on your secondary application list..

[noraa]

do you ever put schools that you are not in the catchment?
I got confused again :)
also, is it very difficult to make the application online?
thank you very much in advance.

Online application in our area is very easy - you can change or correct things up until the deadline, which feels much less stressful to me than trying to get everything perfect first time on a piece of paper.

And yes, you can apply to any school, anywhere. Putting at least one or two that you are likely to get a place at and wouldn't mind sending your child to is a good plan.

but if we are not in the catchment area of a school and if we put it on the list aren't we losing one of our options automatically-because the school will be filled easily with the children living closer?
then we can be put to any school with no distance limit.
in fact we have to schools close to us which we want but I want to put 6 school names in any case. it is not very easy to decide for the rest of the list.

How many can you put?

We are allowed to list up to 3. All of the ones I put are in catchment though the first is based on a lottery.

we can put up to 6 going.

If you really want a school where you are not in catchment it is worth putting it as one of your top choices. You may not get in but there is a small chance you will. You are not damaging your chances of getting in to your local schools by putting this school ahead of them on the list.

However, it seems you actually prefer your local schools. In that case there is less point in putting a popular school some distance away. I would fill up the list with schools that are relatively unpopular but which you find acceptable. That reduces the chances of your child ending up at a school you really don't want.

thank you prh47bridge :)
I will put at top the favorite ones that we are in the catchment,
then favorites that we are not in the catchment,
and finally a local one that's not very favorite for us.