Applying for a secondary school place?

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

I'm normally good at this kind of thing but I've just started new medication and I'm living in a fog at the moment. When do I apply for DS secondary place? He is in year 5. And when are open days usually held? Does his Primary school give us the forms?

Open days will be any time really - check the school websites to be sure.

Assuming you are in England, you will need to apply by around mid October this year.

Ours is done online. I can't remember if I got a paper form this time round (DD is Y6)

Thanks soupdragon I'll need to start looking at options.

Some open days will be towards the end of this academic year and some will be at the start of the next (up to first half term usually). We had to have our CAF in by last Friday before the October half term of year 6. And if our primary school is anything to go by, don't rely on them giving you any info! Check all the secondary school websites, they'll probably be advertising already for their open days.

Oh and also, round here some secondaries are now insisting on a 'banding assessment' as part of their admissions policy. Check carefully if you have to register for banding assessment tests at the schools you're most interested in as without sitting the assessment they might disregard your DS when it comes to admission. Caught a few people out round here when the schools started doing it. The assessment tests here were sat in November of year 6 (not grammar, normal high school btw)

deadline in England is 31st october of year 6.

open days and open evenings are usually in summer term and September.

Here the open days are around September. You can double check with any school you're interested in re: dates. The Headmaster from our local comp visited local schools in the evening to introduce himself, explain how things worked before we went to the open evening.

Here the open days are around September. You can double check with any school you're interested in re: dates. My DD had to sit a fair banding test in the November. If any schools you're interested in require this, do check the dates. If your DC misses it, they won't even consider him.

Where we live, the open days are in late September and early October.

The application process is online, it opens in early September and has to be done by 31 October.

Make a note of the login details and password so you can find them the following March, when the offers come out.

If you want to see a school "in action" on a "normal day" this term is a good time to request a visit. Most schools near me, even very oversubscribed ones, do them throughout the year.

You will have missed all the open days now - look in September.

We did open days at the beginning of year 5 with a visit again in year 6 to confirm the decision. Primary didn't give any information on open days- check the school websites as ours have ticketed talks to parents which had to be applied for weeks in advance. Application done online first week in September- deadline was October.

Your local authority will most likely have a 'moving onto secondary school' booklet on their website. In our area it gets released about September but looking at the previous year's booklet can be good guidance. That will let you know all sorts of things like timetable for application, what the process is and often where distance is an over subscription criteria it will tell you how far out particular schools have gone in past years. Bear in mind you are not restricted to schools on your LA, there may be Ines nearby in a neighbouring authority, most admissions processes allow you to apply from your LA for any school. We had so many schools to visit we did visit one or two in Y4, most in Y5 and finished off in Y6.

Oh God now I'm panicking I've left this all too late!!! People seem to be much better prepared than me. I also don't feel prepared enough to make this decision I have anxiety over him going to Secondary anyway as I was horrifically bullied in Secondary school. And the stories you hear these days about bullying are horrendous!

You haven't left it too late. Make a list of schools to consider and then contact the schools to make appointments to view them this term. Although I did attend open days and eveings when choosing DS1's secondary school I found it much more useful when we looked round in the Spring term on our own. The schools weren't "on show" like they are in the autumn term and we got to have long chats with heads/deputies rather than just hearing pre-perpared speeches.

You haven't left it too late!

My DC ALL much preferred secondary to their primary school.

In my experience bullying has always been handle much better than when I was at school.

You have one thing to ask about straight away there. (And avoid any school that denies there is bullying rather than explains how they deal with bullying.)

Have a look at the admissions info for this year's Year 6 - this will give you an idea of what schools you are actually likely to have any chance of getting into. Unless you're in a hugely built up area this is likely to be only 1 or 2, thus making the decision much simpler.

Open days usually in May/June and again in late September early October.