Primary applications - bottom of admissions criteria for the one and only school in our catchment....

[Ladi85]

Therefore bottom of criteria for any other school nearby as we are outside of their designated area, plus many are faith (not ours) schools. What happens? Should I be asking for guidance at open days on our chances of getting in? Or seeking advice from the LA? I’m really quite worried. Thanks

What are the criteria?

Off the top of my head it’s something like this, ind escending order

• child with ehc plan
• looked after child / previously looked after
• of school faith with sibling in attendance
• of school faith
• in designated area

It will depend where you are and how oversubscribed the school is but in our area all children who live in the priority admissions area are offered a place in all but exceptionally large intake years.

Can you find our where the line was last year?

Your LA should have an info booklet online that explains the last year's admissions. It should give the numbers admitted in each category, the number of applications in total and the number the school admitted in total. You should be able to find the same for previous years. Then you'll be able to see how often they admit children in the last category, and how many.

You should also be able to find what happened at other local schools - even if you are outside their area, they might be undersubscribed.

First, as others have said, find out where the cut off point usually is. If it’s in the designated area criteria, then use the school as one of your choices.

If it isn’t and hasn’t been for a while, then don’t waste a spot on your list by putting it down. Looking at the uniform of ks1 age children in the streets around you might give you a clue as to which school you are likely to get a place in. You might have to do a bit of investigation into the cut off point for a number of schools in the local area to work out which ones are the ones you can nearly guarantee a place in.

Thank you all for your replies. The booklet online tells us what the intake is and how many preferences that school received last year; in some cases it states that all preferences were met. So I assume that if this isn’t stated for a school for last years intake, some people did not receive an offer... is my interpretation correct?

Yes, you're correct. Does it break it down by numbers in each category?

I’ve looked at two sets of LA prior year admissions data and one set was easy to follow - showed last admission criterion admitted to and distance on that criterion. The other was really hard to follow. You might want to name change and post the actual details or ask to PM them to an expert on here.

No breakdown is given
Is anyone an expert and can I PM you? Thanks you

I've done my own child's application so not an "expert" but I'd take a look if you like.

Ours seem to make them impossible to find and aren’t that clear.

If they don’t give a breakdown, you’ll need to email the admissions team. It might be better to do that anyway and ask for the category and distance of the last child admitted for the last 2or 3 years.

I'm happy to take a look.

Happy to look for you if you indicate schools and LAs by sending a private message.

Hi again, do the experts have access to data that I don’t?! I have looked up the previous year admissions guidance. For some schools it states all preferences were met, others state which criterion and distance, others state to contact school. So inconsistent! Is this normal?! I must admit I have not read through all 80+ pages of the document so maybe I’m missing something ...

I’ve found the primary allocation data for previous years. Thank you very much all, I didn’t even know such data existed.