Need some help...

[aradia2470]

Hi my oldest is in his final year at juniors and now is the time to be applying for what secondary school we want. Where we live there are three secondary schools two of which are about 45mins-1hour walk away so obviously the nearest one is the one we want but when filling out the application do I have to put down more than one choice in case my son doesn't get in to our preferred school??? Is it better to put more than one school just to be safe??? I really need some help with this

If you only list one school, and your son doesn't get a place there, your application will then go to the bottom of the pile and you'll be offered a place at whatever schools are left at that stage - no matter how far away they are or how "good" they are.

So, you should always list as many as possible, in order of preference.

You should definitely put down as many preferences as there are spaces on the form.

If you don't and you don't get the school you want - you will get allocated to whatever school has places that need to be filled after everybody else's preferences have been considered.

I would put the one you really want first and then the other local schools.

If you have other spaces on the form, and there are schools you would prefer over any other possibility, put them down too....

Put down 3 choices, unless you can 99.9999% guarantee you will get your first choice. I know someone who didn't and ended up with the school no-one else wanted.

I only put one for DC2 but that was because I knew they would get in due to sibling rule. If there was any doubt, I would have put a second choice.