Struggling to fill out 6 Primary school places

[Lighterthanair]

My LA advises to fill out six primary schools on the form that's opened for Sep 23 entry for my DC.

Where we live only about 2 local ( within 1 mile) schools are ones we wouldn't mind our DC attending, the other isn't too impressive , 'needs improving' ofsted and I've been told some negative things on the grapevine.

The rest of the schools in the LA are over a mile away. My question is, is it ever worth applying for schools in a different LA ? There's a couple of schools no more than 20 mins away in the car we would love our DC to attend, or is it a total waste?

Unless the schools are undersubscribed (which I doubt if they’re desirable to you!) you’ve got absolutely no chance..

It isn't necessarily a total waste. They must consider your application equally with those from within the LA. However, if you are 20 minutes away it suggests you are unlikely to get a place as there will be too many applicants living closer. Check the distance for the last place offered last year.

Look at the criteria and the last offered spaces for the last few years. If you’re in a location where you are certain to get your local school if other options are full make sure that the local school is in your choices, but you could probably afford to be more adventurous with at least a couple of choices. In our area we only got to choose 3 - and we were right in the middle of the square of 4 schools that are all great so we had to discount one immediately. Having looked at the application data, it seems like the “unpopular” school often swings massively each year as parents try to guess the safest option to have as their backup!

Definitely use all 6 choices rather than leaving blank, as then you could get placed in a school you really dislike AND that is miles away, rather than a more convenient school which you just don’t really want.

I can't imagine many people have 6 schools they like and actually have a chance of getting in to. I think the benefit of 6 choices is you can put a couple of long shots on there and still have your more realistic options on there.

I'd put the 2 local schools you like 1st and 2nd, a couple of ones that you like but are probably too far away 3rd and 4th and then the less popular but close ones 5th and 6th. But definitely check last distances in previous years.

Are you likely (as much as you can work out based on previous years, local knowledge etc) to get into one of the two local schools? Whilst it's good practice to fill in all the choices, I don't think it's necessary if you know that one of your choices is a dead cert (barring weird statistical anomalies ...)

We only put one choice for DD. We couldn't even work out a weird statistical anomaly scenario that would mean she didn't get a place there.

Unlike the above poster, I’d always advocate filling all options as it doesn’t count against higher choices. Even if you’re not that happy with the schools, if there does happen to be the statistical anomaly on your “safe” choice you might as well be in consideration for the next most likely too, if you have the space to add another choice.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

The 'Needs Improvement' one that's very close is the infants branch of the school, the junior school is 'good' and has a good rep locally. Its so bloody complicated as I'll have to re-apply in Year 2 for the junior, although priority will be given to DC.

I like the idea of rating the 2 local under 1 miles good schools as 1 and 2.

2 outstanding schools as lost causes but in my LA but over a mile away as schools 3 and 4.

and the 'needs improvement ' infant as school 5 and the third closet ( a needs improvement primary) as school 6.

We live in a typical London suburb, patches of expensive bits with outstanding schools, most schools 'good' and a fair few 'needs improvement' in things like education quality, or leadership. We knew this would happen when we purchased our house, but it was a case of a bit of space and a garden over a shoebox in the nice streets near the best schools.....

If you really want the outstanding schools, put them as 1 and 2 and the local good schools as 3 and 4. It won't make any difference to your chances of getting one of the local schools, but it gives you a better chance of getting into one of the outstanding schools. If you put them in the order you are proposing and your child qualifies for places at one of the local good schools and one of the outstanding schools, you will only be offered the good school.

I would put the needs improvement one as your 6th choice, otherwise you could get an equally bad one further away as they'll allocate what's left once they've done all the choices if you don't get any of your choices. By all means use the other slots for long shots.

I only put 4 voices for DS but the 4th was a school that was always undersubscribed as it was in the middle of a development still being built. For DD I only put one because there's have to be 90 siblings ( or higher priority) for her not to get a place

Thanks all and @prh47bridge

I thought I just responded to this thread but my reply seems to have vanished.

Yes! I 'll put outstanding (but over a mile away) 1,2 good (under a mile) 3,4 and OK-ish (under a mile) 5,6

Just put them in the order you want them, where you put it on your list has no relevance to your chance of getting it. I wish all areas allowed so many choices, we were only allowed three and it made it very difficult.

Why have you ruled out schools in your LA which are more then 1 mile, if you are happy to do a 20 minute drive to another LA. Would it not make more sense to look at the ones 1.5-2 miles first?

If you have 2 options which are close and you like, then chances are you will get one of them. The other choices are just for back up, and sometimes it is just a case of pick the least bad options. A poor school down the road is still better the an equally poor school 2 bus rides away, which your more likely to end up with if you leave options blank.

Sounds good but if you are in a London borough then the information about last distance offered in the last few years would definitely be available online- well worth having a look.

It depressing looking at the distances, one outstanding school thats 0.9 miles from us ( my option 1) had something like 0.3 miles as FURTHEST for 2022 intake 🙁

We are rural and on the border of several counties so it’s really common to travel for schools and to cross LA boundaries. Schools are 3-6 miles apart.

That said all of the local primaries are great and DD will go a few yards from our house but we could easily get a place 20 mins away as they are all small schools and rarely oversubscribed. DD’s future primary has 48 places 5-11 and there is 0 chance we won’t get in as places are guaranteed for the village.

We won’t be applying for 6 as there’s not 6 to choose from really that are realistic to travel
to.