN, but might have an idea about siblings, your biggest 'rivals'.

Also befriend your local 'mum with kids in school' at playgroups etc. Not only will she have some idea about her children's school, but also might know about a gem of a village school 2 miles away which is good but undersubscribed, or friend's experiences at the local 'over my dead body school' and that their children didn't spontaneously combust within 5 mins and are actually quite enjoying/thriving there.

You are doing well at this stage, make sure you fill up your choices, but there is realistically little that you can do (unless you can rent an older sibling in the school or if your child has SEN get an assessment asap), to increase your chances, walking to school doesn't count as a special need, even if the parents don't drive/have cars.

xkcdfangirl - it is frustrating isn't it! Im glad im not being totally mad already worrying about it and that someone else is too! Its really hard to know what to do for the best.
We've got 2 schools close by the nearest turned out to be our first choice anyway so that was good and the other is our 2nd but I can't decide on what to put as my third choice as we're not religious and anything Im considering for my 3rd choice is religious so is there any point in putting them if Ive no chance anyway!? but then what do I put!!???? God I wish it was easier than this!
Thanks for all your help though, I see now that only reasons that relate to the admissions criteria are going to help me.

If you go on the school website or ask for a school brochure for the school of your choice it will have the current admission policy. The school will know by now if it is going to change any criteria for Sept 13.

You may still be able to get into a faith school even though you are not religious. Some faith schools don't get enough faith applicants so the spare places go to non-faith applicants. Some faith schools reserve a proportion of their places for non-faith applicants. And you may find you still have time to qualify under faith criteria by attending church regularly. Faith schools are not allowed to subjectively say how Christian (or whatever) you are. They have to use objective measures like church attendance.

Having said all of that, I would strongly recommend using your final preference for a school where you will almost certainly get a place. Remember that the LA will allocate the nearest school with places available if you don't get one of your preferences. That is likely to be an unpopular school and it may be one you find unacceptable. Putting a school where you are almost certain to get a place as your final preference should avoid this and increase your chances of getting an acceptable offer.