Summary of admissions advice

[ManicMinor]

BetsyBoop posted a thread a couple of years ago when I was sorting my primary applications for my first child, and I'm now going through the process again - it was so useful that I thought I'd repost the advice. I would have just bumped the thread, but it had 360 odd posts on it! If you're interested, the original is here. Deadline this time round is 15th Jan 2014.

Betsy's (very helpful) advice:

1. Visit every school local to you & make your own mind up - don't go on reputation/gossip/Ofsted reports/league tables
2. Find out how likely it is you stand a chance of a place by looking at the last few years admissions (eg what category & distance)
3. Put the schools in your genuine order or preference (schools are not allowed to operate a "first preference first" system, despite what people tell you)
4. Use all your preferences - but be realistic about your chances of getting a place - don't waste a preference on a hell-will-freeze-over-first option.
5. Always include one "safe" option (even if it is as last preference) which you are okay with & are pretty much guaranteed to get into (ie "catchment" school) . (Or you run the risk of getting a random "worse" school miles away if you don't get any of your preferences)
6. You will not be able to bully the LA/school/appeals panel into giving you the school you want by only putting that school on the application form & refusing places at other schools.
7. Read the admission code - you need to know the "rules" as if the rules are broken it gives you a valid reason to appeal.
8. Submit any exceptional social/medical circumstances evidence with your initial application, whether or not you are fairly confident you will get a place anyway - much easier than trying to win an appeal based on this later (which will typically fail if it is an infant class size* appeal)

And added by PanelMember

1. Check whether the admissions criteria distinguish between siblings in catchment and those out of catchment, because if they do, you live outside catchment and you manage to get your first child in, in a year when applications are low, you might not get places for younger siblings.

10. Don't assume that the LEA or the nursery or A N Other will do things for you. The onus is on you to obtain information about the local admissions process and (crucially) the deadline. 11. Don't treat the deadline lightly - late applications go to the back of the queue and so are likely to be allocated places in the less-subscribed, less popular schools. 12. Don't assume that because your child is in the nursery, they will get a place in the school. The school will have different admissions criteria to the nursery, and transition from one to the other is not automatic.

• "infant class size" =YR/Y1/Y2 classes can have a maximum of 30 pupils per teacher

Hope this helps someone as much as it helped me last time.

Thanks for posting this really helpful summary. Like you I remember the thread from last time and found the advice invaluable. It's surprising how many misconceptions and misunderstandings there can be.

I saw the thread title and thought "I must dig out that old thread of mine, but I see you've already done that manic :)

A useful summary thanks (though number 5 makes me LOL a bit - I live in London and there aren't any "safe" options for us, I very much hope to get a place at our catchment school or another local school, but it is by no means safe that I will).

Which brings me onto a question that a friend of mine had, I wonder if anyone knows the answer. She lives in the same catchment area as I do, for a popular over-subscribed (from within the catchment area) community primary school. She is further from the school than us, she is very near the outer border of the catchment area. They haven't been able to offer places to anyone from as far from the school as she is for years, in fact when she went to visit the school the headmistress told her she would have no chance based on where she lives. The next catchment over from her is also heavily oversubscribed so she doesn't stand a chance there for a place either. The community schools in our LEA have a social / medical exceptional circumstances category so she intends to apply under this as her son has hearing difficulties which have led to delayed speech (he sees a speech therapist but they have decided that his progress is good enough that he doesn't require an SEN statement). She knows her chances are poor but the head told her that unless she put the school as first choice they would not consider her in this category. Is this correct? I thought that the school didn't know where you had put them in the preference order? Or is it different if you are applying under the social/medical category?
Hearing this has actually made me nervous as I have been to a visit another local school (less popular than catchment school but we are still probably slightly too far away to get offered a place) which I loved and am considering putting as first choice with the catchment school as second, but I don't want to somehow reduce DD's chances of a place at the catchment school.

No, you won't reduce your DD's chances of place at your catchment school. Schools don't know which preference order you put them in.

In your friend's case though, I can only think it will be that for that category she needs to show a specific reason why that particular school meets the social/medical needs for her child. I'm not sure of the technicalities of this example, but I do definitely know that you should put your choices down in your true preference.

Is this correct

No it isn't. The school doesn't know where you have put them in preference order. The school (or LA if it is a community or VC school) must consider whether or not your friend's son qualifies for priority on social/medical grounds regardless of which priority it is.

Thanks Op (and Betsy) useful notes

where can you find the prior year admissions?

There should be information about what happened last year in the admissions booklet produced by your LA. You should be able to find this booklet on their website.

Authorities do vary in the level of detail they provide. I'm on the boundary between two authorities - in one area, school places are very tight, so they produce a summary for each school, listing how many people were admitted for each admissions category, and what was the maximum distance admitted in the distance to school category. In the other authority, things are less tight, so in he admissions booklet, they just list how many first choice applications were received for each school and how many of these actually got a place, over the last couple of years. If I was in doubt, I would call that admissions authority to find out what was the last admitting distance for the previous year.

the headmaster of the school i want DS to go to is also headmaster of the nursery he's at. I asked him about admissions and he said that last year basically everyone who applied got in although some had to go through appeal. I asked what maximum number of children was and he said in theory they have no maximum

If you are in England that is definitely wrong. They must have a PAN (Published Admission Number) which is the number of children they will admit.