confused about application rules! advice needed please

[lu9months]

hi we are in barnet and my year 6 daughter is looking at jcoss which has a lottery system and our local secondary (hopefully we would be in the catchment). if she puts jcoss first, i assume this means if she doesnt get in there, she is unlikely to get a place at our (oversubscribed) local school - i assume putting the local school 2nd means we wont get a place since so many people put it first. is that correct? hard to know what to do! thank you in advance

You are incorrect, the schools don't know whether you have placed them 1st, 2nd or 3rd etc. on the application form.
That's only taken into account by the LEA if your child meets the criteria for more than one school.

Agree with pp. The position you put a school at is not part of their admissions criteria.

yes as catsndogs says, schools do not know where you put them. Put your preferred school first, if you don't qualify for a place there, then you stand as good a chance as ever if getting yr second choice. Someone further away who puts it furst WILL NOT leapfrog you for a place.

Head teachers often say "you need to put us first to get in" - not true.

Put your 6 schools in the order of your preference. You may meet the criteria for say schools, 2, 3 and 6 so you will be offered school 2 as it is your highest preference school and be on the waiting list for your higher preference, school 1. Schools do not know the order you put them on the list.
We had a Zoom presentation from someone at our (a different London) borough's admissions department which debunked a lot of myths which people still come out with.

You local council should have information about equal preferences on the "moving up to secondary school" pages.

thanks all!