Applying to primary school this year

[Lmjl2102]

I'll be applying for primary school for my daughter this year. I'd love her to go to the school linked to the church she got baptised in. That school is 2.6 miles away from us. The other Catholic school I'd be happy her going to is a little over 1.5 miles away. We go to the church of the furthest one every Sunday. A friend at church said to just put down those 2 and our reasons why. Our catchment schools aren't great and I wouldn't want her going to them. Has anyone else been in this situation?

Do you mean this September? The deadline has passed

Is this for start in September 2018? If you haven't already, you need to urgently check application dates (Google your council and school applications)

I don't know if they're the same dates nationwide but ours have just closed, just a few days ago.

The application deadline for primary school entry in Sept 2018 was last week.

No, sorry, I meant I'll be applying when it opens in September for the following year.

I believe that date is nationwide, otherwise cross boundary applications would be impossible.

You need to look at the admissions criteria for the schools. Are they over subscribed?

Generally not using all your “choices” is a risky move especially if your first choices aren’t schools you are high up the admission criteria for.

Always worth remembering this is a preference not an order. If a place isn’t available at the schools you show a preference for then the lea will place you at the nearest school with a place

It depends where you are - the rules are different in Scotland and England, for example, and then different English councils have different criteria (eg whether sibling link trumps distance from the school; whether there's a true catchment area or not).

The applications are processed by a computer. It doesn't care about your reasons unless it proves something about oversubscription criteria (e.g. baptism, regular church attendance, medical needs, child currently or previously in local authority care).

I really hope your child has just turned 3 and you're applying in Autumn 2018 to start in September 2019.

Yes my daughter turns 3 in May, I'm just planning ahead and doing my research now.

Your friend is wrong about putting only two preferences on the form. When you apply for state school you are effectively applying to every school in the local authority but expressing a preference about your top three or six. It's unlikely that you genuinely don't have a preference between the half-decent school half a mile down the road and the failing school an hour's drive away so MNers always recommend putting a "banker" or reasonably likely option on your list somewhere.

Phew!

Check the schools’ admission criteria. Being a regular member of the congregation at the church attached to your preferred school is likely to put you high up the priority list.

I would always use all your applications, otherwise the local authority can give you a place in any school if you don’t get into your preferred schools.

Think of school application more as an expression of interest. Each school has different admission criteria, but it’s priority is usually something like:

Looked after children
Siblings
(Parishioners for church schools)
Distance/catchment (many schools in England no longer have catchments as such and just prioritise those coming from closest).

Definitely don’t just put those 2 down - that’s really bad advice. Use all your choices. Otherwise you might find yourself allocated somewhere miles away.

Use all your choices. If you don't, and you don't get your onoy two choices, you may be stuck with a bad school the other side of nowhere.

Look closely at admission info and previous years admissions. In our area you'd have zero chance of getting into a school over 1 mile away as Ave distance for admissions is 0.7 miles or less. Other areas are very different. London can be a matter of yards for non siblings... whilst rural areas can have large catchments.
And yes always fill in as many preferences as you are allowed

Don’t listen to your friend. Not only is not using all your choices a bad idea, but listing your reasons is a waste of time as they’ll take not notice of them.

If the school has more applications than places available, children will be admitted in the order set out by the admissions criteria, nothing else.

First thing you need to do is look up the admissions criteria for each of the schools and work out what category you would be in. Then find out how far down the criteria they usually admit. This should give you an idea of whether you would normally expect to get a place.

Just so you are aware applications don't open till November 15th and are open to 15th January 2019.

Use all your choices!

Just so you are aware applications don't open till November 15th and are open to 15th January 2019.

The start date depends on your area. Here it's 1 September. You're correct about the closing date though. Needs to be on everyone concerned's calendar in BIG RED CAPITALS!!

Our la won't open primary school
Applications until secondary applications are closed which is 31/10. Then primary opens and after primary applications close then nursery applications open. That way there is only one application process running at any time.

I'd also check whether you need to be signed off on the list every Sunday - some of the Catholic schools near us have admissions which (after LAC etc are taken into account) are : children who attend church 4x per month; children who attend church 2-3x per month etc so you need to make sure you're counted in the right category.

As other have said, don't leave anything blank on the form. If you do that choice is effectively you saying - "I really don't mind - just allocate me somewhere with a space" (and which therefore has a space because it isn't full with people who expressed a choice and chose it....).