School admissions, getting into 1st choice.

[lupy]

I've been told by other parents that I stand a better chance of getting my 1st choice of school if I only name this school on my LEA admissions form. I live just a little out in proximity of maybe getting a place. Even if I don't get this school I should wait on the waiting list untill I get it.
I've been told it is better to do this than list 2 schools then if I am given my second choice accept it and stay on the waiting list for my 1st choice. I think this is because then I would have accepted a school and I am not a priority.
What do you think?
Do you have any experience of this?

No direct experience becaue we live in an 11+ area so everything's different. But I understand that if you only put one school down and don't get it, they will allocate you to your nearest school If it's ok, then you're fine. The thing is, that whatever happens, you've fine

I think you should not listen to other parents and phone your education authority! I was in this position last year and I know how you're feeling, but the only people who know how to fill in the form correctly, is the education authority. I was so fed up with the rumours and tittle tattle of the playground, I went straight to source. Its the only way you'll get the right answer. I phoned them loads in the end! As soon as I heard another rumour, I was on the phone. That way, YOU know the FACTS and you can shut them all up! Good luck!

I think that's a myth, lupy. Maureen's right - go to the source.

However, if your second choice school's so bad you wouldn't send your pet gerbil there, don't put it on the form as having put it down would leave you in a very weak position if you wanted to appeal.

I filled every place on the form to avoid getting the one school I really didn't want. We got our first choice school by the way. I think the only time that you can put only one school is if you live round the corner from it and really want your child to go to it.

If you only put one school down, as Halgerda says, and you don't get it, you will get the one that no one else wants because you haven't expressed a preference for any other school.

Ring your council.

I think you should put at least another school down as if not, you may end up being given a place out of your borough and as someone else said - somewhere leftover that noone else wants. Our LEA advises that you definitely put your catchment area school down so in the event that you don't get your preferred schools (if they're not your catchment area school) then at least you have a chance in getting a place in your local school.

If this school is your nearest then yes maybe risk it. Otherwise I was told by the school admission office to fill all the spaces if you don't want your nearest. Because if you don't get any of the first, second choice schools you put you will automatically be given your nearest appropriate school. Whether you want it or not.

So i would say the opposite fill all your choices.

But most of all I would highly recommend talking directly to the school admission affice of your local council to find out the real truth.

It depends on your options.

We are putting one school (A) on the form. It is actually the only state school which I would send ds1 to.

Our alternative choice is an independent school. I would not send ds1 to (State) schools B, C, D, E or F.

We haven't yet decided whether we would go to appeal if he didn't get into A. But as Hallgerda says I think wouldn't have such a strong case at appeal if we had put school B as a second choice, and been given a place at school B.

Urban myth. If you don't get into you only choice then you get allocated a place at the very end of the process wherever there is one. If you name a second they consider you after those who named them first have been accommodated but you still get some chance of being considered for that one over one you really don't want, ahead of those who name it third for example or not at all.

Following figroll's post, I think I should clarify the point I made earlier. If you put

1. Clevercloggs College
2. Bash Street

on the form and your child was allocated Bash Street, you'd be in a very weak position if you really really didn't want your child to go to there. The LEA would argue that your child had a place at a school you'd put on the list, and that ought to be good enough.

Of course, if you just put your first preference down and your child didn't get a place there, the LEA would be within their rights to offer your child a place at Bash Street anyway. You'd then be in a stronger position to appeal, but if you don't have proper grounds, and Clevercloggs College has followed its admission procedures to the letter, that wouldn't really help you.

But, of course, putting down Our Lady of Embezzlement and the Blessed Imelda down as a slightly more bearable second choice could help you keep your child out of Bash Street.

one of my friends filled up her form with single sex schools because that way she would argue that she demonstrably wanted single sex education for her dd and would appeal against a place at the local comp which she did not want. It was irrelevant in the end as she got her first choice anyway so don't know if it would have made any difference

I want to be in Hallgerda's catchment area.

in our la it doesn't matter what preference other people put the schools as to whether you get into them or not. so if you put school a first and someone else put school a second, if the other person didn't get into their first choice and lived closer to school a than you they would get into school a and you wouldn't even though they put it second and you put it first.