why do we need to put more than one school name on the list if we prefer only one secondary school.

[noraa]

the title says it really.
if we have only one school in our mind why is it wiser to put some other secondary choices in our secondary application.
maybe i feel a bit confused by the whole process.
i will be really grateful if you enlighten me.
thanks in advance.

Even something like a good Ofsted report can change the whole situation in an area overnight.
Or something going wrong at a school you don't want which was previously popular can cause increase in people who now want 'your' school. (we had this in our area - a supposedly good CofE, the sort people had been attending church to get in had its head suspended and suddenly loads more people put local comp first)

Thanks Custardcake but Category 2 is baptised RC children living in the catchment area and having a sibling in the school so I reckoned there wouldn't be over a 100 of them.
It's a small place and there's only one RC school so it's hard to imagine a second choice.