Is it too soon to start a 1st March (secondary school allocation day) support thread?

[teddygirlonce]

DD has six good options on her CAF - we will be happy if she gets any of those six but there are no other local schools we would be happy for her to be allocated/offered - and private schooling is not an option.

So just a bit nervous and already counting down the days until we find out which school she's been allocated (if at all).

Interesting point thistly, my 11 year olds year group is only thirty strong and I get the impression this is well spread out over 3 local secondary schools but my youngest who is currently year 3 is in a year group of 60 so when the time comes there will be a lot more competition for places as it doesn't seem like the local secondary schools are expanding as quickly as the primary schools.

My Dd is in a very small year. Historically the years have been 2 classes of around 21/22. Her year is currently 35. There has been a lot of movement in and out but never really increased. I don't know if this is a town wide blip or just a lower birth rate in the immediate area. The year below is bigger but I think my youngest who is in yrR is the first year to be at PAN which is 52. Other years are slightly under.

My youngest is the reason I want to move actually within the catchment area especially as they are building hundreds of houses between us and our first choice. Obviously banking of course we get our 1st choice.

Lots of houses going up here too Mrgrumpy, it does make me wonder how the local schools are going to cope in future.

I'm a bit concerned. I put 6 choices, would be reasonably happy with any but really want 1st or 2nd choice. 1st choice sent me a letter last week saying they need further proof of address. This must be either a council tax bill, Gas and electricity bills or driving licence. I don't drive and gas and electricity are both on metres so no bills. Typically, I can't find my council tax bill (can find the previous 4 years worth of bills though 🙄.) Have phoned council to ask for a copy of the bill, but no idea how long that will take to arrive. I phoned the school to explain and was told that if DD is offered a place, it could be withdrawn if they haven't received this.

No other school have asked for it, they were all happy with the documents I submitted with my original application.

mum
How about sending copy of bank or credit card statement with a covering letter ad interim? I doubt they could legally withdraw a place under the circumstances you described. You could always offer for them to come to visit you!

... maybe bank/credit card is too personal, but you must have other official post coming to your house, so maybe try that?

Thanks Teen I have offered other documents with proof of address, such as tax credit letters, phone bills, bank statements and payslips, but none of these are acceptable, sadly. It can only be something from the list they gave me. Seems ridiculous to me, but those are the rules apparently!

Haven't read the whole thread but marking place to read later. Ds got turned down on a rule 2 out of catchment school. First and second choices also out of catchment and local schools won't have places for third and fourth local choices. We will probably be sent to the town where there are no good schools if we don't get any of our choices. Desperately waiting now since the rejection letter.

Thistly if you were referring to a LA in England, that is WRONG. The Equal Preference system is LAW.

If the LA is in England can you ask MN to remove the post? People who don't RTFT could end up continuing to propagate these myths.

BarFly where do you live?

Tiggytape if all the local kids put down local schools , whatever preference, then there is not enough places. Every year the council send people to the next towns. We are hoping to get the closer town rather than the further away town. We are also on the other side of town to all the local schools. So we would be the ones sent to far away town rather than local or closer town.

And the reason they send them to further away town is because closer town also doesn't have enough spaces for their locals.

Closer town school is actually closer than any local schools.

If that all makes sense!

We put 5 choices for DS but should get 1st or 2nd choice as we are within the distance criteria.

Fingers crossed for everyone on 1st March.

@teddygirlonce Scotland! It is a long wait and also doesn't give much time for transition events but such is life, will feel a lot better once I hear though!

@tiggytape I read all that and didn't have the energy to correct it so glad you did!

Admissions work differently in Scotland (more simply I think!)

Makes sense to me, BarFlyInThePeanuts, but what a PITA...

We are actually closer to some schools in neighbouring boroughs than we are to most in our own...(which is why our six choices are split 2:2:2 between the three).

dancemom, that is a long wait. When did you have to submit the CAF (or equivalent)? End of October or later? When we submitted ours four months seemed an age to wait but the 1st March has come round all too quickly - possibly because we've been distracted by DC1 doing GCSEs (and having had to look at sixth forms too!).

Can I join in? only one secondary school in our area and it's in special measures so ds1 should get in. It's the only one I put on the form as the next closest school is 5 miles away, good Ofsted and surrounded by houses so you have to live really close or have a sibling there already to get in.

Tbh I'm more worried about how ds1 will cope there. He has aspergers syndrome, will be one of the youngest in the year and just seems far too young for all of this. He still plays with his wooden train set regularly. He's going to get his head flushed down the toilet isn't he?

Teddygirlonce for starting Primary 1 or Secondary1 the closing date is 15th March.

Here in Scotland you register at your catchment school (usually choice of 2, denominational and non denominational) and you will automatically have a place there. Only on occasions are catchment schools oversubscribed and this tends to be with 1 or 2 particular schools. If you wish to go elsewhere you submit a placing request. If the school you requested have vacancies they accept you. If they don't you default back to your catchment school. If there are more applications than vacancies then you are ranked on criteria

Medical conditions
Denominational (religious)
Sibling
Lone parent
Distance
Suitability of teaching methods / availability of subjects

Popular schools have tiny catchment areas. Any new developments that are built near popular schools will be added onto existing catchments of less popular schools in the same area. This means as time progresses catchment areas are become stranger! It also means that you may have 2 or 3 schools that are nearer to you than your actual catchment school!

Our local council are bringing into play reserved places for more and more schools to help alleviate the problem of pupils who move into the area mid year not having a place in their catchment school. It's also trying to move away from placing requests and promoting catchment schools with the tag line "local schools for local children" as there is a big uptake of people submitting placing requests in this city.

LOL, actually the Scottish system sounds a lot more like the English system (not familiar with Wales - I think they have a slightly different system, also with catchments) than I thought!

Basically the placement requests are the equivalent of putting preferred choices on your CAF if it isn't your closest school, and your catchment school is the closest school, or the closest school that you can get places in!

The complication and anxiety, as far as I can see, is caused by choice - often an illusion because of over-subscription, and by league tables and everyone desperate to get into a school that is higher up the league tables than their nearest.

Are schools generally better in Scotland? Is educational achievement higher in Scotland overall (as far as can be judged by the different exam systems and timings) ?

Still stressing here and working out odds of getting DD1 to our first choice in catchment school.

So I've been thinking about admissions criteria and I was wondering if anyone could explain Herts parish system to me. From what I read its mostly based on distance but places also allocated based on the parish you live in. So every year there appears to be odd results where some children who live further away get in ahead of others who live closer.

Also I'm not sure how this works with the waiting lists (just thinking if we don't get in at the first cut what happens next). Particularly if, as with our preferred school, there is also a lottery system for children in each parish.

I think its very complicated and am sure I'm not the only one is confused...

Edna1969 that sounds a rather antiquated/unusual system - are all the secondary schools faith ones?

I am not an expert on Admissions, but I would have thought that if schools use a lottery system then where you live in a parish (closer to the school or further away) becomes irrelevant?

Presumably the 'lottery system' would still be used (after Offers Day) to determine freed-up spaces, using the children on the waiting list? So on a traditional waiting list the children who most closely meet the entrance criteria (and maybe missed out initially on distance/not having a simbling at the school) would be the first to be offered places from the waiting list? But with a lottery system employed, surely every child on the waiting list would standard an equal chance of securing the next available space?

Will the allocation of school places ahead of 1 March have now been finalised @tiggytape? And is it true that the Headteachers know their Year 6 pupils' school allocations ahead of the parents?