Primary Application Process

[Rubycoola]

How likely is it that we will not be allocated any of the schools on our list?

There is a newish primary school near us but I don't want to send my child there.

There are plenty of great schools in our catchment area I will be happy to put on our application but I am concerned as the school closest to us is undersubscribed. I know some of the other schools will be oversubscribed but I am worried we will not get any of our choices and end up at the closest one, just because of our postcode.

Can anyone help me anecdotally? I know each situation is different but would be good to know a little more from those who have been through the process in a similar position.

You put your top 3 schools in order ypu want.

The admission criteria is published for each school, usually cared for kids, siblings then distance.

You are assessed for each school individually then offered your highest rated one,

Hi OP

Firstly, how many preferences can you put? 3, 4, 5 or even 6? Use them all with schools you would be happy with.

Make sure that you put at least one banker on your list - in last place if need be. That means a local school (often your catchment school) that you don't love but that you would be happier with than a disliked school 3 miles away.

Other things being equal, the key decider for primary places (after LAC, EHCP, siblings) is distance. You can check with your LA how far the schools you prefer offered places in previous years - so if your first choice went to 1.5 miles in the last 3 years and you live 0.75 miles away, you are most likely fine, even if another school is nearer.

Put schools in your preferred order - I cannot stress this enough. Putting v unlikely school A in first does not in any way diminish your chance of getting pretty local school B if you put that second - unless you are offered school A of course.

Hello, thank you for your replies.

I have 5 schools I would be happy to send my child to so I will be putting those down, in order of preference.

My concern is that as the closest school is new and undersubscribed, that we may still get sent there instead even though it won't be on our list.

Has anyone been in this situation and what was the outcome?

If you go on your local council website, you will be able to see if your postcode would have ended up with an offer if you applied this year. Obviously there's no guarantees but if you would have received an offer at the other 5 this year then your chances are probably pretty good.

If you are high enough up the priority list for any of your preferred schools you would be offered that ahead of a more local one. Having said that "catchments" are not always fixed or even relevant, distance may be a deciding factor if there are more applying within catchment than places. Each school publishes their priority criteria.

@BoohooWoohoo and @LIZS thank you both, this is really helpful.

If all your other schools fill with people who are higher on the admissions criteria than you, and this school does not fill and has spare spaces, you could be allocated it, yes.

You can get an idea of how likely you are to get the other schools by looking on your local LA site for how previous places have been allocated in past years; many LAs have this available. In most cases I would imagine it will come down to distance.

You can put a s ho the other side of the country on there, and will get the space if there is one. They won't send you more local just because the school is there, only if you don't qualify for the schools you do list. Even then you can go on the waiting list.

Have you visited any of these schools yet, even the one you don't like?

If you don’t get any choices you will be allocated any school that has spare places. So yes this could be the one near you that you don’t like.
Or it could be one miles aways across town/county/borough and involves 2 bus journeys and a 15 minute walk to get there.
You really don’t know. I personally would put the “don’t like” school as choice 5 (your “banker” school as some call it). If you don’t get any of your choices you can go on the waiting lists but at least come the September your little 4 year old will have a school to go to that’s not far from home rather than one potentially an hour or more away.

I don't know where in the country you are, but generally you only have one catchment school, you speak of having 'many in your catchment area' just wanted to make you aware!

I think the OP lives in an area without any catchment schools and go by distances from what she describes? However, I think it's true generally that if there is a catchment school system, you are only in one unless there are religious criteria to one or more of the schools you are in catchment of.

OP, if your county runs a catchment system, distance isn't obvious and you need to check the actual catchment and the distance is calculated within catchment first. I'm in Hampshire and so many times I've been told by people who couldn't believe they can't get into the school opposite them. It's because they didn't bother to check that school isn't their catchment school.

But really you need to check the admission criteria of the schools you are applying to, and also the last offer statistics from last year.

I also agree with the poster that you should put your closest school as your safe choice. Or you can be allocated a school much further away.

Thank you all very much for replying. All very helpful!

I would have a look on your local council website, and see if they publish details about how many pupils were offered places at the schools you’re interested in.

My council publishes those statistics, so it can help give an idea of how popular the different schools are, and how far away the last child admitted lived. Although of course things can change from year to year.

And also check the admissions criteria, and oversubscription criteria of the schools you’re interested in.

If all the schools you list on your application form are oversubscribed, and you come too far down the oversubscription criteria to be offered a place at any of them, then the council will offer you a place at the nearest school that has places remaining.
This may be your closest school, but it may not be - people who’ve listed your nearest school on their application form will get priority over people who haven’t put it on their application form.