so how often do people not get their first or even second choice of primary school?

[CatIsSleepy]

sorry this is my second primary school thread in 2 days but this whole business of choosing a school is stressing me out!

so I know our first choice school is small and over-subscribed and I suspect we won't get a place even though dd1 is at the nursery there.

was starting to feel better as have identified a decent second choice school (though have yet to visit it)

it has now occurred to me that although we live very close to it, the second choice school is also small and over-subscribed (although less so) so we may not even get a look in there

so will we be down to our third choice??
does this happen alot?
aaargh I hate this!

A friend did not get her children into her first, second or third choice school this year (reception entry Sept 2009). All schools were in the Borough of Greenwich. Instead, she got a failing school in Lewisham she did not even choose. She has since managed to get a place at her local school after going on the wait list (one of the choices) but is likely to keep her son in private.

leningrad, in our borough the local council produces a booklet that tells you the number of places available and the number of people that applied for a place.

i live in kent and was able to see online how many applications schools got and how many places were awarded for last academic year.

maybe all local authorities release this info? I got it from the website where you apply for the schools online, there was a link to it.

For our LEA in the starting school booklet they tell you how many children applied and for how many places for September 2009 entry

Not sure if this is true or not but my neighbour said that this years intake was also a low birth rate year. She is trying to get into the closest school with also happens to be Catholic and highly regarded. This may help others if it is true about the low birth rate.

i think it depends where you are, in our area the catchment areas are pretty much all smaller than previous years, meaning more children have applied and dd has 8 sets of twins in her year at her new school, so things like that make a differance too.

cat, not sure which part of Greenwich you are in, but if it is anywhere near Greenwich/Blackheath borders, it is a bunfight trying to find schools. I don't think high or low birth rate comes into it as there seems to be lots of young families moving into the area.

I am looking for an independent school for ds for nursery 2010/reception 2011 and even those which traditionally had last minute places are already full up for those years, as of now. Unheard of. Bursting at the seams.

firsttimemama AFAIK this year's primary entry is a large birth cohort, but the secondary entry is smaller...

blueshoes-no, we are near the border with Bexley (may not be as much of a bunfight as blackheath!) and I was thinking of putting in an application to one of the schools there as a sort of wild card. But I was assuming that the application would be considered entirely separately to our application to schools within greenwich. But would it be? Am not entirely sure...Can you actually be offered 2 school places, in different boroughs? the more I think about it, the more unlikely it seems...

I put the 2 closest schools, both which were excellent, then for 3rd put an excellent school miles way....we got no3 and I was really surprised they gave us a place there. I figured if they wanted 3 choices i certainly wasn't going to put a rubbish one 3rd just because it was closer.

I know lots of families who only put 1 choice....then were disappointed they didn't get in and were 'dumped' in the local rubbish school

I live on the border of 2 LEAs and could actually walk to a third at a push. I will apply to both and am likely to be offered places at a school in each (have checked that they don't co-operate to avoid this). We rent so move around a lot and I will turn one down quickly!

catsleepy, I just looked at an old Greenwich brochure for school application. If you want to apply for schools in Greenwich and Bexley, you would have to put in 2 application forms: Greenwich for Greenwich schools and Bexley for Bexley schools. The applications appear to be considered independently though you might be asked to disclose the fact that you are applying to another borough for notes comparison without prejudicing your application.

Each borough will decide in accordance with their respective criteria ie cared for children, sibling, proximity (irrespective that you might live in another borough).

Then you would be offered one school by Greenwich and one by Bexley, out of which you choose one and turn down the other.

To be safe, you can just call Greenwich and/or Bexley LEA for clarification.

Just a little point, we are in londo nborough of barnet and i found out to my horror, far oo late to move or do anything a bout it that the catchment area for the school less that quarter of a mile away was not circular or based solely on distance but was in fact an oblong shape which drew an arbitrary line down a main road, thus favouring people up to a mile away over my girl, who lives closer, so do check if your LEA has a map.

This may not apply to Bexley, but most london Boroughs are now part of the Pan London Applications Process, which means that you fill in one form and it does not matter which borough you live in, or which borough the school is in. This was brought in to avoid people being offered school places in both boroughs.
I live in Barnet, but applied for a school in Haringey, but you only fill out the Barnet form, they then enter your details into the pool and you will only be given one place.
As I said this may not apply to Bexley, but I would check with both councils.

Also if they are deciding on a distance criteria rather than pre-set catchment areas, then make sure you know if they take the distance as a 'crow flies' distance or a safest walking distance. i checked all ours out assuming it was as the crow flies and thought that we would be safe based on the last 5 years intakes, but it turned out it was the walking route that they measured, which meant that we missed out on our preferred choice!

in our LA being in the nursery is no guarantee that child will get place in Reception. This is stressed in all publications from LA and on the application form itself. Also all applications are given equal preference irrespective of what order they appear on the form . I would therefore put your first choice down so that you are considered you never know you may be successful