Admissions cachement process question

[CaramelEmporium]

Apologies if this has been asked before. I've been visiting primary schools and trying to mentally juggle which way to opt in terms of stating my preferences...Can anyone advise.....

In the following scenario which child would get the place?

Child A 0.5 miles from school chooses said school as option three
or
Child B further from the school but chooses it as as option two

Thanks in advance..

Child A provided they didn't qualify for their first 2 options and they are in the same priority criteria as B and distance is the tie breaker.

Put your options in your true order of preference , but make sure one of your options you are reasonably certain to qualify for.

Always put your choices in your true order of preference. You will be allocated the first school on your list you qualify for. So if you really want School 1 but think you might not get in, but don't mind School 2 and will almost certainly get a place, put 1 then 2.

It is impossible to answer your specific question because Child B might be in a higher priority group (eg, sibling) which the school may give priority to.

My issue is this.

We are at the very edge of the cachement area for my preferred school. I will put it as choice A but realistically don't expect to get it.

My quandary is that there are then 2 schools either of which I'd be happy with. My preference is probably school B which had a couple of spaces last year but obviously no guarantees for next year.

School C is probably my last choice but my concern is that if I put it as choice 3 and then A and B are oversubscribed - by putting C as 3 we also miss out then we end up somewhere else altogether.

So should I put C as choice 2 to be on the safe side??

I do appreciate no one can answer this really!!

You won't miss out on a place because you rank it lower than others.
Put them in tire order of preference.
So ABC for you.

Put them in the order of which you would prepare?
How many miles are you ftom school A?

by putting C as 3 we also miss out then we end up somewhere else altogether.

No. If you qualify for C you qualify for C regardless of where you put it on your list.

Definitely ABC - you will be allocated a space irrespective of your order. Are you pretty sure you’ll get a space in one of these? Because if they get filled up with higher priority then you could be offered any other school. If there are no schools you are deadly against then this isn’t such a big issue.

We are in catchment for A preferred school. On a normal year we should get in but a high sibling rate could bump us out. School X is closest to our house (though in a different county) however I wouldn’t consider that. So I’ll be putting A first then looking for some bankers in other close villages (we live between a few) that are not regularly oversubscribed to reduce the risk of X at all costs.

School A is our catchment school but we are at the edge. Going on previous years...last year we'd have got a place, the year before we wouldn't.

School B is further away and offers places to those who miss out on school A once it has fulfilled its cachement offers. Again some years we'd have gotten in, some years we wouldn't.

School C is actually out of borough but you can apply. School C is generally undersubscribed but we were told by the school "you'll get a place if you put it as option one".

I'll stick with school A as choice 1 irrespective. My thoughts are by putting C as option 2 that's a safer bet than putting B as 2, C as 3 and then missing out on all three.

Taking on board what people have said here it sounds as if I should go with my preferences rather than trying to second-guess how it will fall out.

That's my concern Wait4nothing, I don't think any of them are bankers other than putting C as option one but that would definitely rule out any chance of A or B. The overflow schools are awful hence trying to get B and C in the right order in case we don't get A.

They take everyone's 3 preferences and allocate each school as if they had 3x the number of applicants.
If all your choices are successful they give you #1 and bump up the people who were closest for #2 and #3 because you have freed up a space at #2 and #3.

Several people have already explained, but your last post makes it seem like you're still unsure. For the avoidance of doubt, the order in which you list your choices makes NO DIFFERENCE to how likely you are to get them. Any school which claims otherwise is misleading you.

In simple terms, schools basically get a list of every person who has placed that school on their application. All applicants are then ranked in order against the admissions criteria. The top 30 (or 60 or 90 or whatever the planned admissions number is) will be offered a place. However as you can only be offered one school place, if you qualify for more than one school you will be offered your highest preference. That is the only way in which preference is taken in to account and is why you must list them in order of your true preference.

Thank you everyone. I am not stupid but honestly I seem to have a mental block but the penny has finally dropped since my last post and I get what you're saying now. So ABC it is and fingers crossed one is successful!