What info do schools have?

[Skypatrol]

So, ds2 is due to start reception in September. Ds1 is currently in year 6 at local primary so will be leaving soon.

I'd put ds1s school as first choice for ds2, I knew he may not get in as we are out of the area slightly, and won't get sibling preference.

However, although we don't get offers until mid April, ds1s headteacher has phoned me to tell me that ds2 hasn't got a place.

He said he can't be totally sure, but he's had a list of names and ds2 is way down the list. Wouldn't say where on the list.

So I'm non the wiser really, but does anyone know exactly what info the schools have?

I'm not too worried as we will hopefully get one of our choices, but I'd prefer the school we are all familiar with.

We have a list of all the children that have named my school on their application, their address, distance from school,other sibling at school if applicable and so on which are then sorted by our admissions criteria. We don't know what order we were placed on their application so the order might change when places are given as some children might have other schools as a higher preference. So we have a rough list but not a finalised one!

The HT should, most definitely, not have told you any of this. We do not know our actually allocated places until v close to the national date in April.

I wonder why on earth the HT would tell you this?
As a VA church school, we're the admissions authority and I've checked over the list of allocated places as a fresh pair of eyes a few times. So if you were applying to that school, I'd know where you were on the list right now, but in practice it tends to be a rough guide as to who's likely to be on roll in September and I certainly wouldn't rule out a parent with a strong preference having a chance of a place once the dust has settled, even if there was no chance of an appeal right now.

To confirm, the head teacher is way out of line in giving you any such information, well over a month before parents receive information. Whether it is correct will depend on the way that parents have expressed their preferences and whether this is actually the final list of pupils in admission criteria order for the school or not.

I'm not sure why the HT told me, but the school where aware that my older dc hadn't got his choice of school. So perhaps the HT just thought he'd get all the bad news over in one day.

He asked whether I'd put the school as first choice because he'd had the list and ds was way way down it, but that never say never.

The HT is absolutely not allowed to do that. The information is understandably confidential until it is realeased to parents. Very poor.

What reason does the school have for even getting any of that data?

Because your older dc will not be at that school there is no sibling link.
The HT should not have discussed the list with you at all. At this point, a child s name may be on the provisional list but be removed if another child with a higher need, e.g. LAC, is placed on it. The HT would then be in a very difficult situation of giving out incorrect information.

Asking whether you put the school as first choice suggests he doesn't understand the process. He appears to think that you get priority if you make the school your first choice. You don't.

As others have said, he really shouldn't have said anything. Anything he has at this stage is confidential.

With over a month to go until offers are made, it isn't clear if this is the list of children who will actually be admitted or the full list of applicants in rank order. If it is the latter, being a long way down the list doesn't necessarily mean you won't get a place. It depends how many of those ahead of you on the list also qualify for places at schools they named as higher preferences.

Bridge that's what I was wondering, whether the list (as of last week), would have been a static list of those who will actually be offered. Or a list of those who'd named the school as a preference, in ranked order.

So for example if there are 60 children on the list, and ds is 60th, but 40 of those children had actually named other schools as a higher preference and were offered them, then that list would change completely.

I guess there's no point in me guessing. It's just that there are several other primary schools in close proximity and this school is historically undersubscribed.

DS got into his secondary school as a sibling when DD would have left as it was taken on when we applied not when he started there. Thought it was the same everywhere.

Thought it was the same everywhere

No, it isn't. Some give priority if there is a sibling in the school at the time of application. Some give priority if there will be a sibling in the school at the time of admission. Some give priority if there has ever been a sibling at the school, even if they left years ago.

Similarly, some give priority to any siblings, some only give priority to siblings living within a certain distance of the school and some have two sibling categories, one for those living close to the school and one for those living further away.

I'm sure there are other variations I've missed.

Remember also that the waiting list will only consist of people who put this school as higher priority than the one they were given. So you won’t be as far down the list as you currently are.

They do have a list of people who have made a preference for the school but I'm not sure it's in any kind of order.

If it helps, this is a low birth year so unless your schools are very over subscribed, parents are likely to get one of their choices. I know our school is only getting 2/3 of it's usual PAN. The effect on funding is going to be interesting.

It is not the case everywhere that it is a small intake year. In my LA the number of pupils is approximately the same as last year and there is a belief that there will be a very slow increase through to 2025. However within the different parts of LA there are areas where the schools are over full and areas where there is alack of pupils.
I would be cautious about schools saying it is a low intake year. Is it really the fact or is it more a reflection on the parental view of a school?

Fair point admission. I just assumed it was the same across the country regardless of movement.

In the case of my LA it's significantly fewer numbers by several hundred, so other than a few very popular schools, numbers are down across the board.

That's for primary though and I understand there is still pressure on secondary places which won't decrease for 4 years or so.