Did you put more than once choice down on your Primary application (if you thought the others were duff?)

[oliveoil]

I want dd1 to go to the CofE one her playgroup is attached to.

Other choice is Catholic and the other one is hmmmmmmm .

So do I just put the CofE down or will I doom dd1?

one choice, not once

grrrrrr

I'm filling in all the choices just in case but apart from the top school and the second school the other ones are a bus ride away because there's no way i'm putting the other two that are in my area down as they are a bit Hmmm too! (thanks btw need to post my forms off and you've reminded me)

I only put one for ds1 and he got in. Only put one for ds2 this year as well - won't hear if he has got in until March. It's our catchment school though and now we have a sibling in, I'm not worried about it.

we applied at 2 schools (one state, one catholic) and got both places

also, it says put down reasons why you think your child should go (paraphrase) so if I put down that she is vvvvvvv sensitive and it would be a major upheaval to be separated from her friends, would that wash?

She would be distraught as she knows the school and area and is not good with new things and situations.

Obviously I will tart up my language a tad and make it sound good .

olive, i would turn that round, and make it into a positive thing - eg she's part of a thriving social group, could add a lot to the class etc, rather than sensitive thing

ok

(but I seriously think it would be vv bad for her to not get in)

not that I will make out she is 'depressed at 4' or anything

It depends on the application protocol. Here we had to apply to 3 placing them in order of preference. Some people put the same school down 3 times. Then they didn't get a place there and ended up being allocated a place in a different school miles away.

I put down two other choices going with the theory that at least that way I could pick which of the least bad schools was next down on her list iyswim.

The school has 60 places and each year gets about 58 or 59 applying.

I think I will put the CofE down and the Catholic one and leave the other one off. It is ok but is the feeder for the secondary that I don't like (not that we will be here then hopefully but I digress)

Put down other schools only if you would be prepared to send your child to them. Otherwise even if they can only offer you your fifth 'choice', the council will still see it as you having been offered one of your preferred schools. If you'd reluctantly accept a place at your second choice then put it down, but don't list schools you absolutely wouldn't contemplate just to fill up the spaces on the form.

Wrt reasons, the schools work their way pretty literally through the criteria listed on the admissions policy -- otherwise they would face screeds of successful appeals. I very much doubt that anything you put down will make much of a difference unless it relates very directly to the stated admissions criteria.

I would put down as many as would be acceptable to you. Otherwise should you not get into the only one you put down, your application could go to the bottom of the heap and be dealt with once all the second or even third preferences are done. You then are allocated whereever there happens to be a space so you may not even get a place at what might have been your 2nd/3rd .

When I was completing the forms for infants, junior and secondary I only put down one choice and put the reasons why. But I was fairly sure I wouldnt have a problem with any of the schools due to location or siblings attending.

I remember when I completed the forms for my first DC I visited the school and asked the head teacher her opinion on what I should put and she agreed that it was ok to just put the one school down.

I've just put the one down, sibling there already and it is the closest school so I am confident ds will get a place.

can i ask, when are you supposed to apply for a primary school place? DS is 27 mo. We are very close to a particular local school, which is not very good and I would prefer him to go to a different one, which is still fairly close, but not the cloest IYSWIM! He goes to a nursery which is also attached to a totally different primary school. When am I supposed oto be sorting all this out? (I am hoping no-one replies that I should have sorted it ages ago!)

closest

for dd2, i put down my 1st choice school, 2nd choice that was ok, and one out of the area that is so so so good its heavily over subscribed, so i know we dont have a hope in hell of getting that one.

Message withdrawn

HMMC, speak to your local education dept. We are applying earlier than usual this time as ds is due to start in sept 2007 and all applications have to be in by end Jan 2007. With dd it was end of the April before the Sept she was due to start.

oooh thanks Pinotmum, I will have a look online, thank you misdee for that suggestion, and see what I can find out. This all just feels a bit grown up, so I think I have been putting it off, whereas we just need ot look into it properly and make some decisions. Eeek!

I think the criteria vary for every area - in rickmansworth kids get priority if they are in the attached preschool, in st albans they dont - its purely on distance.

in this area if people don't get their first choice then they go on a 'continued interest' list and you'd be amazed how many people move on - two or three places come up in each school each year. so even if you 'accept' a place at a school that is not your favourite you can still show an interest for a place at your favourite and change before school starts. hope that helps