sibling places - should I bother putting other schools on list?

[TimeChild]

dd2 is in the fortunate position of having a sibling in a much sought after comprehensive. We are pretty confident that she will be offered a place under sibling rules next year.

dd2 assumes that she will go to her sister's school, indeed she expects to as a right of passage.

Should we bother viewing/listing further 5 schools on the admissions form? WWYD?

i wouldn't and didn't. if you know you will get a place and you and she want her to go- what is the point? same position here- great comps that all catchment children get a place at- see no point in dragging round looking at others

It really depends on the admissions criteria. Some oversubscribed schools in our LEA have criteria such as siblings in catchment, children living in catchment area, siblings out of catchment, children living out of catchment area. So if school is not your catchment school then I would list other preferences.

We were advised to put several options down on the form.

If you don't and your dd2 doesn't get in to her sister's school, you will be offered a place at whichever school happens to have space. This could mean that dd2 ends up at a school that you really don't like or want.

I would strongly recommend using all your preferences. You may be right that your daughter will be offered a place at your preferred school due to sibling priority. However, you have to consider what will happen if she misses out. If you have named other preferences you may get a place at one of those. If you have made this school your only preference you will end up with a place at the nearest school with vacancies. That will be an unpopular school and it could be some way from home.

Putting other schools on the list will not damage your daughter's chances of getting into your preferred school. They will only come into play if she doesn't get in.

I hope the other preferences won't be necessary and that your daughter will get into your preferred school. But every year we get parents coming on here asking for help because they only named one school, believing they were certain to get a place, and have ended up being offered a school they really don't want. Personally I wouldn't take the risk.

Thanks all for your advice. Gut feeling was that we should do the sensible thing and put other schools down - it was the trawl around the ruck that are the open days that I wanted to avoid. Think will put other schools down but will avoid the visits.

My DS2 (just started Yr6) has an 'automatic' place in a fab senior school as he's a chorister and its the choir school they must go to. Couldn't be more assured of a place I think.

I am however still filling all the preferences out, just in case.

But 1 March won't be full of all that surprise and wonder as it was for non-singing DS1 this year

You never know what might happen....the school might burn down.....

No, seriously, if you have the option to put 2nd/3rd choices, why the hell wouldn't you? I'm sure you could identify without going to open days which schools you would/wouldn't want, so put something down. Otherwise, if the worst happens (which it almost certainly won't) you could end up anywhere the LA chooses.