Who knows about Secondary School Admissions?

[lagerlout]

Ok I have to make the application for my son after the Summer holidays and my question is about how your preferences work. If my first preference was a school further away from where we lived and my second was a more local school, would everyone who put down the school more local to me as a 1st choice be allocated a place with higher priority than my application even if they lived further away from the school than me? I am trying to ascertain is it worth the gamble of putting a school that is a greater distance as a first choice and potentially not securing a place in my 2nd choice because the spaces have all been filled by people who had it as a first choice. We have been told that this is a high birth rate year so I feel my arm is forced to play it safe and by doing that it makes you feel like you don't really have a real opportunity to express a preference.

Firstly, research the admissions criteria for each school, and find out how likely your child is to meet them. You can ask the school for cut-offs from previous years, e.g. how far the distance criteria went out.

Once you have a list of schools where your child might/will meet the admissions criteria, then visit the schools, get a feel for them and list them in order of preference, making sure to include at least one school where you are certain of meeting the criteria.

Each school will not know where they are listed (first, second etc) and they cannot use that information in deciding whether to offer your child a place.

Your LA do not have to offer your child a place at any of your preferences. If your child doesn't meet the admissions criteria for any of the schools you have listed, then you'll be given a place at the nearest undersubscribed school.

In your case, there is nothing to be lost by putting further school first, then closer school.

The places will be allocated as described in the admissions criteria. Where you have put the school on the form is not taken into consideration.

However, I would urge you to include at least one 'certainty' lower down your list; a school where you know your child will definitely get a place.

You don't need to worry - many years ago where you put schools on the form mattered but not for several years now.

Applications are assumed to have equal rank, so in your ideal scenario you'd qualify under distance (or whatever criteria there is) for both schools. The computer only then looks at your preferences and allocates you your highest preferred school.

So you can put the furthest school first on the form safe in the knowledge that if you are too far away you'll be allocated your nearest, maybe even above someone who put your nearest as their first choice.

Put the schools down in the order that you genuinely prefer them.

Each school you apply to will assess your application against their published admissions criteria.

Each school that can offer you a place will tell the LEA that. The LEA will then give you the offer that is highest up your list of preferences.

It is called the Equal Preference System, it is law in England and Wales, and it means that the the school do not know where in the list you have placed them, and they do not give priority to 'First Choice ' applicants.

Looking at admissions criteria, they all come down to distance for me. So First & Titchy what you are saying is for purposes of admissions your preference is not taken into consideration. The school apply their admissions criteria, if you qualify they tell the LA they will offer a place and the LA will then use your preferences to try and offer you a school you have listed. Have I understood that correctly? If so that doesn't seem such a gamble and I can put down my true preferences knowing that I am not forfeiting an offer at the local school. Should I double check this with the LA, do they all work the same way?

Last year when I was browsing local schools out of interest the Dept of Education website showed you a map with how far the intake went out the previous year. I can't seem to locate this information on there now, can anyone point me in the direction of it?

Thanks, that has put my mind at ease, I am 1350metres from local school so I would hope that is a safe bet for the list. Just would like to find the intake maps for last year.....

If you phone the school and ask how far the distance places went to last time, they will probably be able to give you that information. It can vary slightly from year to year though.

The Admissions Brochure on your council website should show the last distance for all schools last year.

However the distances given are those who were offered places on National offer day - not those who then got places on waiting lists throughout the summer - which can broaden the cathment a bit.

Waiting lists are maintained according to the admissions criteria, too. So someone who moves on to the doorstep of the school in late summer and goes on the waiting list will be above people who live further away who applied at the beginning of the process.

Usually if you do not get offered your top preference you automatically go on to the waiting list of any school higher up your preferences than the school you have been offered.

I found the statistics page on council website but only about a quarter of the schools have the catchment distance mentioned. I also found an interactive mapping site through the council site but there are less schools on there that the councils stats page. Looking at what there is though as we live in such a densely populated area it would seem there is only a realistic chance of getting into two schools, anything else is a real outside chance. At 1560m I am only just inside the boundary going on last years intake.

it would seem there is only a realistic chance of getting into two schools, anything else is a real outside chance.

I would recommend putting both of those schools down on the preference form. Put the one you like more above the one you like less.

We've returned to England after a two year stint abroad and have applied for places at the secondary school that my sons were originally going to go to. We kept our house so are still within the catchment area and know from friends that there are several places available. However, the school has told us that there are no places, presumably being offered to others higher on the waiting list. The school will give me no indication as to how many are on the waiting list in front of us, and we are at a loss as to what to do next. Any advice?

The rules around "in-year" applications which is what you are is that the school should be taking the lead on admissions, though in many areas the LA still seems to be taking the lead.
So the first thing to do is to go to the LA website, find the school admission section and find out what it says about "in-year" admissions for your school. I am guessing from your post that you may already know that it is the school, as you say you have applied for places. Whether it is the LA or the school if you have formally applied in writing for places, then the school has to options to admit or to say that they are full. They have to do this in writing if there is a formal application and they have to confirm to you that you can appeal. I would definitely appeal for each of your sons.
At the same time I would approach the LA and ask them where there are places available for your sons - the reality might be that there is no one school that can offer places for all your sons. At least you will then know the scale of the problem.
You say that you know that there are several places available but the places have to be in the year groups that your sons are in for places to be offered. If there are places then the school should be deciding which parents should be offered places on the basis of the admission criteria not how long they have been on the waiting list. The school should be prepared to give you an indication of how many are on each waiting list but you should know that in many schools there is no official waiting list, which makes admissions in-year that much harder to administer.

Thanks for that, this school is our only option - it is the nearest Catholic school to us and we are a Catholic family. There is a private catholic school but we just can't afford it. Our boys just weren't happy at their school abroad and we have made the decision to come back for them. Our house is in a village 5 miles from the school so we will never be the closest in terms of potential admissions. And the places available are in the year group the boys would be going into.

You need to make a formal written application and see what the school then do. You have to get a rejection in writing before you can appeal. As a catholic school they will be their own admission authority so everything for an in-year application should go to them.
I also have to say to you that needing a catholic education might be important to you and the school, when it comes to admission law it does not. So if there are other secondary schools nearer then this catholic school with places then you will get offered those schools by the Local Authority. It is unlikely that an admission appeal based solely on wanting a catholic school will succeed.

Good to know all this - thank you. We will apply formally and appeal as necessary.

I was just reading about filling in the Common Application Form for secondary school admissions in London boroughs for my DD. It said we may need to upload proof of address. They don't specify what exactly.

Are electricity or landline telephone bills sufficient? Since we don't have a scanner, this would need prior preparation. I don't want a last minute panic. Any information would be appreciated.

Normally around here they want Council Tax, but phone and ask what they need.

London Boroughs normally link the Caf to your council tax so you might not need anything else. I think it depends whether you have moved fairly recently.

Thanks for the info. Will call up and check. We have been living in the same place for the past three years.