Your 'final choice' school.

[MrGrumpy01]

I am currently in the process of applying for secondary schools. We have 3 choices in our area.

I am really not happy with our catchment school, on paper it looks great, a huge improvement in attainment in a very short period of time and it is now rated as 'good' having been pulled out of special measures a few years back. When we visited I just had a gut feeling that it wasn't the right school.

Our current first choice we are just outside of catchment, 2nd choice we are sort of in their admission zone (they cover a vast area and overlap other schools) but places are randomly allocated and we are in the final group.

So that comes to our 3rd choice, I have found a school we really like, going on previous years we have a reasonable chance of getting in, however if we don't then I am aware that I will then be allocated a place after all other places have been allocated and therefore there is a high chance I will end up in either an 'inadequate' school or an academically struggling school.

Do I just name the schools I want and hope she gets one of them? I really don't want her going to the catchment school, but it is probably the 'best of the worst', so should I keep my 3rd as the banker and hopes she gets 1st or 2nd?

Thanks. A lot is hinging on the school place as it will pretty much determine when and where we move house.

I wonder why they restrict to three. It sounds as if they haven't caught onto the additional issues with lottery allocation. I imagine that they use similar packages to London with 6 choices and other areas with more choices. We get four. I know that in London you could list your nearest six and not get any but that is a separate issue.

Maybe once this is done then you should start petstering the LEA to change the system. Get year 5 and 4 parents involved, ideally across the area. Must be a nightmare if your nearest school is a lottery school. The trouble with school applications is that most families only go through it once and focus on the inequalities when they are busy choosing so don't campaign for change. If on allocation day you only get the banker school then you will (rightly) think 'thank goodness we put it down', rather than 'it's unfair, if we had four choices we might have got school B'. Chances are your dd will thrive anywhere. Still doesn't make the system fair.

I have no idea why we only have 3 when 3 of the top performing schools within city are random allocation lots people put one some 2 so they must have to have a secure 3rd as banker.
Also faith provision is limited at seniors so that needs addressing
Dfe just given permission for another new seniors by random allocation .

Of course no guarantees furthest distance as that changes every year.

Locally where I live we do have set catchments areas of first priority .
If I had 6 preferences I probably put 3 lottery 2 put of county and local as last.

I'm being risky not putting a local down but I know the schools I may get allocated won't be any worse than my locals they just further out.

I can only speak for my area but 3 is probably about right. A lot of areas only have 3 possibly 4 schools that they could realistically apply to (mainly due to travel) Not very far up the road and they only really have 1 possibly 2 unless parents can and are willing/able to drive them to school everyday. I always though the 6 was for areas that had more schools and a higher demand for places.

Grumpy you right in small towns or rural areas 3 maybe about right .
In big cities where there's potentially loads of schools some within 5 miles radius of my home address I have 7 schools some within my local authority some in neighbouring authority as I live on the border

From next year 4 of the more sought after state schools so take kids from city and wider bristop area will be random allocation

If I had more preferences it would make it less Likely we get allocated

It also mean I coukd appeal and go on waitlists of finding a school we happy with rather than be allocated a school we are not.

It's frustrating not only do other arse England have more preferences but they have greater choices over types if school

Here we have

Random
Faith
Comprehensive based on distance and catchment areas

We have no grammars so we can't work towards that aim.

Whole thing seems really nerve racking and complex if we don't want our nearest poor performing school.

Eldest asked what if we get nothing mum would we home school.

I said well we would appeal
We would waitlist
we would least look around allocated scholl and see if ok stop gap .
If it's truly awful we ring round all local authorities trying find better schools than one allocated.

We had this situation 3 years ago with younger daughter at primary school.

We put eldest school as no 1 but no sibling link as la says even if you outside of catchment and in local same local authority as school we had no sibling link kids from next county got in over her
We just over mile straight line distance

School 2 was ransom allocation free school so long shot.

School 3 was out catchment less than 500 metre from our door 3 form intake we felt sure it was a banker it wasent

We got allocated a primary further away from our house ans wrong direction from eldest primary.

If I had accepted allocated schools council said I had to drop 1 of my 3 preferences as can only bank 3 so accept 1 and waitlist 2 schools when I wanted to waitlist 3.
We home schooled most of reception

I don't get why waitlists restricted either

In the end by time common round finished in Dec we added our name 2 extra waitlist direct with schools and neighbouring council so our lea wasent aware we were on waitlist for 5 schools.

But nothing came up until May
I know people who dident et anything and changed their preferred from nearest schools to bigger intake school to try stand more chance of moving up waitlist.
Sometimes have be very tactful as well as realistic.

I know school a is random slim chance
School b out catchment but based on last 3 years figures and 3miles away we stand good chance.
Schools c long way out difficult local authorities but people near me been lucky 2nd round.

I do however think my council are numpties and failing to react quick enough to rush birth rate 2005 onwards and all the new houses so not sure what allocated school would be.