experiences with children getting into a primary school which was 1st preference.

[Maciesmammy]

Hi I wanted to know if people would share their experiences with me. I have recently applied for a place at the local primary school where I live for my daughter who is starting in September. I literally didn't realise there was such competition for places and thought it was just a case that if you live in the catchment area you would get a place. After reading some stories on here and on the Internet I'm a little worried. Although the statics say that 90 something % of people in gateshead are getting into the school they had as their 1st preference im hearing more and more stories of people who didn't get any of their prefered choices and just being giving a place somewhere else, sometimes even miles away. I have applied for the two schools which are walking distance for me (as I dont drive) but these were both oversubscribed last year and other than that all the other schools are Catholic schools which we are not. I no obviously it will be different depending on where in the country you live areas will be more populated but I was just wondering if anyone would share there experiences on whether their child got into a primary school which was a preference. Thanks.

Your best option might be to contact your local authority and ask what category and what distance the last child was admitted under for the 2 schools you are looking at. That should give a clue as to the likelihood of getting a place.

There is increasing pressure on school places, but in most areas I suspect you will be OK if you put your closest school on the list somewhere.

Bear in mind that some of the people who don't get their first choice will have put a school that they prefer but never really had a chance as top choice. Some of the people who don't get a place at all will have done something silly with the application form.

What Rafals said - often local authorities publish this info on their websites too. Try googling the name of the authority and admissions.

My dcs got into the schools of our choice but they were our local schools. It's not a nightmare everywhere.

We are in an area with a high demand for school places. I put our most local school as first choice and got it. The catchment area was just under 1 km this year and we are well within that.
How many choices can you make? Put the full number down choosing other schools you could get to by bus etc for your other options. You could regard your first two as the ones you want and the rest as emergency back ups.
If you only put two over subscribed schools down you run the risk of not getting them and then you could end up anywhere as you will be centrally allocated a place.

It really is impossible to compare one area with another.

When we applied, we would have got in to any of the 5 primary schools within walking distance. They were all possibilities as non were over subscribed.

But families living 2 miles away, also within walking distance of 3 schools, could not get places at all, even the family living 50 yards from the door. The reason? They all lived on a new development, and the council had not allowed for any extra school places. Their local school were filled with siblings. They all ended up being given places in our school, which added a bulge class on that year.

My point is that your local situation is always unique and so our experiences aren't going to give you your answer.

As pp said, you need to contact the council. They will tell you who was admitted last year. So they will say that the child furthest away who was admitted, lived 1.3 miles away (or whatever) If you live 1.8 miles away, you should probably be worried. If you live 0.6 miles away, then it is pretty likely that you will get in.

You are doing the right thing by applying to schools close to home. That is really your best option.

All individuals' experiences will tell you is that some do, some don't.

As PP said, your LEA admissions site is well worth a look. Ours publishes every year how many children got into each school under each condition (sibs in catchment, other in catchment etc) and how far from each school the last pupil admitted lived. It would be well worth you researching this for the two schools in question. Also look at other local schools, including the catholic ones, if your child is not a shoo-in for one of the nearest 2. If the catholic ones are undersubscribed and they take children of other faiths, this would probably be where your child would end up if allocated, so if there is any question about you not getting into your first 2 choices, put down one of them as a "backstop". It won't reduce your chances of getting in to the first two.

There are no guarantees. The distance of last admitted child can vary wildly from one year to the next. Also if any school gets a new OFSTED rating since the previous year, it will attract loads more applications IME and neighbouring schools will suddenly start taking children from a much wider area. But all the info is out there for you to have a better idea of the likelihood of your child getting in, and take action if needed (fingers crossed you won'tneed to).

If you're in Gateshead, don't you get 3 choices on the application form? If there's another school near you that you would find acceptable, maybe one that you could easily get to on a bus, it might be worthwhile putting that down.
We only really wanted our local, nearest, school for DS1, but we filled in all 3 preferences to try and do our best to ensure DS1 didn't get allocated a place at the poorly performing primary school that's our 3rd closest.

Anyway, check the council website. I know that the Gateshead council website lets you download an information booklet, which has data tables in the back detailing who many applications were made to primary schools in the last 2 years, how many children were admitted from each category in the admissions criteria, and which schools were oversubscribed.
I believe that most councils have similar information booklets available online giving this sort of detail.

This information will help you to get an idea of how realistic your chances are of getting into your preferred school, but bear in mind that it all depends on how many applications there are this year, which no-one can know in advance. DS1 missed out on a place at our local school for this year on distance, as did several kids living nearer to the school than us, but we'd have been within the distance cut off in the previous 2 years.

Some of those who didn't get any of their preferences will include those who only put one school down (because their friend told them that the LA would have to give them a place there) or who only chose schools that they had no chance of getting into.

My dd has just started Reception in our first choice of school even though we are out of catchment.

Unfortunately, the Gateshead admissions information booklet at
www.gateshead.gov.uk/DocumentLibrary/Education/Schools/Admissions-2015/Primary-Admissions-Booklet-2015.pdf doesn't seem to contain last admitted distances for each school, though it obviously does contain how many were admitted under each category.

I would contact the council for the last admitted distance in the oversubscription category that you fall into for each school (there is no point in knowing that the last admitted sibling was from a mile away, if you are a non-sibling and the last admitted distance for them was 200 metres!)

If you have 3 choices, and have only put down 2, both of which you might not get due to being oversubscribed, then you need to find another school that would be 'OK', that you would be virtually certain to get a place in (e.g,. an undersubscribed school further away, that would not be ideal - e.g. may have a lower Ofsted, or may be a bus journey away - but would be better than 'any random school that you would be given if your chosen schools are full . Remember that if you are given a further away school, and that was the only one with places for you, you may well be able to get help with transport costs)

That's true Bert, one of the other kids who didn't get into our local school would have been classed as "didn't get any of their preferences".

His parents put our local school down 3 times because they really, really, wanted him to go there, despite them living well outside the last admitted distance for the last few years. They didn't get in. The child ended up getting offered a place at the nearest school to their house, which luckily for them, was undersubscribed last year.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have already looked at the admission booklet and does not give any information about the furthest distance in which someone was admitted. I will email around. I am going to put a third choice down just haven't done any research on other schools yet. Thanks again xx

Mixed bag round here. Our local school is very oversubscribed but luckily we live very close by, so got our first choice.

Friends who lived very close to their first choice school missed out because over 20 of the 30 places available went to siblings.

I don't know anyone who didn't get one of their three choices, but agree it depends on how likely your choices are.

Second the suggestion to find out how far away the furthest child admitted last year was, and how many places went to siblings so you can get an idea of your chances.

I second posters who said have an insurance option, a school that is ok-ish and you are almost certain to get a place. Some of the parents who get none of their choices have put only one school (maybe even several times) or wildly ambitious choices very far away down in the mistaken belief they will be given something from their list. Those can end up in a undersubscribed school miles away. If you know any parents from this year's intake they are often very well informed about furthest admitted child having just been through it.

Look on Rightmove.com at a house for sale near you, look at the maps and click on primary schools. That will give you a good idea of how likely to get into your schools of choice. If you don't get "very like" call and see if you can add a 3rd choice to avoid getting into your least favourite choice or somewhere miles and miles away.

Before relying on Rightmove's maps, check your LA's distance criteria and how they define distance.

The school maps I've seen on Rightmove appear to be based on an "as the crow flies" distance from school. My LA uses a "closest walking distance" criteria. One of our neighbours put their house up for sale recently, so we were having a nosy at it on Rightmove, and the school map gave a ridiculously optimistic likelihood of getting into the local primary from their house. (We're significantly closer to the school on an "as the crow flies" basis, given the way the roads twist about in the housing estate once you get off the main road)