Random allocation....yer right!

[saltod]

We applied, along with 400 other hopefuls, for a place at an outstanding secondary school for our ds1. 150 places went to 86 siblings, 30 to choristers and specialist music places, 5 or so to looked after children and the rest to random allocation. When results came out many who had 'connections' with the school got the final places. Two years later applying for ds2 the same has happened again. The school chose the remaining places via their random allocation computer, no involvement from the LEA! The idea that cherry picking and someone having a word in the right ear have been suggested but without proof what can be done. It makes me mad, my lovely boys missed out again because we don't have the right connections!

The information parents put in this space should be ignored unless it gives a reason to move the child into a higher admissions category. This form has specific spaces for the information that would move a child into a higher category but it is not unknown for parents to miss those spaces and fill in the "any other information" box. However, if the school is using the information to give priority to children who are not entitled to it under their admission criteria that is wrong and should be stopped.

The problem really is that only a very small percentage of places 30/150 is 20% are randomly allocated the remaining 80% are for children who come into a higher admission criteria. If siblings are automatically given priority then there are already a large number of families with "connections" with the school. It would be very difficult to prove whether connections such as a parent having attended the school are significant or not. Out of my dds friends, a very large percentage applied to "bog-standard comprehensive" and "old-style academy" because that was the school that the parents went to so this applies to other schools as well as outstanding ones. However there are some "connections" that are not currently allowed under the admissions code such as giving priority to children of teaching staff for example.
A friend's dd was granted a place at a similar school in our LEA and started in September. Her parents were delighted as the school has a great reputation. Their dd however isn't liking it very much because she misses her friends from primary school, who are all at other secondary schools, and she has a much longer school day. HTH