Help with understanding allocations please

[Dormouseondaisy]

Hello,

I'm trying to work out the chances of my child getting into the school we'd like her to attend when we apply next year. I've just checked how places were allocated in previous years and there is a table showing:

Total applications: 61
Admission number: 30
Total Allocations: 26

Then the 26 allocations split out according to each admission rule.

I don't understand why the admission number is 30 but the allocation number is 26, does that mean they could allocate up to 30 places but only chose to allocate 26?

It's similar for every year but some years the total allocations are a bit higher at 28 or 29.

Thanks in advance for your help!

It means although 61 listed that school on their form only 26 were allocated it as many of the others qualified for a school of their higher preference.

Ok great, thanks! So it means anyone who wanted that school in previous years got it, which is very promising for us!

You chose 3-6 schools to apply for. (Depending on area)

The school ranks all the applicants by criteria

Then the council sorts it so each child gets the highest choice they qualify for.

So for your school, less than 30 applicants are left at the end of the shuffle when people get their highest ranked school.

In short... you would get that school every year recently.

PPs are correct, however do not be tempted to only put that school. Use your full allocation because if you don't and its a bumper intake year you could find yourself at a school far away

Agree with the above- you only have to look at this year's national offers day threads to see that sometimes the areas can suddenly shrink due to more applications!

Thanks all! Yes I'll make sure I use all the options, there are other nice schools nearby but this is our favourite.

Good luck! My tip (from going through it this year, and getting results this week) is to look at as many schools as possible. Some might really surprise you.

I really hated our original first choice when we looked around it- nothing wrong with it, but there was something depressing about it. The head seemed tired and stressed, the group tour was very controlled, the buildings weren't in the best state, and the children seemed..unruly. I had a gut feeling that It wasn't what I wanted for DD, as did DH (who doesn't normally "do" gut feelings). It didn't even make our eventual top 3.

What ended up being our first choice was a school that I had initially been unsure about as it was a little bigger than I would have liked (wasn't even in our top 3 at that point). The moment we went in, you could tell that it was full of joy, and the head was so wonderfully open and clearly loved (and was proud of) her school. She did her presentation, and was very open about everything. And that sense was throughout the school.

They only had a couple of open days, and allowed parents to freely walk around and talk to the kids at the school, with some some wonderful year 6s, PTA and the governors there to answer any additional questions if needed. It just gave me the feeling that DD would thrive there, and that she would be safe, happy and excited to go to school. Once we left, DH seemed excited and told me he thought it was the one for DD withoute even saying a word.

When we received an offer on National Offers Day, it just felt right. I know that if we had received our original first choice and not done some more legwork, I would have been depressed about it. We only went to see school we were eventually assigned (which we saw first) to have something to benchmark against, but it really surprised us and we are so happy we did.

All goes to show how much things can change when you look round!

That's lovely, I'm so glad you're happy with your school choice!

We'll definitely give it a lot of thought, if anything I'll probably overthink it!